Preliminary Classifications Out

[KidSilverhair]

The state has posted the preliminary classifications for 2016-17 football on the IHSAA website. Here's the gist:

- Western Dubuque and Newton move up to 4A

- Boyden-Hull/Rock Valley, Chariton, Crestwood and Saydel drop from 3A to 2A, while Center Point-Urbana, Iowa Falls-Alden, North Polk, South Tama, Spirit Lake and West Burlington move from 2A to 3A

- Louisa-Muscatine, Okiboji, Tipton, and West Central Valley drop from 2A to 1A, while Dike-New Hartford, Eddyville-Blakesburg-Fremont, Pocahontas Area, South Central Calhoun, Underwood, and West Marshall move from 1A to 2A

- Alburnett, Hartley-Melvin-Sanborn, Hudson, Ridge View, Saint Ansgar, Southwest Valley, Fort Dodge Saint Edmonds, West Fork, and West Monona drop from 1A to A, while Alta/Aurelia, BCLUW, Belmond-Klemme, Denver, Logan-Magnolia, Maquoketa Valley, Mount Ayr, Pleasantville, Tri Center, and Van Buren move from A to 1A

The cutoffs are:
610 largest 3A school (Norwalk); 318 smallest 3A school (Iowa Falls-Alden)

315 largest 2A school (MOC Floyd Valley); 203 smallest 2A school (four come in at 203)

202 largest 1A school (Tipton); 157 smallest 1A school (Clayton Ridge - they have Guthrie Center at 126 but I think that's a typo and should probably be 162)

157 largest A school (Pekin)

 

[Herdcyclones]

For your line drawing pleasure

Class 2A schools map

 

[PNation]

The best I can do with 2A

District 1
CL/GLR
BH/RV
MOC/FV
Sheldon
Estherville
Cherokee
Pocahontas
Sioux Center

District 2 (Really two districts of four)
Kuemper
East Sac
SCC
SE Valley
Clarinda
Red Oak
Shenandoah
Underwood

District 3
Clarke
Centerville
Chariton
Albia
Davis County
EBF
Mediapolis
Central Lee

District 4
West Liberty
Camanche
NE Goose Lake
Mt Vernon
Cascade
Beckman
Monticello
Anamosa

District 5
Waukon
Crestwood
New Hampton
Oelwein
Columbus
DNH
Osage
NFV

District 6
Mid Prairie
WIlliamsburg
PCM
East Marshall
West Marshall
Saydel
CMB
Union

District 7
Clear Lake
GHV
Forest City
Hampton Dumont
Clarion Golfield
AP
South Hardin
Roland Story

 

[WSH0455]

For your line drawing pleasure

Class 2A schools map

After looking at your map it will be interesting to see what the state does with the teams in the South West part of the state. Only 4 teams that are close and then try to find 4 more within reasonable driving.

My thought on what was the 2015 District 3 will be this year....

Beckman (2015 1st Round)
Cresco
NFV (2015 Semi)
New Hampton (2015 2nd Round)
Oelwein
Osage
Waterloo Columbus
Waukon (2015 Quarter)

 

[RoundMound1]

Personally, I don't know why the State would consider 8 team districts. Trying to find 7 team districts w/in reasonable driving distance is hard enough, why try to force one more? When there were 64 teams it made more sense b/c you have 8 more teams to try to get closer games with.

I understand coaches wanting one more "meaningful" game on the schedule, but to me it's not worth the extra travel and the subjectivity of choosing 2 wild-card teams.

 

[Herdcyclones]

Where is this 8 team district stuff coming from? 14 team bracket. Use your skull.

 

[KidSilverhair]

The talk is the state might go to 8-team districts because coaches want more district games. Then they'll have to come up with some "wild-card" method to pick the final two playoff qualifiers, in addition to the top two in each district.

 

[smallcenter]

Where is this 8 team district stuff coming from? 14 team bracket. Use your skull.

And who do you propose to give the byes to?

The state mentioned in the fall meetings having two wild card playoff spots.

 

[smallcenter]

After looking at your map it will be interesting to see what the state does with the teams in the South West part of the state. Only 4 teams that are close and then try to find 4 more within reasonable driving.

My thought on what was the 2015 District 3 will be this year....

Beckman (2015 1st Round)
Cresco
NFV (2015 Semi)
New Hampton (2015 2nd Round)
Oelwein
Osage
Waterloo Columbus
Waukon (2015 Quarter)

Beckman and Osage in the same district isn't going to happen. I would guess one of the two of those is left out and Union, LaPorte City is added.

 

[warriors dad]

withThe 4 teams in SW IA ,it means a lot of miles for some folks. Last year from Fort Dodge to Clarinda took almost 3+ hours to get there! The state really needs to look at travel distance before pairings, but im afraid they don't. High school sports are supposed to be about student athletes and getting home from a game after 1AM is ridicules let alone dangerous! I wish there were better solutions but that's the way it is going to be. With school enrollment #s and schools sharing it will only get worse.

 

[WSC72]

Warriors dad who would you propose they pair those SWIA schools with?

 

[KidSilverhair]

Yeah, what are you going to do, really? Geography is a stubborn fact, and finding groupings of seven or eight teams to put in a district is just going to end up screwing somebody over on travel distance.

I haven't looked in-depth on anything besides the 3A map, but I imagine the challenges are much the same in the other classes. You can almost always find relatively close groupings of about six schools, even in the corners of the state ... but adding in that seventh and eighth district member becomes quite a stretch. Here in 2A you've only got four schools close by in southwest Iowa, so you know that district is just going to be bad for travel. There's no way around it.

The state says they're trying to take geography into account, but there's only so much they can do, and sometimes they really don't care that much. A few years ago in 4A Marshalltown and one of the Sioux City schools were scheduled in the two-year cycle. So the state, in all their concern for travel and student well-being, set up the trip from Marshalltown to Sioux City on a Thursday night ... with a school day the next morning. Somebody in Boone should probably have gotten fired for that.

 

[WSC72]

Hey, at least Iowa doesn't have schools from Sioux Falls and Rapid City in the conference. That's a good 350 (?) mile drive for a conference game.

 

[warriors dad]

Warriors dad who would you propose they pair those SWIA schools with?

Im just sayin that it sucks but in reality it is what it is . The 4 teams in SW IA could go 2 ways 1. Same as last year with east sac,kuemper, Scc, SE valley or 2. Chariton ,Clarke Osceola, PCM, And 1 more. With that said it will probably be similar to last year.

 

[WSC72]

There's just not a lot they can do with Shenendoah, Red Oak, Underwood and Clarinda. Long trips no matter who they are with.

 

[Scott Ervin]

The number for Guthrie Center and Adair-Casey will be 181, GC 126 plus 55 equals 181.

 

[WSH0455]

Beckman and Osage in the same district isn't going to happen. I would guess one of the two of those is left out and Union, LaPorte City is added.

I can see what you are saying but I remember when Waukon had to travel to Hampton-Dumont, Clear Lake and Forest City for district games. So it could happen... Can't wait to see what the state comes up with.

Beckman HS to Osage HS - 2 Hours 5 Minutes (per google maps)
Waukon HS to Hampton-Dumont HS - 2 Hours 19 Minutes
Waukon HS to Clear Lake HS - 2 Hours 3 Minutes
Waukon HS to Forest City HS - 2 Hours 15 Minutes.

 

[RoundMound1]

This is the best I could do from a strictly travel sense. This is also assuming 8 districts. I think districts 1 (NW) and 8 (SW) are 99.9% guaranteed to happen. District 8 has multiple 2+ hour travel times, but can't be avoided. The only other district with a 2 hour drive is district 6 with West Liberty and Davis County at exactly 2 hours. All other district games would be less than 2 hours of drive time.

1
Central Lyon
BH-RV
Sheldon
Sioux Center
MOC-FV
Cherokee
Estherville LC

2
Forest City
Clear Lake
Garner-Hayfield-Ventura
Clarion-Goldfield
Pocahontas Area
SE Valley
Roland Story

3
Hampton-Dumont
AP
Dike-NH
South Hardin
West Marshall
East Marshall
Union

4
Osage
Crestwood
Waukon
New Hampton
N. Fayette
Oelwein
Waterloo Columbus

5
Beckman
Cascade
Monticello
Mt. Vernon
Anamosa
Camanche
NE, Goose Lake

6
Williamsburg
Mid-Prairie
West Liberty
Mediapolis
Central Lee
Eddyville-Blakesburg
Davis County

7
Saydel
CMB
PCM
Clarke
Chariton
Albia
Centerville

8
East Sac
South Central Calhoun
Kuemper
Underwood
Red Oak
Shenandoah
Clarinda

 

[PNation]

The districts are a lot nicer travel wise with 8 districts of 7 teams but the state has said they will go with 7 districts of 8 teams and use wildcards. It'll be interesting if they change their mind when they see the problems that arise geographically.

 

[RoundMound1]

The districts are a lot nicer travel wise with 8 districts of 7 teams but the state has said they will go with 7 districts of 8 teams and use wildcards. It'll be interesting if they change their mind when they see the problems that arise geographically.

In fact they have not said this. The current plan is 8 districts of 7, and their board is set to vote on the 7 district of 8 recommendation from the coaches. I'm guessing they vote it down because of the much increased travel times and fuzziness of choosing wild cards. I've been wrong many times before, and could be wrong again here, but I just don't think 7 districts make sense. I completely understand the want to eliminate one more "meaningless" game, but I don't see that outweighing travel time and a clear cut 16-team playoff bracket.

If they do go to 7 districts, I do think your layout is about as good as you can get.

 

[warriors dad]

This is the best I could do from a strictly travel sense. This is also assuming 8 districts. I think districts 1 (NW) and 8 (SW) are 99.9% guaranteed to happen. District 8 has multiple 2+ hour travel times, but can't be avoided. The only other district with a 2 hour drive is district 6 with West Liberty and Davis County at exactly 2 hours. All other district games would be less than 2 hours of drive time.

1
Central Lyon
BH-RV
Sheldon
Sioux Center
MOC-FV
Cherokee
Estherville LC

2
Forest City
Clear Lake
Garner-Hayfield-Ventura
Clarion-Goldfield
Pocahontas Area
SE Valley
Roland Story

3
Hampton-Dumont
AP
Dike-NH
South Hardin
West Marshall
East Marshall
Union

4
Osage
Crestwood
Waukon
New Hampton
N. Fayette
Oelwein
Waterloo Columbus

5
Beckman
Cascade
Monticello
Mt. Vernon
Anamosa
Camanche
NE, Goose Lake

6
Williamsburg
Mid-Prairie
West Liberty
Mediapolis
Central Lee
Eddyville-Blakesburg
Davis County

7
Saydel
CMB
PCM
Clarke
Chariton
Albia
Centerville

8
East Sac
South Central Calhoun
Kuemper
Underwood
Red Oak
Shenandoah
Clarinda

I like your predictions but according to my sources the state is probably going to have 7 districts of 8.