Believe it or not, the Metro Sports Report played a role in Linn-Mar and Jefferson not making the Class 4A football playoffs this year.

Without us, the Lions and J-Hawks might have qualified for the playoffs if Class 4A district football had been adopted for the eastern part of the state.

Sorry, fellas.

If you'll think back a year, the Metro Sports Report engaged in advocacy journalism to help "Save The Valley" when the state appeared to be moving toward a district format for Class 4A that would have destroyed the Mississippi Valley Conference as a football league.

It's impossible to know what impact, if any, we had on the final vote by the Iowa High School Athletic Association, but Class 4A district football was adopted for the western part of the state but defeated in the eastern part.

A majority of the athletic directors in the Mississippi Valley Conference were opposed to a district format because they felt strongly about saving the Valley as a football league. The IHSAA listened and acted accordingly.

But what if the vote had been different? What if Class 4A district football had been adopted for eastern Iowa?

Todd Tharp, an assistant director for the IHSAA, met with the MVC athletic directors at Jefferson High School in September of 2011 and presented a detailed proposal for district football. Under that plan, there were going to be eight 4A districts around the state with five or six teams per district for the 2012 season.

Four teams from each district would make the 4A playoffs, preserving a 32-team field.

One of those districts was a five-team cluster that included Kennedy, Linn-Mar, Jefferson, Dubuque Hempstead and Dubuque Senior. Four of those five teams would have made the playoffs. As it turned out, only Dubuque Senior had a winning record in that group.

The schedules for this season would have been different if the district format had been adopted, but it's instrumental to look at how things unfolded this year.

In that five-team cluster, the four playoff berths would have gone to Dubuque Senior, Kennedy, Linn-Mar and Jefferson.

Yes, the J-Hawks with their 1-and-8 overall record would have made the playoffs because they defeated Dubuque Hempstead for the fourth and final berth. Hempstead finished with an 0-9 record this year, giving Jefferson the nod.

Linn-Mar missed the playoffs this year with a 3-6 record, but would have qualified if that district scenario had been adopted. Jefferson missed the playoffs with its 1-8 record, but would have qualified by competing in that weak district.

Mason City made the Class 4A playoffs this year with a dismal 1-8 record, so don't think it's not possible. The IHSAA adopted a "division" format for the 4A schools in the western part of the state, and Mason City qualified for the playoffs as the fourth-place team in Division 3.

The Division 3 standings were Dowling (4-0), Marshalltown (3-1), Ottumwa (2-2), Mason City (1-3) and Des Moines Hoover (0-4). Mason City defeated Hoover, so Mason City made the playoffs despite its 1-8 overall record.

Actually, we're not sorry that Jefferson missed the playoffs with its 1-8 record. We've got nothing against the J-Hawks, but teams with 1-and-8 records don't belong in the playoffs unless the IHSAA wants to include everybody.

Linn-Mar had a better argument this year with its 3-and-6 mark. Four teams with 3-and-6 records made the Class 4A playoffs this year, including Burlington and Waterloo East from the eastern half of the state, but the Lions lost a tiebreaker and failed to make it.

The Washington Warriors also finished with a 3-6 record, but the Warriors would not have qualified for the playoffs in their proposed district because they would have finished sixth in a six-team district that included Iowa City West, Muscatine, Prairie, Iowa City High and Burlington.

The proposal for Class 4A district football in eastern Iowa could resurface again for the 2014 campaign, beause the IHSAA looks at these things in a two-year cycle.

By the way, the Xavier Saints were prepared to drop from Class 4A to Class 3A if the Mississippi Valley Conference had been eliminated as a football league. That means the Saints (9-0) would be battling for the 3A state title this year against the likes of Decorah and Grinnell, instead of competing for the 4A title.

That's a story for another day.