American sports have competition all wrong.

Some leagues, like the NFL, have a salary cap. Others, a luxury tax to keep teams from overspending — or that’s the basic idea at least.

While American leagues try to keep teams competitive by hitting teams in the wallet, European soccer leagues have the right idea, specifically England.

In England, they use a promotion/relegation system to reward teams in lower divisions for doing well, and to demote teams who aren’t competitive in higher divisions.

While American high schools can’t use salary caps to keep teams competitive, they can — and have — changed around classifications.

Starting in 2009, Mississippi high schools will add a classification — 6A — and adjust each classification by enrollment size.

Across the big pond in England, the EPL has a system by which the top teams play in the EPL, while the lower teams play in the Championship League, Football League One, Football League Two and so on.

In England, the top three teams from the Championship League, Football League One and Football League Two advance a level — or are promoted — while the bottom three teams in every league are relegated or demoted.

In essence, it’s a way to keep teams from tanking their season and a way to try and keep the best teams playing against one another.

Their system is in some ways like American baseball. We have Major League Baseball, and then we have different levels below the MLB such as Class AAA, Class AA, Class High-A Advanced, Class Low-A, Class A short-season and Rookie League. Except if our baseball was to utilize the EPL’s relegation/promotion system, a team like the Pittsburgh Pirates could be in AA right now.

However, why couldn’t a system like this work in high school football?

Imagine a system where the two teams in the 5A championship game advance are promoted to 6A, and in return the bottom two teams in 6A — who just aren’t cutting it — are relegated to 5A.

(If this were the case, South Panola would be playing in the National Football League.)

This would pit the best against the best, and vice versa.

Granted, like in college football, every team has an off season in which they don’t perform as well as they would have expected. Or they have an injury. But, such is life. If you finish in the bottom two, see ya.

For example, the Greenville-Weston Hornets and Hancock Hawks would drop from 5A after respective seasons of 0-11 and 0-10, while the Noxubee County Tigers and Laurel Golden Tornadoes of 4A would be promoted to 5A after having faced-off against one another in the Class 4A championship game.

But what if there’s a tie?

Say for example one team finishes 0-11, and two teams finish 1-10, well that sounds like a good excuse for bonus football — even if it means two 1-10 teams face-off.

This system, unlike the Bowl Championship Series of college football, doesn’t require computer results or votes. That’s the beautiful thing about it. The system is settled on the gridiron, which is how football rankings should be decided — not by computers and objectives.

In my opinion, talent, not number of students, should classify schools. Granted, the more students you have to choose from the better chance you have of putting together a winner. However, that’s not always the case.

In 2002 Wayne County had just completed a 14-1 season in 5A. The following year, because of redistricting, they were moved to 4A. As a result, the War Eagles went 14-1, 12-1, 14-1 and 15-0 in the next four seasons. They had no business playing in 4A.

In those four dominant years in 4A, they made three visits to the championship game — with two victories, including a 30-3 drubbing of the Oxford Chargers.

Plus, let’s not forget — as my editor pointed out — if it were not for the War Eagles defeating South Panola in their last year in 5A in 2002, South Panola may have a 100-plus game win-streak.

In short, although the rest of the world may have football and soccer confused, they have the idea of competition dead-on.

Patrick Ochs is the sports reporter for The Natchez Democrat. He can be reached at 601-445-3633 or patrick.ochs@natchezdemocrat.com.