Iowa Highway Ends (etc.)

This afternoon, Gladbrook-Reinbeck plays Logan-Magnolia for the Iowa Class A football title. If you miss watching a power running game from the I-formation or the wishbone offense with ten players in a three-point stance, this is the game for you. (On the defensive side, GR stopped Denver’s opening drive at the 1 last week.)

The championship games are Thursday-Friday this year because UNI has a home game Saturday, although there could have been games Saturday morning. I don’t know why the UNI-Dome won’t host any games before the semifinals anymore, but it may be a cost thing.

If you want a playoff shirt, you might be disappointed: This year there is only one color (white on black) and only the semifinalists from each class are listed. It’s hard to list 192 districts on one shirt. (Another casualty of expanded playoffs.)

UPDATE: Logan-Magnolia 28, Gladbrook-Reinbeck 24. Also, Newell-Fonda 39, Fremont-Mills 35.

The NCAA has relented on its attempts to manipulate the style of the rounds of 64 and 32 in the men’s tournament. The first and second rounds WILL BE the first and second rounds starting in 2016.

Not only that, but some of those first- and second-round games will be held in Des Moines for the first time in men’s tournament history in 2016.

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.