Some background: For many years, the cutoff for schools put in the class for the biggest schools, 4A, had been a BEDS enrollment number of 700 or more. At about the same time the MVC and MAC went away and the state went to district football statewide in all classes, that resulted in just 46 Class 4A schools. Meanwhile, the other classes (from 3A to 1A) were established at 56 schools, with the rest of the 11-player teams going into Class A (which had 55 members for 2017). There's been a pretty wide disparity among all the classes, but it's quite pronounced in Class 4A - schools like West Des Moines Valley or Waukee have BEDS numbers around 2000, while the smallest 4A schools (such as Western Dubuque or Newton) were at 700 or even less. Add to that the falling number of students going out for football statewide, and the IHSAA realized they might need to adjust classes or give the option of 8-player football to more schools.
So here's what's happening for the 2018-2019 two-year rotation for Iowa high school football:
- Class 4A is capped at the top 42 teams by BEDS enrollment. This likely means 7 districts of 6 teams, although that's not yet established.
- Classes 3A through 1A will number 54 teams, rather than the current 56. Again, this very likely means 9 districts of 6 teams each.
- Class A will be the remaining 11-player schools.
- Eight-player football will now be available for schools with an enrollment of 120, up from the current limit of 115.
Now, while the guess of districts being 6 teams each is only a guess, some of the reasons put out by the Board of Control for the changes are better competitive balance (specifically more non-district games), revitalization of rivalry games across districts and classes (again, only possible with more non-district games), and a reduction in travel (because of the availability of more nearby non-district games). With those justifications in place, I don't see any other result besides cutting districts down to 6 members. That means just 5 district games, half the season, will decide the playoff qualifiers.
While the idea of 4 non-district games is nice (if more teams are willing to play a lower-classification school; I'm looking at you, metro Cedar Rapids schools), I'm not thrilled with only having 5 district games to decide playoff qualifiers. 4A has been doing this for a while, and it doesn't seem like it's quite enough games to really sort things out - for instance, this year there's a 5-4 team in Cedar Rapids Washington playing a first-round game this Friday while a 7-2 Newton squad is sitting at home.
What might help, however, is the system devised to select playoff qualifiers. With 9 districts of 6, you can't go with the top two finishers in each district (that's 18; not a number you can use to bracket a playoff system. You need either 16, as we currently have, or 32 if you're adding another round, which isn't likely unless they're going to start the season a week earlier). So perhaps you go with the district champions as automatic qualifiers, then use some sort of system (like the current 17-point tiebreaker) to determine the other 7 teams in the field. Class 4A, with 7 districts, could go with the top two in each district plus 2 wild cards.
Anyway, that still is up in the air. But we know for certain that six schools will be moving out of Class 4A into 3A for next year, and eight current 3A teams will be dropping to 2A (causing ripple effects down the classes, of course). The BEDS numbers will change, and the official classifications won't be out until early next year, but going by the most recent numbers here's what we're looking at:
MOVING FROM 4A TO 3A
- Lewis Central
- Clinton
- Waterloo East
- North Scott
- Western Dubuque
- Newton
MOVING FROM 3A TO 2A
- Algona
- Vinton-Shellsburg
- North Polk
- Iowa Falls-Alden
- Atlantic
- Davenport Assumption
- Spirit Lake
- Greene County
- West Burlington/Notre Dame
(Algona and Gilbert have the same BEDS number for 2016-17; I'm making the assumption Gilbert's number will be higher than Algona for next year. If they stay tied, the state uses the alphabet, meaning Gilbert goes to 2A and Algona stays 3A.)
It's going to be an interesting winter, once the districts and the playoff qualifying system comes out. Districts of six will be kind of handy for travel purposes (I think it's going to really help in the northeast, with a district of Charles City/WSR/Decorah/Waterloo East/Independence/West Delaware, maybe), but poor Keokuk - only Washington, Fairfield, Mt. Pleasant and Fort Madison are anywhere nearby. Who's going to be that sixth member? Oskaloosa? Liberty?
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