ADVERTISEMENT

5A

ToddDoxzon7

Freshman
Aug 20, 2004
102
7
18
Another thought about struggling with Iowa classification is what Oklahoma does. They split their top division. There are 16 in the top division. What if Iowa did that and then kept everything the same after that? ( Next 48 or 52 in each class) Even go one step farther and think if the top 16 was not only by BEDS, but a success factor as well. I would think schools may try and get into the top 16. This also may even out the current competitive level of 4A. You would think schools like Indianola, Roosevelt, Ottumwa, Marshalltown, Ft Dodge would feel like they could win a state championship without those top schools. My guess is Xavier, Solon others would be a top 16 type program? Great message board discussion or sports talk topic. What schools would be in the 5A super division??? And for playoff purposes, I think the top 8 make the playoffs in Oklahoma. But then again they play after Thanksgiving... UGGHH. Don;t quote me, but think they take an off week for the top class between the semis and the finals. More Hype.
 
Another thought about struggling with Iowa classification is what Oklahoma does. They split their top division. There are 16 in the top division. What if Iowa did that and then kept everything the same after that? ( Next 48 or 52 in each class) Even go one step farther and think if the top 16 was not only by BEDS, but a success factor as well. I would think schools may try and get into the top 16. This also may even out the current competitive level of 4A. You would think schools like Indianola, Roosevelt, Ottumwa, Marshalltown, Ft Dodge would feel like they could win a state championship without those top schools. My guess is Xavier, Solon others would be a top 16 type program? Great message board discussion or sports talk topic. What schools would be in the 5A super division??? And for playoff purposes, I think the top 8 make the playoffs in Oklahoma. But then again they play after Thanksgiving... UGGHH. Don;t quote me, but think they take an off week for the top class between the semis and the finals. More Hype.
I think adding class 5a is a good idea. Move Entire 4a field up and then adjust the other fields.

This would probably be a better alternative than expanding the playoffs in all classes.
 
It isn't so much even the size of the school as it is the "culture" of the program. Some schools are just plain FOOTBALL schools, with big programs, great feeder schools, good coaches and rabid fans. And sometimes it's not all the schools-- it's the community itself, which even supports elementary programs that play tackle starting in the fourth or fifth grade, etc., with flag football starting in the 1st grade. Not that I'm for early tackle football. That sometimes causes kids to drop out. .I think dividing the classes (for sure 4A and 3A), or adding a class, would be a good idea. The good teams get to play good teams and the struggling programs have a chance to play teams that aren't the bully on the block. Anybody else sick of all the continuous clock games? There probably aren't more than 20-24 competitive 4A schools now, and 3A has the mighty dozen or so at the top (who would crush many of the lower half 4A teams), and not much after that.

It's not only that fewer numbers are participating in football, so that freshman teams no longer exist many places--the good football players are transferring at the middle or high school entry level to the better teams, which makes the poorer teams even poorer. I can see a day in the not too distant future when some schools will start to drop football.
 
Last edited:
I would definitely be more in favor of the classes being determined more in terms of performance, rather than purely BEDS count. I think every other year, the state should evaluate which teams in 4A have done the poorest, and which teams in 3A have done the best, and swap the best 15 in 3A for the bottom 15 in 4A, and use the records of the teams over the previous 10 years as a sample size. I definitely think that would create far more parity in both classes.
 
I would definitely be more in favor of the classes being determined more in terms of performance, rather than purely BEDS count. I think every other year, the state should evaluate which teams in 4A have done the poorest, and which teams in 3A have done the best, and swap the best 15 in 3A for the bottom 15 in 4A, and use the records of the teams over the previous 10 years as a sample size. I definitely think that would create far more parity in both classes.
That seems like a lifetime of waiting. I don't think you are ever going to have a complete competitive field if you shift all the power one way or the other.

Someone has got to win and someone has got to lose. I don't think you will ever get away from blowouts or a continuous clock.
CF beats Dub Senior 44-0, 1st game I have missed in a very long time.

I caught the replay of it and it was 21-0 after one Qtr. I think Senior had a good team and just seen mistakes take them out of the game.

Watching Waukee beat what I thought was a very good Prairie team pretty handily. These scores are no different than what I have seen in the past.

I think it's just impossible to ask for a 7 point win across the board, you have a few upsets. I don't think the scoring will ever change
 
  • Like
Reactions: Reasoned
I would also add, on any given day (or night) teams can play well or not so much, just look at the 2019 NCAA Football Championship result, does anyone think Alabama was 28 points less of a team than Clemson?
 
  • Like
Reactions: franky1967
Another thought about struggling with Iowa classification is what Oklahoma does. They split their top division. There are 16 in the top division. What if Iowa did that and then kept everything the same after that? ( Next 48 or 52 in each class) Even go one step farther and think if the top 16 was not only by BEDS, but a success factor as well. I would think schools may try and get into the top 16. This also may even out the current competitive level of 4A. You would think schools like Indianola, Roosevelt, Ottumwa, Marshalltown, Ft Dodge would feel like they could win a state championship without those top schools. My guess is Xavier, Solon others would be a top 16 type program? Great message board discussion or sports talk topic. What schools would be in the 5A super division??? And for playoff purposes, I think the top 8 make the playoffs in Oklahoma. But then again they play after Thanksgiving... UGGHH. Don;t quote me, but think they take an off week for the top class between the semis and the finals. More Hype.
I'm not sure what a Power 16 field would really look like, you may be down to 10+ 4a teams and 6 -3a teams.

You have 3 schools that for the most part for the past 20yrs have had strong programs. CR Wash, IC West and IC High, none which made the playoffs. I cannot see swapping them for 3a schools cause nobody knows if this a downward trend because of other issues.

IC West could bounce back at anytime, IC High and Washington I'm not so sure about. Plus look at Hempstead and Senior, they seem to be coming on strong
 
Alright here's what ya do.

5A takes the top 32 schools in enrollment.

4 districts of 8 teams and the Association can decide if they want to just keep it simple and take the top 4 teams from each district....or if they wanna get a little fancier and take the top 3 from each district, and then 4 at-large to round out the 16 teams then they can do that instead, if that would make the more competitively-inclined observers happy.

The 10 dropped give you 64 teams to make up 4A and 3A along with any schools below that. Currently, there's 54 teams that make up 3A, 2A, and 1A. 60 fill in Class A, and the remaining 61 compromise 8-man.

So the new classifications would look like this:

5A- 32
4A- 40
3A- 48
2A- 48
1A- 48
A- 48
8-man- 61


And while I would like to see a rule where you have something like the top 4 finishing teams in 4A move up and the bottom 4 in 5A drop down after each season, based on results....the one issue from that is that you risk having unbalanced divisions geographically.


Anyway that's how you create a Class 5A for football. Good luck with that. :)
 
The next two posts will show what the new Class 5A and 4A districts could possibly look like....
(if my geography is a little off....eat a bowl of cinnamon with a fork, and then get back to me. Thank you):

CLASS 5A
District 1-
Ames
Ankeny
Des Moines East
Des Moines North
Marshalltown
Urbandale
Waukee
WDM Valley

District 2-
Ankeny Centennial
Des Moines Lincoln
Des Moines Roosevelt
Dowling, WDM
Johnston
Sioux City East
Sioux City North
Southeast Polk

District 3-
Cedar Falls
Cedar Rapids Jefferson
Cedar Rapids Kennedy
Cedar Rapids Prairie
Cedar Rapids Washington
Dubuque Hempstead
Dubuque Senior
Waterloo West

District 4-
Bettendorf
Davenport Central
Davenport West
Iowa City, City
Iowa City West
Linn-Mar
Muscatine
Pleasant Valley
 
CLASS 4A
District 1-
Fort Dodge
LeMars
Mason City
Spencer
Storm Lake

District 2-
Council Bluffs Abraham Lincoln
Council Bluffs Lewis Central
Council Bluffs Thomas Jefferson
Glenwood
Sioux City West

District 3-
Ballard
Boone
Denison-Schleswig
Perry
Webster City

District 4-
Bondurant-Farrar
Dallas Center-Grimes
Des Moines Hoover
Indianola
Norwalk

District 5-
Carlisle
Newton
Oskaloosa
Ottumwa
Pella

District 6-
Clinton
Decorah
Waterloo East
Waverly-Shell Rock
Western Dubuque, Epworth

District 7-
Cedar Rapids Xavier
Clear Creek-Amana
Iowa City Liberty
Marion
Washington

District 8-
Burlington
Davenport North
Fort Madison
Mount Pleasant
North Scott
 
  • Like
Reactions: stickman80
Nice work Monkey. Firm believer in 5A. Works for the girls.

I can see at least one 3A moving up to 4A that is not competitive and will get stomped but that is their problem.
 
5A - 16 teams invite only.

Valley
Dowling
Waukee
Waukee NW
Ankeny
Centennial
Johnston
SE Polk

Linn-Mar
Bettendorf
Dub Hempstead
Cedar Falls
CR Kennedy
CR Prairie
CR Jefferson
Iowa City West
 
With this year's enrollment ranges in parentheses...
5A: 32 (991+)
4A: 32 (491-989)
3A: 48 (300-475)
2A: 48 (201-296)
1A: 48 (160-200)
A: 50 (121-159)

Allow the 34 schools in the 100-120 range to select either 11-man (A) or 8-man. (In 2019, 8 of these are playing 11-man.)
All schools <100 play 8-man.

That would make 58 teams in A, with 61 in 8-man.
 
Here is how I would do it

5A is your top 24 schools, you could even call it more of a suburban division, this is the spot for you Valley, Waukee, Ankeny, Centennial, SEP etc. Plus your top two parochial schools by enrollment.

4A is 40 school, more of your "city" schools and then your big 3A schools, and your next 3 parochial schools

3A, 2A, and 1A are all 48 schools, with 3 parochial schools per class

Class A is the remaining 11 man schools and your 3 smallest 11 man playing parochial schools.

8 man are the schools who qualify who want to play 8 man.

This is based upon this years information where there were 265 11 man schools, and 17 11 man parochial schools (assuming I didn't miss any)
 
  • Like
Reactions: SpinningBird
The next two posts will show what the new Class 5A and 4A districts could possibly look like....
(if my geography is a little off....eat a bowl of cinnamon with a fork, and then get back to me. Thank you):

CLASS 5A
District 1-
Ames
Ankeny
Des Moines East
Des Moines North
Marshalltown
Urbandale
Waukee
WDM Valley

District 2-
Ankeny Centennial
Des Moines Lincoln
Des Moines Roosevelt
Dowling, WDM
Johnston
Sioux City East
Sioux City North
Southeast Polk

District 3-
Cedar Falls
Cedar Rapids Jefferson
Cedar Rapids Kennedy
Cedar Rapids Prairie
Cedar Rapids Washington
Dubuque Hempstead
Dubuque Senior
Waterloo West

District 4-
Bettendorf
Davenport Central
Davenport West
Iowa City, City
Iowa City West
Linn-Mar
Muscatine
Pleasant Valley
This actually the best scenerio I have seen yet, travel would not be an issue as they are making long trips anyways..

4 District Champs and the rest follow the RPI. Now the RPI would start to make sense. With the exception of head to head competition and flipping spots, this would really work.

So if you are saying keep the districts always the same or exchange teams from District 1 & 2 and 3 & 4 every two years this is very impressive.
 
The next two posts will show what the new Class 5A and 4A districts could possibly look like....
(if my geography is a little off....eat a bowl of cinnamon with a fork, and then get back to me. Thank you):


CLASS 5A
District 1-
Ames
Ankeny
Des Moines East
Des Moines North
Marshalltown
Urbandale
Waukee
WDM Valley

District 2-
Ankeny Centennial
Des Moines Lincoln
Des Moines Roosevelt
Dowling, WDM
Johnston
Sioux City East
Sioux City North
Southeast Polk

District 3-
Cedar Falls
Cedar Rapids Jefferson
Cedar Rapids Kennedy
Cedar Rapids Prairie
Cedar Rapids Washington
Dubuque Hempstead
Dubuque Senior
Waterloo West

District 4-
Bettendorf
Davenport Central
Davenport West
Iowa City, City
Iowa City West
Linn-Mar
Muscatine
Pleasant Valley
So in this scenario with 8 teams/district there would be 7 district games and 2 games of choice (assuming 9 regular season games) to schedule, which would be nice for schools who want to keep a rivalry game or play an out of state opponent.
 
That seems like a lifetime of waiting. I don't think you are ever going to have a complete competitive field if you shift all the power one way or the other.

Someone has got to win and someone has got to lose. I don't think you will ever get away from blowouts or a continuous clock.
CF beats Dub Senior 44-0, 1st game I have missed in a very long time.

I caught the replay of it and it was 21-0 after one Qtr. I think Senior had a good team and just seen mistakes take them out of the game.

Watching Waukee beat what I thought was a very good Prairie team pretty handily. These scores are no different than what I have seen in the past.

I think it's just impossible to ask for a 7 point win across the board, you have a few upsets. I don't think the scoring will ever change


That’s why I was suggesting going back at least 10 years, look at which 4A schools have been least competitive over that period of time, and replace them with the same number of the most competitive 3A teams over the same period. I think you start by sending most or all of the Sioux City and Council Bluffs schools down, along with some of the DM metro, Mason City, Ottumwa, and Davenport metro, and bring up Western Dubuque, North Scott, CB Lewis Central, CR Xavier, not to mention new schools like IC Liberty and Waukee NW, and so on. I think those 3A more than hold their own in 4A. And the bottom teams in 4A will at least be marginally more competitive in 3A than they were in 4A, like Waterloo East.

I wouldn’t send either of the IC schools down for 1. Because over the last 10 years, City High’s record isn’t bad yet....just the last few years, and West has done even better. 2. Both are likely to be a little lean for a few years after opening a new school. I expect the same thing to happen in Waukee after Waukee NW opens.

I’m not suggesting there will be one score games across the board. All I’m suggesting is avoiding schools going for years and years between wins like Waterloo East has done.
 
  • Like
Reactions: franky1967
That’s why I was suggesting going back at least 10 years, look at which 4A schools have been least competitive over that period of time, and replace them with the same number of the most competitive 3A teams over the same period. I think you start by sending most or all of the Sioux City and Council Bluffs schools down, along with some of the DM metro, Mason City, Ottumwa, and Davenport metro, and bring up Western Dubuque, North Scott, CB Lewis Central, CR Xavier, not to mention new schools like IC Liberty and Waukee NW, and so on. I think those 3A more than hold their own in 4A. And the bottom teams in 4A will at least be marginally more competitive in 3A than they were in 4A, like Waterloo East.

I wouldn’t send either of the IC schools down for 1. Because over the last 10 years, City High’s record isn’t bad yet....just the last few years, and West has done even better. 2. Both are likely to be a little lean for a few years after opening a new school. I expect the same thing to happen in Waukee after Waukee NW opens.

I’m not suggesting there will be one score games across the board. All I’m suggesting is avoiding schools going for years and years between wins like Waterloo East has done.
Like I mentioned, the issue with results-based classifications is that you could end up with unbalanced districts geographically, and not just for 5A. Moving teams up and down has ramifications for every class.
 
  • Like
Reactions: franky1967
This may be a point for another topic but since we are talking about districts in this scenario, I think it might fit. I think the boys in Boone screwed the Missouri River and old CIML Metro schools by going to district play that didn't take these schools and their historical struggle into consideration. We are talking about program culture, means and how those affect on-the-field success.

When we went to this current district setup, those schools were essentially told to forget about playoff football. (Which means Roosevelt's playoff appearance should be thoroughly congratulated.)

Personally, I think that's a much bigger issue. At least when you had the CIML Metro, those schools could compete amongst themselves to slug it out for a playoff spot. And it would make sense to keep those schools together in district play in the current format.
 
This may be a point for another topic but since we are talking about districts in this scenario, I think it might fit. I think the boys in Boone screwed the Missouri River and old CIML Metro schools by going to district play that didn't take these schools and their historical struggle into consideration. We are talking about program culture, means and how those affect on-the-field success.

When we went to this current district setup, those schools were essentially told to forget about playoff football. (Which means Roosevelt's playoff appearance should be thoroughly congratulated.)

Personally, I think that's a much bigger issue. At least when you had the CIML Metro, those schools could compete amongst themselves to slug it out for a playoff spot. And it would make sense to keep those schools together in district play in the current format.
4A could honestly get away with playing conference football.

If the NCAA can do this with football-only conferences and sport-specific conferences, then I'm sure Iowa can do it for high school athletics.......
 
4A could honestly get away with playing conference football.

And they did, for quite while after all the other classes went to districts. Prior to 2014, the MVC and the MAC survived on the east side, while the CIML and the MRAC schools went to districts in, I think, 2012. Personally, I thought the conferences worked okay, and I'm not sure what the impetus was to go away from them ... I don't think it was any worse than districts turned out to be.

(My recollection may be completely wrong, and I admit I had little exposure to exactly what was going on in the CIML and the MRAC in those days, so maybe it was a mess, I don't know. I think the MVC and the MAC could still be trucking along today, except for Assumption and Wahlert really feeling like they had to get out of 4A.

A bit of east-side history: Assumption was the first to break away from the MVC/MAC for football. That would have left the MAC with only 9 teams, meaning they'd have to play down for one game a season or perhaps work out a partnership with the MVC. Either at the same time or shortly after, Wahlert decided to drop out of 4A football ... Xavier was willing to remain with the MVC and play 4A as long as the conference membership/schedule didn't change, but with Wahlert out, that wasn't a possibility, so the remaining schools decided football was no longer a part of those conferences and they asked the state to set up districts. The CIML and MRAC had already gone down that path, I think two years earlier, but I don't know what spurred that on that side of the state.)
 
IMHO the district format seems to work much better for football, unlike other sports where all teams are in the PO’s due to single elimination tournament play, for obvious reasons the frequency of play between games has to be lengthened in FB (with 7 days optimal).

The problem with conference play determining PO qualifiers is there are conferences like the MAC which has 3 teams now in 3A and another which will soon be in 2A.
 
The problem with conference play determining PO qualifiers is there are conferences like the MAC which has 3 teams now in 3A and another which will soon be in 2A.

And the MRAC, which now has a trio of 3A schools with the addition of LeMars.
 
KidSilverhair, you are correct about the timing of district play for the CIML and MRAC. It started in 2012. And I think we should look at and compare the collective records of a few teams between 2001-2010 and then between 2011-2017 (since that's where BCMoore's scoring project cuts it off atm).

2001-2010
Ottumwa: 69-32
DM East: 55-43
DM Lincoln: 48-47

2011-2017
Ottumwa: 21-54
DM East: 33-42
DM Lincoln: 35-41

These three schools went from a combined winning percentage of 58.4% between '01-'10 to a winning percentage of 39.4% between '11-'17.

And while you can chalk a lot up to coaching, player and overall program changes, that is a significant drop. District play screwed the CIML Metro and makes it nearly impossible for a MRAC team (not named CB Lewis Central, who aren't even in 4A anymore) to make the playoffs.
 
Well conferences for 4A were a little trickier to put together than I thought. The main thing is that there's just not enough 4A teams to have uniform conferences, so OOC scheduling would be imbalanced as well.

Some schools could also go elsewhere if someone else were to try to make their own list.

For mine, I had to move 4A back to 48 teams in order to fill out some of the conferences:

Missouri River Conference-
Council Bluffs Abraham Lincoln
Council Bluffs Thomas Jefferson
Council Bluffs Lewis Central
Sioux City East
Sioux City North
Sioux City West

Big 7 Conference-
Ames
Cedar Falls
Fort Dodge
Marshalltown
Mason City
Waterloo East
Waterloo West

Central Iowa Football Conference-
Ankeny
Ankeny Centennial
Johnston
Southeast Polk
Urbandale
Waukee
West Des Moines Valley

Metro Iowa Football Conference-
Des Moines East
Des Moines Hoover
Des Moines Lincoln
Des Moines North
Des Moines Roosevelt
Indianola
Ottumwa
West Des Moines Dowling

Mississippi Athletic Football Conference-
Bettendorf
Burlington
Davenport Central
Davenport North
Davenport West
Muscatine
Pleasant Valley

Mississippi River Conference-
Cedar Rapids Jefferson
Cedar Rapids Kennedy
Cedar Rapids Prairie
Cedar Rapids Washington
Dubuque Hempstead
Dubuque Senior
Western Dubuque, Epworth

Mississippi Valley Football Conference-
Clinton
Iowa City, City High
Iowa City Liberty
Iowa City West
Linn-Mar
North Scott
 
That’s one of the reasons why for the purpose of FB, the district format works better than conferences.
The main reason I explored those options was to see what could be done to help the outlier schools such as the SC and CB schools and Fort Dodge and Mason City.

If they merely dropped to 40 schools, they could have 5-team districts, which would definitely help in finding homes for those schools mentioned above, but then more than half your schedule is OOC......which it almost is now, anyway.


That's why I say my idea for a 5A works the best. ;)
 
  • Like
Reactions: franky1967
Here is how I would do it

5A is your top 24 schools, you could even call it more of a suburban division, this is the spot for you Valley, Waukee, Ankeny, Centennial, SEP etc. Plus your top two parochial schools by enrollment.

4A is 40 school, more of your "city" schools and then your big 3A schools, and your next 3 parochial schools

3A, 2A, and 1A are all 48 schools, with 3 parochial schools per class

Class A is the remaining 11 man schools and your 3 smallest 11 man playing parochial schools.

8 man are the schools who qualify who want to play 8 man.

This is based upon this years information where there were 265 11 man schools, and 17 11 man parochial schools (assuming I didn't miss any)
I like this idea. But just looking at the proposed 5A and 4A. To me, it feels like the true suburban teams and top two parochial schools ends at about 21. How do you really quantify a suburban team? Technically, Marion Independent would be a suburban school. So would Carlisle. Would you want those teams in with Valley and Dowling and Cedar Falls? I'd think there'd have to be some provision where the top 8 or top 10 schools in BEDS would have to be 5A, just on sheer numbers. But otherwise, I like the idea.
 
  • Like
Reactions: franky1967
Expanding on the PNation idea of 24/40(5A/4A), maybe look like this...

5A District 1
Ankeny Centennial, Des Moines East, Johnston, Southeast Polk, Waukee, West Des Moines Valley

5A District 2
Ankeny, Council Bluffs Lewis Central, Des Moines Lincoln, Des Moines Roosevelt, Urbandale, West Des Moines Dowling

5A District 3
Cedar Falls, Cedar Rapids Kennedy, Cedar Rapids Xavier, Iowa City Liberty, Iowa City West, Western Dubuque

5A District 4
Bettendorf, Cedar Rapids Prairie, Iowa City High, Linn-Mar, North Scott, Pleasant Valley

===============================================================================================

4A District 1
Denison-Schleswig, Fort Dodge, LeMars, Sioux City East, Sioux City North, Sioux City West, Spencer, Storm Lake

4A District 2
Ames, Boone, Des Moines North, Marshalltown, Mason City, Waterloo East, Waterloo West, Waverly-Shell Rock

4A District 3
Cedar Rapids Jefferson, Cedar Rapids Washington, Clinton, Davenport Central, Davenport North, Davenport West, Dubuque Hempstead, Dubuque Senior

4A District 4
Burlington, Clear Creek-Amana, Marion, Muscatine, Newton, Oskaloosa, Ottumwa, Pella

4A District 5
Carlisle, Council Bluffs Jefferson, Council Bluffs Lincoln, Dallas Center-Grimes, Des Moines Hoover, Glenwood, Indianola, Norwalk

Just throwing this together fast. It's late, I'm tired, don't crucify me.
 
Last edited:
Expanding on the PNation idea of 24/40(5A/4A), maybe look like this...

5A District 1
WDM Valley, Waukee, Johnston, Southeast Polk, DM East, Ankeny Centennial

5A District 2
WDM Dowling, DM Lincoln, Urbandale, DM Roosevelt, Ankeny, CB Lewis Central

5A District 3
Cedar Falls, CR Kennedy, CR Xavier, Western Dubuque, IC Liberty, IC West

5A District 4
Bettendorf, Pleasant Valley, North Scott, CR Prairie, Linn-Mar, IC High

=================================
4A District 1
SC East, SC North, SC West, LeMars, Storm Lake, Spencer, Fort Dodge, Denison-Schleswig

4A District 2
DM North, Marshalltown, Ames, Boone, Mason City, Wat East, Waverly-Shell Rock, Wat West

4A District 3
Dub Hempstead, Dub Senior, Dav West, Dav Central, Dav North, Clinton, CR Jefferson, CR Washington

4A District 4
Newton, Pella, Oskaloosa, Burlington, Ottumwa, Muscatine, Clear Creek-Amana, Marion

4A District 5
CB Lincoln, CB Jefferson, Glenwood, Dallas Center-Grimes, Carlisle, Norwalk, DM Hoover, Indianola

Just throwing this together fast. It's late, I'm tired, don't crucify me.
I like that setup in 5a, can to tell me if you are using Beds Numbers or other. I just noticed Waterloo West one of the bigger schools is not mentioned?

The next thing I wonder is do you think they will shorten the playoffs for 5a?
 
They'd have to shorten the playoffs if the class only had 24 teams, probably 8. As for Waterloo West, I think they were the highest BEDS number(2019-20) I put in 4A.
 
  • Like
Reactions: franky1967
I'd prefer them to just make the switch to pure RPI and just make the playoffs the top 16 teams, no matter the district position. And I would make the west side of the state go to uneven districts/conferences.

MRAC would form back up, with the re-addition of CB Lewis Central, as District 1 (just to keep it simple).

District 2:
DM East
DM North
DM Roosevelt
DM Hoover
DM Lincoln
Ottumwa
Indianola

District 3:
Ames
Fort Dodge
Mason City
Marshalltown
Newton
SEP

District 4 (The District of Death):
Dowling
Valley
Waukee
Ankeny
Ankeny Centennial
Johnston
Urbandale

And if I'm not mistaken, haven't they talked about a 3rd Ankeny high school sometime down the road? Then you could throw Ankeny Centennial (Ankeny North) into District 3.

If you had RPI determining the playoff spots, then you could allow the MRAC and old CIML Metro schools to play most of their games against one another. And that District of Death would just have to duke it out. Sorry not sorry, Johnston, Urbandale, and Ankeny.
 
Screwloose and Big D, maybe you both forgot that Waukee Northwest will begin playing varsity football in the fall of 2021?
 
  • Like
Reactions: paxregis
That would change things, SpinningBird. But this year is 2019 and next is 2020. I suppose, something being changed would have to account for the new school in the second year of the two year time period.
 
7 classes in Iowa for football?! How about this - let's give every team their own division so at the end of the year, everyone is a champion! Maybe then no one's feelings will be hurt...
 
Last edited:
  • Like
Reactions: CF_93
This has been discussed before..going back to 1999 the 3 conference CIML and the MRAC were set up to provide Heelen and the 3 Sioux City schools complete 4A schedules after their joint SD /Iowa conference dissolved.. the alignments in the West seemed to work for the Metro and MRAC until 2012 because it insured a playoff spot for both conferences and the Iowa and Central conferences were given more seeds using the old point system.
Imo Ottumwa's decline in success was due to a major coaching change and a big change in participation. Yes the two Eastern conferences lost 2 members but the MAC members could have just picked up a nonconference game. I believe the two reasons that forced district football in the West were the moves to 3A by both Heelan and Newton. There is a major competitive difference between the current DM and Cedar Rapids suburban schools and the bottom half of 4A. I think you do need a top 16 5A class at this point as folks have mentioned. There will be high schools considering dropping football..especially in the DM or isolated 4A cities due to participation numbers if the competitive imbalance continues...
 
ADVERTISEMENT

Latest posts

ADVERTISEMENT