By Andy Robertson
Arkansas PBS Public Information Specialist
Though Arkansas PBS has broadcast the eight-man state football championship since 2022, we thought it would be helpful to give accounts of recent history on this version of football in Arkansas.
What is eight-man football?
Eight-man football is usually played by high schools with smaller enrollments on a smaller field than 11-man teams. Instead of the 11-man regulation field, eight-man is played on a field that is 40 yards wide and typically 100 yards in length between the end zones. Rules are generally the same except major penalties are 10 yards and not 15.
History of eight-man in Arkansas
Prior to 2021, the last time eight-man football was a sanctioned sport in Arkansas was 1964.
Since 1965, smaller schools have faced shutting down their football programs because low participation numbers caused concern for injuries. Decatur, which was one of the eight original eight-man football-playing schools, was faced with a similar problem. In 2017, the school had to cancel two games and then call off one at halftime because of mounting injuries, but revitalized its program until it decided to put its football program on pause in 2023 because of a lack of player safety due to low tryout numbers. The school hopes to build its program back up with the junior high team.
Decatur was not the only one faced with low turnout issues. Once a powerhouse, Augusta canceled its 2017 season. These two schools led the push in 2021 for the return of eight-man football to be a sanctioned sport, which now sees 13 sanctioned eight-man football-playing schools — Augusta, Cedar Ridge, Guy-Perkins, Midland, Rector, Southside Bee Branch, Brinkley, Dermott, Hermitage, Kipp-Delta, Marvell Elaine, Strong and Woodlawn.
For a version of football that was dormant for 57 years in Arkansas, eight-man has become more of a fluid situation with eight schools from the most recent football classifications and conferences cycle shifting from playing eight-man football to playing 11-man or other schools deciding to move to eight-man.
From 2015 to 2022, I covered sports for the Log Cabin Democrat. Recently, two schools (Guy-Perkins and Southside Bee Branch) in the Faulkner/Van Buren County area, which is the Log Cabin Democrat’s coverage area, introduced eight-man football and just completed their inaugural seasons.
While preparing for our annual football preview in 2021, I asked two coaches if they were exploring eight-man football because they told me their numbers were low. Both said they had thought about it being a possibility, but they weren’t looking in that direction.
One of those schools finished an undefeated regular season this year and won its conference championship while the other went 8-2 in the regular season. Both have eyes on their respective state championships this year.
Since the return of sanctioned eight-man football in Arkansas in 2021, no school has been a repeat state champion unlike what we’ve seen at other classification levels in the state: Strong beat Mountain Pine for the 2021 state championship; Izard County beat Rector in 2022; and Rector beat Spring Hill in 2023. Strong will compete against Midland for this year’s eight-man football crown.
HOW TO WATCH
Catch all the eight-man football game as well as the other state championship football games Dec. 5-7 and again Dec. 14 as AR PBS Sports will be broadcast statewide over the air, on cable and on satellite on Arkansas PBS’s primary channel. Arkansas residents can watch the broadcast of each game live at myarpbs.org/live.
