Inclusiveness is a principle part of every level of education. While occasionally taken to needless extremes, it enhances the educational experience and makes things a lot more interesting for everyone.

Except when it comes to high school football.

We have reached the heart of the regular season and in Eastern Class A might as well call it the play-in tournament.

Through three weeks in the Pine Tree Conference Class A, we have an unbeaten (Lawrence) followed by four 2-1 teams and four 1-2 teams. The sub-.500’s (Edward Little, Lewiston and Oxford Hills among them) are virtually fighting for their playoff survival in Week 4.

All are facing 2-1 opponents, and all are dreading a future where they could be two games out of playoff contention with just five games to go. They’re dreading it because they know the chances of winning at least four of their last five to even have a shot at the playoffs is a daunting task. Their 2-1 opposition, on the other hand, knows dropping to .500 is bound to complicate their playoff chase.

Eastern A dropped Mt. Blue and Brewer and went back to the four-team playoff this year. It has traditionally been an eight-team tournament league but it did use the four-team format during a two-year window in 2005 and 2006. In those two years, three teams with better than .500 records (all 5-4) were shut out of the playoffs.

Through three weeks in the Campbell Conference Class B, three unbeatens (Falmouth, Mountain Valley and Wells) are setting the pace for three 2-1 teams and Spruce Mountain at 1-2. It would make for a pretty exciting Week 4 if all of those teams were vying for four playoff spots. But with the additions of Marshwood, Spruce Mountain and Westbrook, the conference decided this year that eight was better than four, so this week is pretty much business as usual.

The Phoenix have the unenviable task of trying to get to .500 against Wells, but it certainly isn’t a “must win.” The 2-1 quartet of Greely, York (who play each other Friday), Cape Elizabeth and Fryeburg could lose this week but still find comfort in the fact that they only need to win one or two games in the next month to get into the tournament.

Like the other conferences with eight teams guaranteed a postseason, everyone is just trying to keep or gain momentum.

With eight teams making the playoffs, the regular season is as much about having momentum as anything. Get a little momentum early and you’ve already sewn up a playoff spot. Get a lot of momentum late and you’ve got a shot at playing well into November.

Three teams in the past five seasons ranked lower than fourth in the playoffs found that late-season momentum and rode it to their regional final — Marshwood (2007), Morse (2008) and Yarmouth (2009). They were a sixth seed, fifth and seventh, respectively. Only Morse reached Super Saturday.

That’s three of 19 playoffs with eight teams. It’s not as if a four-team field is denying a lot of great teams who underachieved in the regular season.

A four-team playoff rewards regular season success, as the last five years have shown. Only two of 11 No. 1 seeds in the four-team format have failed to reach Fitzpatrick Stadium, both in 2007 (Cape Elizabeth and Winthrop, both beaten by No. 2 seeds Mountain Valley and Boothbay, respectively). Nine of 19 No. 1 seeds from the eight-team format didn’t reach the state finals.

This is where the eight-team supporters, the football socialists, go for the kill. Clearly, four-team playoffs are more a fait accompli. A playoff upset gives everyone a buzz.

Unfortunately, it turns into a hangover by the second quarter lopsided regional and state final games.

A team that wins three straight playoff games has done more to earn its trip to Portland, add the football socialists. In fact, a playoff quarterfinal is virtually a bye for the top two or three teams. 

The teams that emerge from a nine-week regular season have already proven enough to earn a shorter postseason. They have played everyone in their conference, beaten more than have beaten them, and shown to be consistent, resilient and just plain better over the entire schedule.

Capitalist football is where it’s at.

The unfortunate reality is eight-team playoffs are more of a necessity now with the way the three-class system is constructed with 12, 13 and 14-team conferences. Divide 75 teams into four classes and eight regions, shrink the playoff pool and you would have 32 teams reach the postseason (44 of 75 make it now).

Make the regular season truly meaningful and make the playoffs a reward only for those who treat the regular season as such. If it takes a playoff-caliber team a month to play playoff-caliber football and they dig themselves an early hole a short season doesn’t allow them to crawl out of, that’s a shame. But the games in September count.

Everyone is included in those games, too.