cschurm said:

9am would be awful. Have to get the kids to the stadium at 7am. Have to get them up and eat breakfast before that even. That would be tough. Kearney does a great job of hosting the D6 championship. Great hospitality, the big locker rooms, stands feel full. It was a great experience for us last season

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nenebskers said:

I'd be fine with Kearney hosting 6 and 8 man and NCN televising it. Actually like the idea of Kearney hosting it and making it special.

As far as the NSAA paying rent for two days and only four games, being that it's the two 8 man games they would be losing I don't think it's that big of a loss.

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hailvictors2 said:

Warming up elsewhere is plausible. Creighton has a field house that teams use for state soccer. Each team is limited to 20 minutes on the game field I think.

That said, 9:00 AM state title game....oof. I know we do it for basketball, but man. Imagine the CFP National Title game being played at 9:00 AM.

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just_average32 said:

Great points. If you could convince the lower classes that they could be showcased better at UNK then that’s possible. It may seem more like being left out. Also not sure if the NSAA would be ok with cutting the Memorial Stadium games to 4 over two days. May not be worth the expense to rent it out. You could do

I am not an overall fan of having morning state championship games in football but it is done presently and even earlier in the other sports. So maybe you can get all 8 games in two days

Could rotate time slots for fairness. 8man gets a prime time slot on Monday night? I think all 6man and 8man games on one day would need to be done for field dimension purposes

Monday
9:00am - D6/D3
12:30pm - D6/D3
4:00pm - D1/D2
7:30pm - D1/D2

Tuesday
9:00am - C1/C2
12:30pm - C1/C2
4:00pm - A/B
7:30pm - A/B

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just_average32 said:

Great points. If you could convince the lower classes that they could be showcased better at UNK then that’s possible. It may seem more like being left out. Also not sure if the NSAA would be ok with cutting the Memorial Stadium games to 4 over two days. May not be worth the expense to rent it out. You could do

I am not an overall fan of having morning state championship games in football but it is done presently and even earlier in the other sports. So maybe you can get all 8 games in two days

Could rotate time slots for fairness. 8man gets a prime time slot on Monday night? I think all 6man and 8man games on one day would need to be done for field dimension purposes

Monday
9:00am - D6/D3
12:30pm - D6/D3
4:00pm - D1/D2
7:30pm - D1/D2

Tuesday
9:00am - C1/C2
12:30pm - C1/C2
4:00pm - A/B
7:30pm - A/B

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Power_I_82 said:

Never said anything about A-C2. Leave them in Lincoln. They will figure out the broadcasting. Maybe it isn't PBS, who does a great job, but it will be quality whatever is done. Heck, some HS streams are better than what PBS was putting out 20 years ago. Your point of PBS being free for everyone is valid. I guess I pay for NFHS for every other HS championship in the early rounds so if it had to go that way it wouldn't be a deal breaker... I just don't think they will give them back to the high schools. 8 man coaches will want to highlight their game, much the way the Sertoma game is. I think some great changes are coming if it all falls in place.

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Llama57 said:

I've heard Ryan Ohnoutka will be coaching Pierce. Formerly at St Cecilia

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just_average32 said:

If you move the entire championship week to UNK, the casual fan attendance will drop. Geographically, the games would be centrally located. From a population standpoint, it is not. This is not a knock on Kearney, because you are right. Kearney is a fantastic city and does a great job putting on those events. But the majority of casual fans as well as team support would come from Class A and B schools. I'm predicting the majority of Class A & B schools located in the Metro/Lincoln area would not support moving it to UNK. It's easy for some of these people to pop in and out for these championship games. They won't want to book hotels or travel 3+ hours to go watch game.

News Channel Nebraska does the 6man and Shrine Bowl. They do an ok job. But NCN is part of the cable packages, and not streaming packages. People who use YouTube TV don't have access to NCN. but they do have PBS. I personally think the state's championship games should be on the state's network in the state's stadium.. Sending it back to high schools would make tv broadcasting nearly impossible. Covid was an exception and it should stay that way. I can understand the sentiment that Memorial Stadium is too big of a place for these events. But it's kind of the best scenario for hosting the championship week and broadcasting it. It's disappointing Nebraska is not willing to budge on hosting a 3rd day. It's a venue that would otherwise be sitting empty except for maybe the football team practicing. The traffic the grass field would receive is a bit of concern but if you're doing it 2 days, a 3rd day won't make much of a difference. At least there is another year to get the details figured out.

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hailvictors2 said:

Arcadia-Loup City- Bob Fuller (Pending Board Approval)
Bishop Neumann- Joseph Pavlik
Blair - Will Lansman
Blue Hill- Matt Carroll
Cozad- Jared Crick
Crete- Josh Littrell
Crofton- John Ostemier
CWC-
Deshler- Hayden Delano
Elkhorn- Wade McVey
Fairbury- Jeff Savage
Franklin
Giltner- Phillip Mancuso
Grand Island- Jeff McQuinn
Heartland Lutheran
Homer
Kenesaw- Parker Trumble
Laurel-Concord-Coleridge
Lourdes Central Catholic- Rick Nordhues
Malcolm- Matt Coufal
Medicine Valley- Scott Trimble
Millard West- McEnaney
Minatare
Norris- Trevor Sedlacek
North Central
Ogallala-
Omaha Benson-
Omaha Bryan- Matt Storm
Papio LaVista- Sean McLaughlin
Palmer- Luke Thompson
Ponca- Casey McGhee
Riverside-
Shelton-Mike Lowe
Southern Valley- Coy Gideon
South Sioux City- Gray Peterson
Scotus- Roger Krienke
St Paul- Corey Valasek
Syracuse- Gabe Meints
Wausa- Jon Baue
West Holt-
York- Matt Brackan
Wakefield- Joe Kvidera
Wayne- Russ Plager
West Point-Beemer

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hailvictors2 said:

This topic kind of took over the "8-man football changes coming" thread. Thought maybe it would be best to start a new thread. We've been down this road before on this forum, but the D3 addition opens a new aspect of the conversation. UNL has said Memorial Stadium will not be available for a 3rd day. Officials at the NSAA have said they don't see it feasible to have 4 games in one day. That brings us to a crossroads...what do we do with 8-man championship games? Is it just D3 that needs a home? Or do we move them all? If we move 8-man, do we move everything?

Positives to playing in Memorial Stadium
-Its the best facility in the state.
-For some it is a dream come true
-It allows PBS to provide excellent TV Coverage

Negatives to playing in Memorial Stadium
-Huge venue seems to make the crowd less impactful. It appears the stadium is empty, even though there are several thousand people there.
-NFHS rules apply to HS FB in Nebraska, but UNL's goal posts are narrower (all college goal posts are narrower). Same with hash marks. In 2006 Valentine had a PAT clank off the post in overtime. It was the difference in the game. We would never even consider this in basketball, playing on a different size goal.
-The western part of the state is always on the road
-Playing a state championship game at 10:45 in the morning is pretty anticlimactic. That is necessary to get 3 games in per day.

I'm interested to see what happens. Realistically I don't see anyway the finals leave Lincoln. I think they should, but I am usually in the minority on that among adults. NSAA has to make some decisions about where some state finals are played. The 6-man game in Kearney is awesome. I dont anticipate that leaving. Maybe a day of 8-man moves out there? From a geographical standpoint that might make sense. I think a larger percentage of the make-up of 8man schools comes from west of Lincoln. That said, if playing at Memorial Stadium is such a perk I don't think it is fair to deny the 8-man kids that opportunity. Almost need a rotation where one year the A, B, C1, C2 finals are in Lincoln and the D1, D2, D3, D6 finals are in Kearney. Next year it flips.

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hailvictors2 said:

This topic kind of took over the "8-man football changes coming" thread. Thought maybe it would be best to start a new thread. We've been down this road before on this forum, but the D3 addition opens a new aspect of the conversation. UNL has said Memorial Stadium will not be available for a 3rd day. Officials at the NSAA have said they don't see it feasible to have 4 games in one day. That brings us to a crossroads...what do we do with 8-man championship games? Is it just D3 that needs a home? Or do we move them all? If we move 8-man, do we move everything?

Positives to playing in Memorial Stadium
-Its the best facility in the state.
-For some it is a dream come true
-It allows PBS to provide excellent TV Coverage

Negatives to playing in Memorial Stadium
-Huge venue seems to make the crowd less impactful. It appears the stadium is empty, even though there are several thousand people there.
-NFHS rules apply to HS FB in Nebraska, but UNL's goal posts are narrower (all college goal posts are narrower). Same with hash marks. In 2006 Valentine had a PAT clank off the post in overtime. It was the difference in the game. We would never even consider this in basketball, playing on a different size goal.
-The western part of the state is always on the road
-Playing a state championship game at 10:45 in the morning is pretty anticlimactic. That is necessary to get 3 games in per day.

I'm interested to see what happens. Realistically I don't see anyway the finals leave Lincoln. I think they should, but I am usually in the minority on that among adults. NSAA has to make some decisions about where some state finals are played. The 6-man game in Kearney is awesome. I dont anticipate that leaving. Maybe a day of 8-man moves out there? From a geographical standpoint that might make sense. I think a larger percentage of the make-up of 8man schools comes from west of Lincoln. That said, if playing at Memorial Stadium is such a perk I don't think it is fair to deny the 8-man kids that opportunity. Almost need a rotation where one year the A, B, C1, C2 finals are in Lincoln and the D1, D2, D3, D6 finals are in Kearney. Next year it flips.

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northeastNebraska said:

I don't think current high school kids care about if Nebraska is good or not, I bet if you ask kids point blank,

Would you rather play a state championship game at....

A. Memorial Stadium
B. UNK
C. Home stadium

I would be stunned if the majority of the vote wasn't Memorial Stadium. I played in a state semifinal game at home (2005) and it was electric, I get that. But we WANTED to play in that state championship in Memorial Stadium. We wanted to be on NET. We wanted to walk out of the tunnel. I know it was a different time in Husker history but that stuff still matters to kids.

In my opinion, the kids deserve to play in a big stadium. The kids deserve to "make it to Lincoln". It's the same thing I said about getting out of the high schools for state basketball. That needed to happen. The kids deserve better than playing at Lincoln High after going 24-0 in a regular season.

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hailvictors2 said:

I played in Memorial Stadium. I also played 2 semi-final games in my home stadium and one in an away stadium. Every semi-final was more of an adrenaline rush than playing at Memorial Stadium. I think people drastically over estimate how much kids care about it. They just flat out dont.

Poll high school football players. Ask them how many sellouts Nebraska has now. They won't know. Ask them what positions the players played in the ring of honor surrounding the stadium. They will get 50% or more wrong. Ask them who the starting FS is for the 2025 Nebraska team. Most won't know. Not a knock on Rhule or Nebraska. Just a fact that the state of the program does nothing to draw kids interest.

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northeastNebraska said:

This. No matter how bad Nebraska football has been in the last 7-8 years, kids want to play in Memorial Stadium. I was at the C1 final between Pierce and Adams Central at Pierce. It did not feel like a state championship game. Just didn't.

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opinionated.old.fart said:

So will they still broadcast the games on PBS? Doesn't seem likely if they have to move with multiple locations.. and some of the smaller venues may not support all that is needed to broadcast a game. I for one, look forward to watching all the championship games every year on PBS.

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point8ppg said:

Heaven forbid the Omaha Metro/Lincoln schools have to travel for state like a large amount of the state does for every other state tournament/championship.

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just_average32 said:

If you move the entire championship week to UNK, the casual fan attendance will drop. Geographically, the games would be centrally located. From a population standpoint, it is not. This is not a knock on Kearney, because you are right. Kearney is a fantastic city and does a great job putting on those events. But the majority of casual fans as well as team support would come from Class A and B schools. I'm predicting the majority of Class A & B schools located in the Metro/Lincoln area would not support moving it to UNK. It's easy for some of these people to pop in and out for these championship games. They won't want to book hotels or travel 3+ hours to go watch game.

News Channel Nebraska does the 6man and Shrine Bowl. They do an ok job. But NCN is part of the cable packages, and not streaming packages. People who use YouTube TV don't have access to NCN. but they do have PBS. I personally think the state's championship games should be on the state's network in the state's stadium.. Sending it back to high schools would make tv broadcasting nearly impossible. Covid was an exception and it should stay that way. I can understand the sentiment that Memorial Stadium is too big of a place for these events. But it's kind of the best scenario for hosting the championship week and broadcasting it. It's disappointing Nebraska is not willing to budge on hosting a 3rd day. It's a venue that would otherwise be sitting empty except for maybe the football team practicing. The traffic the grass field would receive is a bit of concern but if you're doing it 2 days, a 3rd day won't make much of a difference. At least there is another year to get the details figured out.

Click to expand...

just_average32 said:

If you move the entire championship week to UNK, the casual fan attendance will drop. Geographically, the games would be centrally located. From a population standpoint, it is not. This is not a knock on Kearney, because you are right. Kearney is a fantastic city and does a great job putting on those events. But the majority of casual fans as well as team support would come from Class A and B schools. I'm predicting the majority of Class A & B schools located in the Metro/Lincoln area would not support moving it to UNK. It's easy for some of these people to pop in and out for these championship games. They won't want to book hotels or travel 3+ hours to go watch game.

News Channel Nebraska does the 6man and Shrine Bowl. They do an ok job. But NCN is part of the cable packages, and not streaming packages. People who use YouTube TV don't have access to NCN. but they do have PBS. I personally think the state's championship games should be on the state's network in the state's stadium.. Sending it back to high schools would make tv broadcasting nearly impossible. Covid was an exception and it should stay that way. I can understand the sentiment that Memorial Stadium is too big of a place for these events. But it's kind of the best scenario for hosting the championship week and broadcasting it. It's disappointing Nebraska is not willing to budge on hosting a 3rd day. It's a venue that would otherwise be sitting empty except for maybe the football team practicing. The traffic the grass field would receive is a bit of concern but if you're doing it 2 days, a 3rd day won't make much of a difference. At least there is another year to get the details figured out.

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Power_I_82 said:

I totally agree with what you are saying. The state won't/doesn't care much about this. I meant more on the fan side of things. I just think you will get back to seeing more people from around the state make trips to watch games if they are centrally located. Kearney doesn't miss on these types of events. I've been to the Shrine Bowl and the 6 man finals in recent years. First class job they do hosting. I for one living in west Nebraska would be way more apt to make it a yearly trip to the games and drag along my son and his buddies.

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