Football Five Classes of Football Classification Model

[northeastNebraska]

So in my spare time, I've been on something for a few months now, finally got it complete (I think) 😂 . This is just for fun, so don't get all mad about it. I'd be intrigued to get back to five classes of football in Nebraska. Why?

-Decline of population in rural areas throughout the state.
-Popularity of the 6 man game is growing.
-Lack of consolidations.
-Too many forfeits due to numbers especially in C2.
-Too many opt downs.
-IMO teams outside of the Omaha/Lincoln/GI/Kearney would fair better in Class B over the long haul.


A, B, C (11 man)
D1 (8 man)
D2 (6 man)

Right now there are 280 teams in the NSAA that play football. What if it looked like this.

-Class A, B and C still play a 9 game schedule.
-Classes D1 and D2 play an 8 game schedule.
-Opt downs are not allowed.

Class A: Top 24 teams per enrollment (enrollment using last year's model would be 593 and up.)
Class B: Next 32 largest teams per enrollment (enrollment using last year's model would be 552-184. )
Class C: The next 60 largest teams per enrollment (enrollment using last year's model would be 170-59)
Class D1 (8man): The next 82 teams by enrollment. (enrollment using last year's model would be 58-35)
Class D2 (6man): The smallest 82 teams by enrollment. (enrollment using last year's model would be 34 and below)

Class A: Four districts with six teams. A 16 team playoff (4 district champs, 12 wildcards) The final four teams in the previous year are placed in separate districts.
Class B: Four districts with eight teams. A 16 team playoff (4 district champs, 12 wildcards)
Class C: 10 districts with six teams. A 16 team playoff (10 district champs, 6 wildcards) This one was hard, because I feel like 16 isn't enough, but 32 is too many)
Class D1: 12 districts (10 districts with 7, 2 districts with 6). A 32 team playoff (12 district champs, 20 wildcards, reseed after round of 32)
Class D2: 12 districts (8 districts with 7, 4 districts with 6). A 32 team playoff (12 district winners, 20 wildcards, reseed after the round of 32)

 

[northeastNebraska]

Class A districts:

District 1	District 2	District 3	District 4
Gretna	Omaha Westside	Creighton Prep	Grand Island
Omaha Central	Omaha South	Millard West	Omaha Bryan
Millard North	Omaha Burke	Millard South	Papillion La Vista
Papillion La Vista South	Bellevue West	Omaha Benson	Omaha North
Lincoln East	Lincoln North Star	Lincoln Southwest	Lincoln Southeast
Lincoln Northeast	Lincoln High	Omaha Northwest	Kearney

Class B districts:

District 1	District 2	District 3	District 4
Elkhorn North	Gretna East	Waverly	Scottsbluff
Fremont	Elkhorn South	Pius X	Gering
South Sioux	Bellevue East	Norris	North Platte
Norfolk	Ralston	Standing Bear	Lexington
Columbus	Bennington	Beatrice	Northwest
Blair	Buena Vista	Lincoln Northwest	Hastings
Schuyler	Westview	Nebraska City	Crete
Mt. Michael	Skutt Catholic	Plattsmouth	Seward

Class C districts:

District 1	District 2	District 3	District 4	District 5	District 6
Platteview	Ashland-Greenwood	Fort Calhoun	Lakeview	Pierce	Fairbury
Syracuse	Raymond Central	Omaha Roncalli	Scotus	Wayne	Milford
Falls City	Wahoo	OBT/CornerStone	DC West	O'Neill	David City
Conestoga	Lincoln Lutheran	Omaha Gross	LVSS	WPB	Centennial
Louisville	Lincoln Christian	Concordia	North Bend	Boone	Wilber-Clatonia
Auburn	Bishop Neumann	Boys Town	Arlington	Battle Creek	Malcolm

District 7	District 8	District 9	District 10
Aurora	Wood River	Cozad	Alliance
Adams Central	Kearney Catholic	Gothenburg	Sidney
York	Gibbon	Valentine	Mitchell
Central City	Centura	McCook	Chadron
Fillmore Central	Ord	Broken Bow	Ogallala
Minden	St. Paul	Holdrege	Chase County

Class D1 (8 man) districts:

District 1	District 2	District 3	District 4	District 5	District 6
Palmyra	Yutan	Tekamah-Herman	Wisner-Pilger	Crofton	EPPJ
Johnson County Central	Bergan	Howells-Dodge	Stanton	TCNE	Neligh-Oakdale
Southern	Oakland-Craig	Lyons-Decatur	Clarkson-Leigh	Ponca	Summerland
Freeman	Cedar Bluffs	GACC	Madison	Cedar Catholic	Elkhorn Valley
Johnson-Brock	OCA-Street	Pender	Twin River	Hartington-Newcastle	Plainview
Weeping Water	Shelby-Rising City	Bancroft-Rosalie	Norfolk Catholic	LCC	North Central
Elmwood-Murdock	Mead	Wakefield	LHNE	Homer	West Holt

District 7	District 8	District 9	District 10	District 11	District 12
GICC	Heartland	Ravenna	Alma	Hershey	Morrill
HSC	Cross County	Pleasanton	Hi-Line	Sutherland	Gordon-Rushville
Sandy Creek	EMF	Arcadia-LC	Cambridge	Sandhills Valley	Kimball
Doniphan-Trumbull	McCool Junction	Amherst	Southern Valley	Perkins County	Bridgeport
Superior	Tri County	Riverside	Arapahoe	NPSP	Hemingford
Thayer Central	Sutton	Nebraska Christian	Maxwell	South Loup	Bayard
Blue Hill	Aquinas	Ainsworth		Hitchcock

Class D2 (6 man) districts:

District 1	District 2	District 3	District 4	District 5	District 6
HTRS	Giltner	Bloomfield	Fullerton	Meridian	Central Valley
Lourdes	Lawrence-Nelson	Creighton	HSF	Wil-Hil	Palmer
Sterling	Silver Lake	Wausa	Humphrey	Axtell	St. Edward
Lewiston	Harvard	Osmond	Osceola	Franklin	Nebraska Lutheran
Parkview Christian	Red Cloud	Wynot	East Butler	Shelton	Elba
FCSH	Deshler	Randolph	Heartland Luterhan	Kenesaw	High Plains
Pawnee City	Diller-Odell	Walthill	Winside	Dorchester	Hampton

District 7	District 8	District 9	District 10	District 11	District 12
Boyd County	Anselmo-Merna	Brady	Hay Springs	Paxton	Leyton
Stuart	Twin Loup	Medicine Valley	Cody-Kilgore	Wallace	Garden County
CWC	Ansley-Litchfield	Southwest	Crawford	MHC	Banner County
Santee	Sandhills-Thedford	Bertrand	Sioux County	Dundy County	Minatare
Niobrara-Vedigre	Mullen	Loomis	Hyannis	Wauneta-Palisade	Potter-Dix
St. Mary's	SEM	Overton	Arthur County	South Platte	Creek Valley
Burwell		Elm Creek

 

[hailvictors2]

The biggest gripe I have with this is you are taking 66% of class A teams to the playoffs (16 of 24), 50% of class B (16 of 32), but only 26% of class C (16 of 60). Class C has the most parity in the 11 man grouping to begin with. I don't think it makes sense to make it be the most difficult to qualify

 

[northeastNebraska]

The biggest gripe I have with this is you are taking 66% of class A teams to the playoffs (16 of 24), 50% of class B (16 of 32), but only 26% of class C (16 of 60). Class C has the most parity in the 11 man grouping to begin with. I don't think it makes sense to make it be the most difficult to qualify

I thought about having a 24 team playoff in class C with the district champs getting a bye. But couldn’t get the numbers right. They could do a 32 team bracket and reseed.

 

[99SEMIFINAL]

I thought about having a 24 team playoff in class C with the district champs getting a bye. But couldn’t get the numbers right. They could do a 32 team bracket and reseed.

What are the percentages now? Isn't Class B a very small class?

 

[hailvictors2]

I thought about having a 24 team playoff in class C with the district champs getting a bye. But couldn’t get the numbers right. They could do a 32 team bracket and reseed.

I don't know what the answer is. Talk to coaches and they will tell you they don't want a bye...and 32 is too many. Like @99SEMIFINAL said, class B is already small. A and B are way out of proportion in terms of teams that qualify in our existing system. Its a tough spot.

 

[viewfromthebooth]

Where's BDS?

 

[northeastNebraska]

I don't know what the answer is. Talk to coaches and they will tell you they don't want a bye...and 32 is too many. Like @99SEMIFINAL said, class B is already small. A and B are way out of proportion in terms of teams that qualify in our existing system. It’s a tough spot.

Agreed. It’s just fun to put together. I’ve always felt Class A should be the top 24 teams and that’s it. Doesn’t need to be any bigger.

 

[SPbObRT]

so you think Norfolk Catholic wants to play 8 man football. I highly doubt that is going happen.

 

[Mr. Irrelevent]

so you think Norfolk Catholic wants to play 8 man football. I highly doubt that is going happen.

Or O-C, Cedar Catholic, Aquinas, or Yutan...

Meanwhile, as previously stated, we would take a far lower percentage of teams in your Class C. C1 and C2 have had some of the best playoffs for the last 5-10 years. There are some issues with teams at the bottom of C2 that need to be addressed, but this is a bit too much for my liking.

 

[LTFO]

Fun exercise for the summer. I have said it once before on here but will throw this out there again. It needs to be fixed from the top down. Add a Class AA and take the Metro-Lincoln and probably GI out of the equation then work your way down. Then there can only be 1 class of C. It will make tour numbers better. Chase County should not be in the same class as Plattesview and Wahoo.

 

[Husker008]

I'm honestly impressed with this - rarely do you see a class A/B list in Nebraska that feels like each of the schools actually belongs in those classes - I agree with you that class A benefits from being smaller, not bigger, and class B needs to be a set number of schools.

For playoffs, I agree that the percentage seems "off" but I don't know what you can do. Doesn't South Dakota have every team make the playoffs in their Big School class?

 

[ClkTwr2011]

so you think Norfolk Catholic wants to play 8 man football. I highly doubt that is going happen.

Under this type of system, there would likely be several teams opt up. I don't see a problem with it. Others may not like it.

 

[ClkTwr2011]

I thought about having a 24 team playoff in class C with the district champs getting a bye. But couldn’t get the numbers right. They could do a 32 team bracket and reseed.

In Class A and B, you could maybe look at adding another game to the regular season and then an 8 Team Playoff.

I have personally never had an issue with the percentage of teams that qualify in a given class. I know that some people do.

I think you have done a pretty good job of looking at this with open eyes. As I said above, there will certainly be some teams that opt up, but again I have no issue with that either.

 

[northeastNebraska]

Under this type of system, there would likely be several teams opt up. I don't see a problem with it. Others may not like it.

Opt ups are fine. I think this system would eliminate opt downs. Or at least in my dream scenario, the NSAA says opting down is no longer allowed at the varsity level. If you want to opt down, you have to play a JV schedule.

 

[northeastNebraska]

In Class A and B, you could maybe look at adding another game to the regular season and then an 8 Team Playoff.

I have personally never had an issue with the percentage of teams that qualify in a given class. I know that some people do.

I think you have done a pretty good job of looking at this with open eyes. As I said above, there will certainly be some teams that opt up, but again I have no issue with that either.

Thanks! It took some time, but it was fun. I think using a set cut off number (like top 24 in enrollment for A, bottom 82 for 6 man)

I think an 8 team playoff could work in Class A if schools get 10 games.

I’d really like to see schools like Fremont and North Platte in a revamped Class B.

Could you imagine being the 8 man or 6 man champion? Saying you’re the best team out of 82 teams? That’s a true state champion.