WASHINGTON CITY, Utah — What’s fair in football? A level playing field or the right for everyone to play? That’s what a southern Utah youth football league is grappling with.

"I have 23 sons and a daughter on this team specifically, and it was very hard because I had to... I had to look them dead in their eyes last night and explain to them the situation," said Coach Elia Akau.

Akau's Pine View 8th-grade football team, based in Washington City, was told after two games of their short season that the rest of their games are being forfeited. The Southern Utah Nevada Youth Football League (SUNYFL) said Pine View has eight players who have been reclassified, or held back a grade.

SUNFYL executive director Jamie Turlington claimed the slightly older players leave eighth graders taking on tho

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