Perhaps these are the “new good old days” of local high school football.

For the second consecutive year, it appears parody is staking a significant claim in the Northwest Suburban Conference. Flash back to 2007 when parody initially raised its head:

Going into the final regular-season game during Week 8, an unheard of five teams had a chance to claim a share of the Northwest Suburban title. And it would have wound up that way — five teams tied for the conference championship, each possessing a 6-2 record — had Andover held off Osseo in the closing moments of its final conference game of 2007.

As it was, Osseo came back to beat Andover and claim the outright title with a 7-1 record. Still, it was close, very close, and eyes were opened. Those eyes were opened even more a few weeks later when Andover, a middle seed in the 7AAAAA playoff, came on to win the title and reach the state tournament.

“I think this could happen again — easily,” said Rich Wilkie, the Andover coach.

“It is the result of the times,” said Anoka coach Jeff Buerkle. “Every team in this conference is well coached and does an excellent job in the scouting and preparation for games.”

“You really like to think there is going to be one team that distinguishes itself above the others like it has been in past season, but that just is not going to be the case any more,” said Shannon Gerrety, the Blaine coach.

“I believe there is more parody this year than last year, which is a credit to those coaching staffs who have put in the work to build their programs.”

As the Northwest Suburban Conference teams head into the last four games of their 8-game regular-season schedule, Blaine, Anoka, Osseo and Champlin Park are on top with 3-1 records while Coon Rapids, Andover and Elk River sat with 2-2 records. Because there is one too many teams in the entire conference, the schedule is not a true round  robin — each team misses one opponent — which also plays into the final equation.

For instance, Anoka does not face defending conference champion Osseo, while Blaine on the other hand has already beaten Osseo, but does not get to play winless Park Center like every other team has or will be playing this year with a good chance of recording a win.

The schedule is what it is, however, whether it is liked or disliked by those involved with their respective teams. And however the Northwest Suburban ultimately shakes out, winning a conference football championship is starting to not matter as much as it used to matter.

Playing well at the end of the season — when the playoffs begin — is now taking on a greater significance.

“Winning a conference championship is something you would like to do, but it’s all about seeding and [earning] as many home playoff games when it comes to [playing] the regular-season schedule,” said Wilkie.

“Playing your best football at the end of your season is what we shoot for [at Andover] and that means being at your best for the tournament.”

“It’s now about improving every week until the end of the season, whether that brings you the conference championship or not,” explained Gerrety.

“We are all bunched together now and it looks like it’s going to be that way right to the end of the [conference] season, but the team that will go on will be the team that improves at each position and in every aspect of its game.”

This view is somewhat shared by Coon Rapids’ second-year head coach Jon Young, who explains his team’s stepping-stone approach.

“We set goals to attain as the season progresses like winning all your home games and, yes, winning a conference championship,” he said. “But it all gets down to how well you are playing at every position when the playoffs begin.

“It also gets down to how healthy you are as a team. The teams with injuries to key players are the teams that will be hurting.”

When it comes to crunch time!

But right now is not really crunch, just scramble time in the Northwest Suburban Conference. As each times endeavors to refine its offensive and defensive game plans, it becomes a crap shoot as to which school will prevail on a regular basis.

“You look at a team like Champlin [Park], which I think is the best team with the best personnel in our conference this season,” said Anoka’s Buerkle. “But you know what? Blaine could have won that game last week (Blaine lost 21-7 after leading 7-0 into the fourth quarter) and we might be saying Blaine is the team to beat.

“Before, when a score at another game was announced and it was not expected, there would be a lot of oohs and ahhs heard from the crowd,” said Wilkie. “No any more. Even our high school football fans know there is no such thing as an upset.”

“Everyone just has to worry about [itself] and if it is a five-way tie for the conference title, then no one should be surprised. You can see it coming,” said Buerkle. “What a team does after that moment...”

Is what counts..