The overcrowding in Western Class C football makes it difficult for coaches to scout, spectators to follow and media to cover. But there is one element of the Big 14 that I find most delicious.

It pokes a thousand more holes in the time-honored and wrong conviction that there’s a giant cavern between the existing enrollment classifications.

Jay, on the small end of the spectrum among the shrinking mill towns and bedroom communities that comprise much of the Campbell Conference, already has turned away an opponent with nearly double its student body by beating Maranacook. The Tigers get another crack at a Class B-minus foe Saturday when they travel to Oak Hill.

Next door, same night, Livermore Falls handled the merged resources of Madison and Carrabec with a 53-0 flourish. The Andies’ date with Maranacook is Friday.

Look, nobody advocates harder and more loudly to the Maine Principals’ Association on behalf of a mythical fourth football class than I do. Long term, it’s the best and most equitable solution for a sport in the midst of a mighty growth spurt.

What’s irritating is when people use that pulpit to reinforce the tired assumption that Class B football is infinitely stronger than Class C, or that Class B in turn isn’t worthy to carry Class A’s cleats.

Depth in high school football is a paradox. It’s essential. It’s also vastly overrated, especially here in Maine. 

Coaches in the Pine Tree Conference use the vaunted University of Bangor (Bangor High School) as its Exhibit A for change. The Rams suit up 70 kids every home game, for Gabby Price’s sake.

Great. You know how many of them get more than spitting distance away from the sideline in any game decided by two touchdowns or less? Twenty, tops.

That’s why I didn’t shed any tears Tuesday for Jay when I stood atop the knoll overlooking Taglienti Field and watched only 23 kids stretching prior to practice. Eighteen is enough to win in Maine, if they’re the right 18 and if you avoid the injury and ineligibility monsters.

Jay, Livermore Falls and Winthrop’s tradition are more than a match for Oak Hill, Maranacook and Freeport’s sheer numerical advantages. Not that iron won’t sharp iron. The latter three programs will have every opportunity to build that kind of cache. For now, though, the little guys play some of the superior football in the state.

We hear it every year when we roll out our weekly Top 10 list. I’m sure the news stations get an earful, too. “How can you rank Mountain Valley or Cape Elizabeth ahead of of Lewiston and Edward Little? They only play Class B.”

Yeah, and they ONLY win those games by eight touchdowns with their fourth string playing the corresponding quarter.

Nobody in Class A had a better backfield than Justin Staires and Matt Laubauskas last fall. Not one of those teams has a superior all-around back to Cape’s Tom Foden or a defense that swarms to the ball more quickly than the Falcons’ defense this season.

Bonny Eagle is the only team in the state I would have picked to beat Mountain Valley in 2008. Period. No, make that an exclamation point!

Those type of Class B and C juggernauts don’t arise every autumn. But by and large, the top four teams in each of the small-school divisions can compete on equal ground with the mid-pack programs in the class directly above them.

That’s not even up for debate. Even if the future landscape of Maine high school football absolutely is, and needs to be.

Kalle Oakes is a staff columnist who can’t hide or escape his Campbell/Mountain Valley Conference roots.