Week 9’s bombshell from KFMO Sports had as much impact on some of Week 10’s District Tournament seedings as the weird, wacky scores of last Friday.
The Farmington Black Knights have forfeited all of their games through September 18, due to a player eligibility infraction that was found by MSHSAA’s investigators. Since the report does not indicate that Farmington’s Varsity team, or any of its current big-time lineup, are due for further punishments or suspensions going forward, one might assume it was a grades + eligibility thing, not a “Kirkwood in the 2010s” thing. FHS doesn’t appear to have lured star athletes away from home, or disguised a suspended kid.
However, there are threads of mystery and controversy within the story. Some folks from Farmington are swearing that it never had anything to do with bad grades. That narrows it down insofar as what “ineligible” really means. Did some ’26 players transfer to FHS without sitting out as long as NG David Schulte had to “Redshirt” at St. Pius? We won’t accuse head coach Brent Eckley of “Lane Kiffin”-ing MSHSAA and luring Jackson’s freshmen to come enroll in Farmington, as moving a kid that far to play sports is what Soccer Moms do for specific D1 recruits – it would not work as a pipeline.
There were four players ruled to have been ineligible for Farmington in late summer, not one, but to Gridiron Geek’s knowledge, no one is claiming that any of this year’s Knights are ringers.
Eckley is clearly furious. He is going public to accuse MSHSAA of a “hit below the belt,” saying that state officials “schemed” and “manipulated” to hurt Farmington’s season. If that’s true, they did not really succeed, because Class 5, District 1’s standings have been so unpredictable that it’s a luck-of-the-draw scenario anyway. Farmington has to travel, but it doesn’t want to think about St. Mary’s until Week 12 if possible, making the Knights’ probable Week 11 situation into a trade-off. Farmington wants those four victories back badly, of course. Eckley traveled to Columbia on Saturday to press an appeal on the Black Knights’ behalf.
The only quote from Farmington’s coach that made The Geek’s rabbit ears go up was this one: “They schemed it against one of their member schools to limit options.” What options is he talking about? The lawyers who specialize in forcing scholastic sports associations to let borderline cases slide by – like Robbie Avila rejoining SLU basketball – always talk about how it is only fair if student-athletes have plenty of options. So, The Geek is 100% on board with Eckley’s message, that MSHSAA ought to be representing teams, not sabotaging them. But he should clarify what he means about the “options” on his rosters.
The following update will presume that Farmington’s current record holds, with no overturned Forfeits on appeal. Appeals to MSHSAA are kind of like arguing with the referees to try to get them to pick up a flag, which only works for St. Mary’s.
Fox Seeds #1 in Class 5, District 1, Tigers and Hawks Also Benefit
Fox is now first in Class 5, District 1, in an utter miracle. It’s crazy that the 5-4 Varsity Warriors are set to seed ahead of St. Mary’s at #2, at least according to MSHSAA.com’s standings after Week 9. St. Mary’s faced powerful Columbia Rock Bridge, and lost just 20-12, but despite the bonus points of playing Class 6 while netting a loss of 12 points or fewer, the Dragons appear to be sitting just below Fox at #2 by a grand total of .98 seeding points. Farmington High will seed at #4 with the Knights’ “penalty record” of 4-5.
It’s stupefying how the Fox Warriors have gotten lucky and unlucky at the same time. They’ll get their Week 10 bye after all, and avoid St. Mary’s until at least Week 12. The joy is tempered by the knowledge that “#4 seed” Farmington, still favored to meet St. Mary’s for a district title, will visit on 11/6. The dream draw would’ve been seeding #2 ahead of CHS at #3 and St. Mary’s at #4. Reality set in once St. Mary’s capped its four-game streak. There’s no doubt St. Mary’s benefits from its #2 seed below Fox.
If St. Mary’s had defeated Rock Bridge, Fox would play the inferior Cape Central Tigers in Round 2, and be favored to reach the Class 5 District Finals. As it stands, the Warriors will have to be content with hosting Farmington in a big-time playoff rematch.
While we’re at it, congratulations to senior LB Ryan Joggerst for becoming the leading tackler in Fox Football history with 323+ takedowns. It would be easy to collate Joggerst’s Game Log with the team’s midgame ceremony to find the tackle on which the senior marked the record against Riverview Gardens, thanks to this cute video of No. 0 getting hailed by Warrior Nation – except that Fox and Riverview Gardens videos are absent from MSHSAA TV and HUDL. The Geek believes that Joggerst’s nice tackle-for-loss posted to HUDL very recently may be The Play, but we’re going to reconfirm that with his folks and/or friendly Fox coaches before embedding it.
No wonder Joggerst’s defense appeared to let up at times against the overmatched RGHS Rams and Parkway Central Colts. There is no reason for a record-setting linebacker corps to have a crisis of confidence, especially with a rematch upcoming against the Black Knights, a team which could not find a decisive edge over Arnold throughout most of of last November’s playoff bout.
Highway A doesn’t benefit directly from Farmington’s forfeits. Yet they still play a subtle role in shaping Class 4’s playoff bracket. The Black, the Gold, the Blue, and the White are all together hoping Sullivan’s standings boost from its Forfeit W over Farmington helps the #2 seeded Eagles sow chaos in a free-for-all District 2. Vianney will have to visit Union, while Sullivan hosts Westminster, potentially putting both of the bracket’s St. Louis-area teams in danger of falling to elimination as early as Round 2.
Midmeadow Lane’s best news at this time seems to be that North County didn’t quite get enough points from its reversal-of-fortune against the Farmington Black Knights to seed at #3 over Hillsboro, and push the Hawks down into #4 to create a pitched rivalry war between the Tigers and Hawks in Week 11. R-6 is coping with lineup issues, again, and would rather begin with DeSoto or NCHS.
St. Pius X supporters might prefer if Park Hills Central had met Farmington sooner than Week 9, since Park Hills would be a preferable Week 11 opponent – one whom the SPX Lancers have already outclassed – relative to the unfamiliar Potosi Trojans. However, the Central Rebels got another “Photo Finish” seeding advantage as the #4, and should host #5 Potosi in Week 10.
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