Yodice: Who will be Class 6A's top four seeds?

We are 21 days from the announcement of the 11-Man state football brackets, so it seems a good time to evaluate the top of the mountain.

In other words, who are going to be Class 6A’s top four seeds?

As of today, Las Cruces and Cleveland are a cinch to get a first-round bye. Friday’s results in Week 8 add some intrigue for the other two byes.

It would appear to me there are as many as six teams who could fill the other two slots.

Games to watch in the final three weeks of the regular season that will clear this up? Volcano Vista-Rio Rancho, Volcano-Cleveland, Hobbs-Carlsbad and Centennial-Las Cruces.

The VV Hawks are 6-1; if they finish at least 8-2, I believe they’d be close to a lock to be off the first weekend of the postseason. But they have Rio Rancho and Cleveland the next two weeks, and my thought is, they’ve got to win at least one of those two games to earn a bye.

Rio Rancho is 4-3, and the Rams, I would say, have to run the table, which means beating Volcano Vista next week and then Cleveland on Oct. 30. The meeting with Volcano Vista on Friday will reveal much.

La Cueva, to me, probably ends up as a top-four seed with the Bears staring at a very likely 8-2 overall record, an eight-game winning streak headed into the playoffs and really just one loss, the 21-20 setback to Volcano on opening night, as a debit on their résumé.

There are three teams in District 3-6A — Carlsbad, Hobbs and Centennial — that could get a bye.

Hobbs has the inside track, since the Eagles already have beaten Centennial and still have Carlsbad ahead.

Carlsbad, at the moment, is actually in second place by itself, one-half game in front of Hobbs and Centennial. The Cavemen haven’t played Las Cruces yet, and they close against the Eagles.

For Centennial, everything comes down to the season finale versus Las Cruces. The Hawks win that game, then a first-round bye both for them AND the Bulldawgs is definitely a strong possibility.

My top four as we head into Week 9:

Las Cruces, Cleveland, Volcano Vista, La Cueva.

REALIGNMENT: In about eight weeks, the New Mexico Activities Association will roll out its next realignment plan in front of the board of directors.

How it will look remains uncertain.

The NMAA is still waiting for the 40-day enrollment counts from member schools, and once those numbers are in, it can begin to finalize the plan for the 2026 and 2027 football seasons.

There is almost always movement among schools, either going up or down in enrollment, which could impact their placement in a certain classification.

Executive director Dusty Young offered a little bit of insight into some of the possibilities that lay ahead.

For example, he said, it not necessarily guaranteed that in Classes 5A and 4A, for example, that those divisions will retain two large districts. The current look is two, eight-school districts in 5A, and one eight-school district, and one seven-school district, in Class 4A.

“As we look into the next (two-year) block, we’re still gonna consider the large districts, that is the general consensus, to keep trying,” Young said.

However, an influx of new schools into either class, which could coincide with a minor exodus of schools from another class, could mean a shuffling of how those classes, and the districts in those classes, will take shape for the next two years.

“We might have 10 schools in a district,” Young said. “We can’t do that.”

Class 6A is an interesting case study. The three districts do not have the same number of schools. A handful of coaches have said to me over the last two years that they’d prefer each of the three districts to have the same number (seven) of schools.

District 1 has six, District 2 has eight and District 3 has seven.

Is it possible that a school from District 2 could be shifted to District 1 to create size parity? Young said it was too soon to know, saying “we would love to have an even number of schools in all districts, but we have no clue what the numbers are going to be.”

Young said he believed that, by and large, the bigger districts have made it easier to schedule, though there are a couple of glitches, to be sure.

One, the amount of travel has increased pretty much across the board in this new format. Consider the most extreme of these examples: Silver and Portales are district partners, and it’s only slightly fewer miles to get from one of those cities to the other, as it is, say, to drive between Albuquerque and Denver.

Silver, to be fair, has long been probably the most difficult alignment thorn for the NMAA, as there are just no schools of its size anywhere near Silver City.

The NMAA has tried several alignment options with Silver over the years, including placing the Colts in a 5A district even as it retained 4A status.

A LEG UP: The most exciting two moments of Saturday’s 43-15 Albuquerque Academy victory over Manzano occurred on plays where no points were scored and neither offense was on the field.

I don’t know if Academy’s placekicker, Gage Conway, will end up kicking at the next level, but I damn sure believe he should. The metro area has several solid PKs this year, but the ball explodes off this kid’s right foot like no one else.

On Saturday, he nailed a 50-yard field goal, a career best. But it was his two misses that I will remember most.

One was a 65-yard attempt — which would have been a state record, by seven yards — early in the second half. Yes, he had a helping wind, but his kick had the distance. A bit wide to the left.

Later he was out to try from 61. Had the distance. Didn’t miss by much. And he didn’t appear to hit it all that clean.

“We have full faith in our special teams unit,” Conway said after the game. “... The coaches have faith in us.”

I asked him if he had to persuade head coach David Lee to let him try two such immense kicks. He did not, and Lee’s confirmation of this was full proof of his confidence in Conway.

“Anytime I have the opportunity to kick a 50-yarder, a 60-yarder,” he said, “I’m gonna do it.”

The 6-foot-6 Conway is a superb wide receiver for Academy. But my two cents: Someone should scoop him up and let him swing that right leg.

“I’m kinda just going for what takes me further,” he said. “Keeping both doors open. Just taking it step by step and seeing what I can get.”

TEAM OF THE WEEK: Going to roll with the Hobbs Eagles in Week 8.

Hobbs has had all sorts of trouble beating Centennial; in fact, it had been eight years, before Friday night, that the Eagles solved the Hawks.

But Hobbs’ 44-33 victory helps get the Eagles a step closer to that next tier that coach Ken Stevens has repeatedly talked about reaching with this program.