The heat is stifling this year and that’s not news.

While the dog days of summer are named after Sirius, the dog star, the term describes weather not appropriate for men or dogs alike.

So why, in the hottest time of the year, does high school football continue to start when the heat presents a serious danger?

High temperatures so far this August have averaged 99.8 degrees, according to the National Weather Service. Even though 10 days isn’t much of a sample size, that’s still four to five degrees hotter than average.

Going through the average temperatures from climatological data from the National Weather Service, the average high temperature differential between August and September from 2006 to 2010 is a not-so-insignificant 5.6 degrees. While that doesn’t sound like a big change, especially with our humidity, the difference might be just enough to save a life or two.

While a hot August isn’t unusual, starting football games in the month is.

Our state puts on the pads the earliest out of all its neighbors.

Alabama, Georgia, Tennessee and Texas start a week after Mississippi in the final week of August. Louisiana and Florida wait until the first week of September.

The Red Carpet Bowl has to get a special waiver from the Mississipppi High School Activities Association to start the opening game earlier than the mandated 7:30 p.m. kickoff time for all games until October.

That early game is uncomfortable, to say the least, for the fans, not to mention the players sweating it out on the field.

While the MHSAA has taken some positive steps, like the 7:30 p.m. kickoffs and frequent water timeouts, neither step can completely alleviate the problem like pushing the season back.

There are advantages and disadvantages to starting later. Syncing up with the neighboring states with the start of the season would make it easier for border teams, like ours, to set up non-division games with teams from out of state. While Vicksburg playing Richwood (La.) and Port Gibson playing at Madison Parish are exceptions, it could become the rule and be advantageous to both sides in terms of travel cost and building regional rivalries.

It would be nice to have some “football weather.” With the playoffs starting in November and ending in early December, the number of cold weather games is severely reduced.

And that’s a shame.

Basketball season would be affected, but isn’t it already? With the MHSAA mandating fewer and fewer games, pushing basketball season back a few weeks would not have as much effect as it would have a few years ago.

But the most important thing is that pushing the season back might save a life lost in practices done in the worst of summer’s heat. With a culture of safety regarding concussions and heat stress taking a once unimaginable hold in football, this would be the right decision.

And that’s a tradeoff worth making.

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Steve Wilson is sports editor of The Vicksburg Post. You can follow him on Twitter at vpsportseditor. He can be reached at 601-636-4545, ext. 142 or at swilson@vicksburgpost.com.