Here we go! The districts have been announced, the playoff qualification system is made, and now the scramble begins for schools finding non-district opponents. With any luck, we should have the schedules out by mid-April ... but until then, enjoy how the districts shook out and check out the travel situation for your favorite team!
While last year's district/classification system was a one-year thing, designed to give the state time to work out a fully revised system for more competitive balance (which didn't really happen, by the way), now we return to the two-year rotation. So these classes and districts will apply to both the 2021 and 2022 football seasons.
CLASS 5A
The IHSAA says they're going back to the plan they had last winter, before the COVID pandemic threw a wrench into everything and sent them back to a less complicated scheduling plan. Here's the deal:
* Class 5A is not broken out into districts; instead, there are six "groups" of six teams each. Each group holds one team from six tiers, which the state basically sorted out from what they're calling a "success module." Now, not every team in a group will necessarily play every other team - the state has assigned four group opponents for each team, and the Tier 1 team is not scheduled to play the Tier 6 team. In addition, there's one more out-of-group game scheduled for each team, this one against a team from the same tier in a different group (the Tier 1 team from Group 1 plays the Tier 1 team from Group 2, for example, while the Tier 6 team from Group 1 plays the Tier 6 team from Group 5). The groupings and the assigned games can be found here.
* In addition to the five games already set by the IHSAA, each Class 5A team will schedule 4 other games. I don't believe there's any tier restrictions as far as that goes (so that Tier 6 team in a group could play the Tier 1 team, if both were willing ... it's just not part of the "success model" scheduling that the state put together).
* Your record within your group means nothing as far as playoff qualifying goes; in other words, being champion of your "group" doesn't get you an automatic playoff spot. All 16 playoff teams in Class 5A will be determined by RPI.
Since there aren't really "districts" it's difficult to have a map mean much of anything, but what I've done here is illustrated the pre-scheduled games put together by the IHSAA. The colors go with the group assignments, with the non-group tier matchups shown in purple.
Yeah, it's not great, but what are you gonna do?
CLASS 4A
Now we get to districts like we're used to. We've got six districts of six here. The top two district finishers automatically make the playoffs, then there will be four additional playoff qualifiers determined by RPI to make the total of 16.
District assignments can be seen here. My map shows the extent of travel for each district member.
CLASS 3A
Same as 4A - six districts of six, top two in each district make the playoffs, four at-larges using RPI. The district assignments are here.
CLASS 2A
The next two classes have 48 members instead of 36. This works out to eight districts of six. There are 32 playoff teams here, which means the top four in each district make it in - no RPI involved. They also only play an 8-game regular season, instead of 9 (to allow for an extra week of playoffs) - teams that do not qualify for the playoffs can match up for a 9th game if they want to.
Class 2A district assignments are here.
CLASS 1A
Things are set up here exactly the same as in 2A. You can find assignments here.
CLASS A
This class has the remainder of the 11-player teams left after the other classes are determined (36 in 5A, 4A, and 3A; 48 in 2A and 1A). This year that worked out to 56 teams total, which the state sorted into eight districts of seven. Having 8 districts makes it easy for the state, since they'll just send the top four finishers into the playoffs. That also means there will be a non-district game for at least one member of each district every week of the season, since there's an odd number of district teams. Again, 8 regular season games, to allow for 32 playoff teams, with a 9th game allowed for non-playoff teams if they want to match up.
Class A assignments are here.
EIGHT-PLAYER
Ah, eight-player ... when the IHSAA originally released the classifications, they had just 71 teams in this class. That's not a big problem, but it would mean (since it's an odd number) that somebody in the state would have an off-week every Friday of the season. Now that the districts are out, though, Woodward Academy has appeared as a 72nd 8-player team. So now things are even again!
There are 10 districts here, eight districts with seven members and two with eight. The top three finishers in each district are automatic qualifiers ... then for the two remaining at-larges, the state is going to go with the best point differential in your district games (capped at a 17-point spread, to eliminate the incentive to run up the score). Eight games, 32 playoff teams, a ninth game would be allowed.
Here's the 8-player district list. And here's your map.
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