Class 4A football will stick with 8 districts

BOONE — Weeks of uncertainty about how Iowa high school football will be structured for the next two years has now become clear.

The Board of Control of the Iowa High School Athletic Association passed a vote for Class 4A football to continue to have eight districts with six schools per district while classes 3A through A will have seven districts with eight schools in each.

Eight-player football — which has 62 schools — will have six districts of eight teams and two districts of seven teams.

● 2016, 2017 Iowa prep football districts

Class 4A state playoff qualifiers will be determined through district champions and runners-up — as will eight-player. Classes 3A through A district champions and runners-up will qualify for the playoffs along with two at-large teams.

'The decision to continue to stay with the eight districts with six teams in each district (in class 4A) was what was the best for the state, best for travel and best for schools to have more flexibility in regard to their ability to schedule teams,' said IHSAA associate executive director Todd Tharp. 'They have four opportunities to schedule whoever they want to instead of scheduling two and not knowing who they could get assigned.'

Concerns of travel and competition differed between athletics directors on the east and west sides of the state and resulted in an impasse. Tharp said 39 of 48 athletics directors in 4A participated in surveys and discussions on the possibility of eight-team districts versus six teams, but the results were essentially split 50-50 between the halves of the state.

Cedar Rapids Xavier principal and Board of Control member Tom Keating said the decision to remain with six-team districts in 4A primarily related to issues raised from areas like Sioux City and Council Bluffs about travel constraints to play district games in Des Moines and vice versa.

It allows western schools to have flexibility with non-district scheduling, but would tie the hands of Cedar Rapids Metro schools, which would likely schedule each other in non-district games if they were to be separated.

'We're always sensitive to the concerns our schools have and it's hard for us to say we're going to go this way when we know this group is not going to be happy,' Keating said. 'It puts us in tough positions, but I think the discussions were all on the table.

'The staff did not go into this saying we've got to make sure we don't do this and don't do that. It was how could we make things work.'

Class 4A will grow to 48 schools — with the expectation Western Dubuque and Newton will move up from 3A in 2016 — while Class 3A down to A will comprise 56 schools in each. Since playoff qualifiers were reduced from 32 to 16, all playoff games will be played on Fridays and will have the opportunity to eliminate district rematches between the No. 1 and 2 seeds in the first round of the playoffs.

In classes 3A through A, eight-team districts eliminates the need for a non-district game later in the season. For the two at-large qualifying teams in each of the lower classes, those will be determined by tiebreakers in descending order:

● Any team considered a district champion

● Best district record

● Head-to-head competition (district and non-district)

● Tiebreaker differential within the district (maximum margin increased from 13 points to 17)

● Random drawing of a letter from the alphabet with the teams closest to that letter as the chosen school

The IHSAA Board of Control feels the restructuring in classes 3A through A gives the playoffs a fresh feel with the chances for schools to play different opponents while assisting in the organizations top goal: player safety.

'A lot of coaches and the recommendation from the coaches advisory committee didn't really want to have that game that didn't mean anything during the middle of the season because they risked injury and risked tearing up their field and those kinds of things,' said IHSAA executive director Alan Beste. 'For them, having those non-district games at the beginning then having the rest of the season count was important.'

l Comments: montzdylan@gmail.com