Last year for the Field of 192

CEDAR RAPIDS - There's a team in this playoff field with a 1-8 record. That's not happening next season.

There's a team in this playoff field playing at home in the first round despite a 3-6 record. That's not happening next season ... probably.

No one knows the specifics of how teams will qualify for the 2016 prep football postseason. That has yet to be decided.

The only sure thing is the number of schools qualifying is being cut in half, from 32 per class to 16. Virtually everyone has an opinion on that.

'No one thought they'd do it,” said Williamsburg Coach Curt Ritchie. 'The association giving up that extra gate money, I'm surprised. A lot of people are surprised.”

The last go-around of the 'expanded” playoffs begins Wednesday night around the state. Second-round games are Monday night.

Right there is the reason the Iowa High School Athletic Association's board of control voted this past July to chop the playoff field. Players have so little physical recovery time from the regular season (which ended this past Friday) to the postseason and in the postseason itself, it has become a matter of safety.

The 2016 playoff schedule sees teams having a week between the end of the regular season and the beginning of the postseason and between all postseason games.

The IHSAA had options here. It could have moved football season up a week or eliminated one regular-season game to keep the Field of 192 but chose Plan C, despite that - as Ritchie said - potentially costing it well into the six figures in gate receipts.

The playoffs were expanded to 32 teams per class in 2008.

'I understand why they had to change the format,” said North Linn Coach Jared Collum. 'In this day and age of concussions and injury concerns, a Wednesday, Monday, Friday playoff system (for the first three rounds) is pretty crazy.”

'The biggest thing for me is not to have that quick turnaround time,” Ritchie said. 'Not having as many teams make it, I guess that's the tradeoff ... The only other thing they probably could have done was extend the season or start it earlier.”

The IHSAA has made it clear it does not want to conduct its championship games during Thanksgiving weekend, as many states do. The reason for that is availability of the UNI-Dome in Cedar Falls, as most seasons, the University of Northern Iowa is in the running to host a first-round FCS playoff game that weekend.

The IHSAA has chosen its playoff qualifiers by district finish, with the top four teams in each of the eight districts of each class gettting in. In the bigger classes, especially 4A, that has meant some teams qualifying that many feel weren't worthy of qualifying.

For instance, Davenport North is in despite a 1-8 record. Iowa City West is 3-6 but finished second in its district to assure a first-round home game.

Last season, Cedar Rapids Kennedy went 2-7 but got in and upset Muscatine in the first round.

'We have benefited from the expanded playoffs as much as anyone,” said Kennedy Coach Brian White. 'We also have won a lot of games as the outlier. We've knocked off Bettendorf, North Scott, Xavier and Muscatine (twice) in the playoffs due to the expansion. We could not have done that without being given a chance to compete.

'I understand why the state had to make the decision that it made. But I do like the idea of giving more teams an opportunity to play in the postseason.”

That seems to be the prevailing opinion of coaches.

'I like the bigger field,” said Cedar Rapids Jefferson Coach Brian Webb. 'It's fun for the schools, it gives more schools a chance.”

Webb fears there will be some schools in 4A that have zero chance to qualify for the playoffs with the field being cut to 16. The top 48 schools enrollment-wise make up 4A, with the next 56 in Class 3A, the next 56 in 2A, the next 56 in 1A and the remainder of schools making up Class A.

There also is a class of small schools that play eight-player football.

'The biggest discrepancy is not between 1A and 2A or 2A and 3A, it's in 4A, top to bottom,” Webb said. 'People don't like to hear it, but it's true. I've been on the West Des Moines Valley side (as an assistant), and I've been on the Jefferson side, which is different. For me, you can pretty much guarantee West Des Moines Dowling, Bettendorf and Valley are going to be in the semifinals every year, and then it's ‘Who is the fourth team?' It's a different beast in 4A. You have your elites, and you have everyone else.”

Webb said he'd like to see 24 schools qualify in each class, with the eight district champions receiving first-round byes. He knows that's not going to happen.

There has been talk, however, of the number of districts in each class being cut from eight to seven, with the top two teams in a district qualifying, as well as two 'wildcard” teams. But what's the formula going to be for selecting those at-large berths, if you will?

That has coaches nervous.

'I think it's scary if you go seven,” Ritchie said.

'Not sure how the top two in each district with a wildcard is going to look next year,” Collum said. 'It will be interesting to look at their criteria for this wildcard team. A couple pretty good third-place teams are going to stay home.”

Assistant Executive Director Todd Tharp, in charge of football for the IHSAA, says virtually every option is on the table for next season. The IHSAA will meet with an advisory committee from the Iowa Football Coaches Association in early December to hear its opinions, with a final decision coming by the second or third week of January.

That's when every school's schedule for 2016 and 2017 will be released, as will its district assignment. There were 46 schools in 4A this season and last, but it is expected that Norwalk and Western Dubuque will 'graduate” from 3A to 4A in this next two-year district cycle.

'We have been going around at our district AD (athletics director) meetings and talking about a lot of different things,” said Tharp. 'We are seeking input as to how many districts we should have, for instance. Should we have seven districts instead of eight?

'There are a lot of questions whose answers are up in the air with this. We have no preference right now.”

l Comments: (319) 398-8259; jeff.johnson@thegazette.com