August 2, 2007

Historically, football games on Friday night have started at 7:30 p.m. It allowed families to get home, sit down for a meal, gather the kids into the old station wagon and head off to the big game.

Historically, though, football players played without facemasks and clubbing an opponent across the head with a forearm was once legal. Sometimes history needs to be relegated to just that – history.

Within the last decade, many schools have tweaked their game times. The Jackson Public Schools play all of their home games at 7 p.m., as does Clinton and many others.

The Mississippi High School Activities Association and the Mississippi Private Schools Association allow individual schools to pick their starting times.

Vicksburg, Warren Central and St. Aloysius all play games at 7:30.

In our zoom-zoom world, many Friday night meals are quick grab-and-runs. The extra 30 minutes is completely unneccesary. The only thing a 7:30 start time gives is a later arrival home for players, coaches, security, administrators and fans.

So why won’t the MHSAA or MPSA pick a time and stick with it? Maybe they are stuffed-shirt politicians who want to make everyone happy, sticking their fingers in the wind to see which way it blows.

It’s much easier for them to say you pick a time when everyone leaves with a smile on their face than to actually lay down a solid dictum. Playoff games in both organizations begin at 7 p.m., so why not the regular season?

We must remember that the MHSAA is an organization that has bungled the baseball playoff system for years. It’s the same organization that allowed Warren Central’s softball team to play in a two-team division meaning both WC and Natchez earned playoff spots before the season started.

The MPSA devises playoff systems that allow virtually every team to participate, and almost as many advance past the first round.

We shouldn’t expect much common sense, especially from MHSAA politicos, but for once can’t they make a stand and dictate to all schools that games will start at 7 p.m. instead of allowing schools to pick their game times?

If it ever does come to fruition, it likely will last only long enough for a few loud-mouths in opposition to cause the MHSAA to fold again. They did it with the baseball playoffs (remember Warren Central having to play Vicksburg in the first round of the playoffs – in SOUTHAVEN?) and they’ll continue.

Pick a time, please. Pick it and stick with it. Prove to us that you are more than stuffed shirts in an office in Clinton.

Make a decision – 7 or 7:30. One can’t have it both ways, unless one is in politics.