Today, Mountain Crest and Timpview, the two best teams in Class 4A, will meet at Rice-Eccles Stadium in the state high school football semifinals.

On Friday, Alta and Bingham will take the stage in the Class 5A final four. And again, they are the top two teams in their class.

If you're counting at home, that's four teams, two brilliant matchups, a host of great players and a near guarantee to have great crowds on top of it. But the questions are many: Should these matchups happen so soon in the postseason? After all, the winners of those two games will be prohibitive favorites to win state titles in their respective classes. Should there be a way for the Utah State High School Activities Association to avoid such juicy matchups before the championship games?

Coaches reached by The Tribune say yes.

"I absolutely believe that the UHSAA should look at the system," Bingham coach Dave Peck said. "Alta and Bingham have proven themselves to be the two top teams. I think there should be a seeding system. The UHSAA should seed according to strength of schedule. That would be the better way."

The current system involves a set-revolving four-year system in which the matchups are determined according to the region that a team plays in and the position in which that team finishes in its league.

That means that Alta and Bingham were never going to be slated to play in the title game this season because they were both on the same side of the bracket. More than that, had Alta lost its regular-season finale to Pleasant Grove, there's a good chance that the two titans could have faced each other in the first round.

"I think the seeding system would definitely be a good idea," Timpview coach Louis Wong said. "They should look at who a team has played, get a power rating so the best two teams aren't constantly meeting before the finals."

Indeed, the results of the current system have been mixed, and in more than one sport. Last season, Alta and Bingham played in the title game, but played in the semifinals in 2007. Timpview and Mountain Crest put on a classic last season, but it was also in the semifinals. In basketball two seasons ago, Lone Peak and Davis were by far the best teams and put on an overtime classic that many observers called one of the greatest high school basketball games in state history.

Rob Cuff, the executive director of the UHSAA, said that the seeding system has been brought up before in board meetings. He also said that playing the first two rounds of the playoffs under the current system and then reseeding was a thought as well.

"It's a good idea and a good thought, but who's going to do it?" Cuff said. "You have to consider everything that goes into something like that. You have to set up a committee, similar to the NCAA Tournament, and that takes time. I've been a coach and an administrator, so I see both sides of the argument."

The financial side is another factor. Two years ago, with most of its marquee matchups coming in the semifinals, the UHSAA, which accrues 80 percent of its revenue for the year in these next two weeks, had its best year ever. Last season, they were down $70,000.

"We're worried this year because the weather's supposed to be cold and rainy," Cuff said. "And in all fairness, we can't expect every year to be like two years ago. But we would like to be better than last season in that department."

tjones@sltrib.com