Lost in the concern about potentially losing a regular-season game and excitement about the new high school football districts is a simple fact and reminder of the state’s expanded playoff system: More than half of the football teams in Iowa will be in the playoffs. The actual number is 192 of 340, or 56.47%.
With a 32-team bracket in all classes, 70% of the teams in Class 4A will qualify; 57% (four-sevenths) of Classes 3A/2A/1A will qualify; and half the teams in A and 8-player will qualify. (Class A will be 32 of 62 — close enough — and 8 will be 32 of 64, exactly half.) So 2-7 Des Moines East gets another game, but not 3-6 Stanton.
Changing to a 24-team bracket — top three teams in each district, champion gets a bye — would still mean that 42% of the state’s teams play in the postseason. In Class 4A, the number of participants would be one more than half (24/46 or 52.17%); in the next three classes, 42.86% (three-sevenths); and in A and 8, more than a third. There would be fewer first-round blowouts and being district champion would mean a little more.
Are the classes themselves too small? Not necessarily. In 4A, the population discrepancy is already huge (Valley’s fault). If we look at the other 11-player classes, configuring four classes into three would mean about 77 teams per class. Class A did in fact have 77 teams in 2004, and 82 in 2000 — but the district population variances in this scenario would be larger.
About 42% of teams in those three classes would make the playoffs. However, cramming them into eight districts would mean five 10-team districts and three nine-team ones. That would mean the first group has NO non-district games and the second group only gets one in a nine-game schedule. The current setup allows for three non-district games in 3A/2A/1A and two in A/8, giving schools more flexibility with continuation of rivalries or close geographic matchups.
As the small schools continue to shrink, the elimination of Class A in the future is a possibility, but a long-term one. Right now, there are enough teams to sustain the existing setup, and a whole lot of them will be playing the first Wednesday after the regular season is over.