This year, in an effort to cut down on travel in first-round (32) and second-round (16) games, the IHSAA did not set football brackets. Instead, each round’s pairings were based on who was playing. After the games are played out, a full bracket can be created retroactively, but not until then.
Because of this non-structure, Gladbrook-Reinbeck and Denver, the first- and third-place teams in Class A District 4, will play each other Friday morning in the UNI-Dome. Under the old arrangement they would have met in an earlier round.
In another upcoming change to playoff structure, the IHSAA wants to move all the games to Friday, which will require the beginning of the season to be pushed up a week. That means it is highly likely, at least in some years, that there will be football games the second Friday of the Iowa State Fair. I don’t think this would be on the table if districts weren’t using waivers to blatantly thumb their noses (August 13!) at the law that’s supposed to stop school from starting earlier than the week before Labor Day. Thus, the ever-earlier school start dates make the overly expanded football playoffs possible. Call it a minor case of the Law of Unintended Consequences.