This article recaps a segment from The Rush's Tuesday, Oct. 20, 2026 episode. Watch the full show.
Andy opened Tuesday's show with an editorial about parity. "Hope is a good thing," he said. "If you run a league, every team should have hope of winning a championship."
He pointed to the NFL as the best example, where "every year is a new year" for all 32 teams, and college football as a weaker one. "There's 130 teams. Realistically, only 20 teams feel like they have a chance to win a championship," he said.
Utah high school football, he said, "does a pretty dang good job of making sure every team in every classification has a fair shot of upward mobility." Utah gets criticized for how small some classifications are, but Andy said that is the right approach. In big states with hundreds of schools in each classification, "that's 90 schools who realistically know they're not going to be able to compete for a championship."
In Utah, he said, most teams can at least compete in their classification. "If they don't feel like they can win a championship, at least they feel like they can win some games."
Andy said the UHSAA plans to look beyond enrollment when placing schools, including past competitiveness and socioeconomic factors. "How good are these teams? Do they ever compete? If not, we've got to drop them down," he said. "I think that's going to bring even more parity."
He named a few programs that are proof. "Look at Copper Hills. Copper Hills has a chance to win a playoff game this year," he said. Ogden has climbed near the top of 3A after a long stretch without a playoff win, and Davis went unbeaten in Region 1. "That's fun," Andy said. "It's not just the same Catholic schools winning every year."
He did see one problem. "Transfers is still a huge problem," he said. "If families are willing to move from their house into another boundary so that their kids have a better chance at being successful in football, I don't know how you prevent them from doing that."
"But overall, hope is a good thing," he said. "In Utah, teams have hope, and I can't wait for the playoffs." (Read our breakdown of every playoff bracket.)