(Exira) On Thursday, January 21st the Iowa High School Athletic Association announced a major change for the upcoming football season. An extra class will be added and playoff qualifiers are being expanded.
8-Player will now qualify 32 teams for the postseason instead of 16. Exira-EHK coach Tom Petersen says the decision by the Board of Control didn’t follow the recommendation of coaches. “It’s probably not the best thing for everybody. I like what they did with the 32 teams. I just wish that maybe they would have considered looking at 8-Player football a little bit more. There are so many teams that participate at the 8-man level that I think it’s time for them to consider two classes which is what we tried to get, but we didn’t quite get it.”
Other classes are going to fewer teams per class. For example, Class 3A through 5A will have 36 teams which 16 playoff qualifiers. Class 1A and 2A will have 48 teams and 32 playoff spots. Class A will include the remaining amount of 11-player teams and 8-Player will consist of all 8-player schools.
Petersen points out the change will narrow the enrollment gap between schools in all classes except for 8-player. “I do hope that they look at helping out the small schools once, because I think it would be beneficial for all in that area too.”
Another change is new district assignments coming out annually as opposed to ever two years. Additional information regarding playoff qualification and district assignments will be released at a later date.
