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Questions here about new classification of school

Feb 18, 2020
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Would they do new district or stay the same for this year. You think they would have to do new district due to the Waukee NW coming to 4A if they don't add a class.
 
I have heard (from a reliable source) that either today or tomorrow they will announce that they are adding classifications to football, they are meeting today.
 
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I have heard (from a reliable source) that either today or tomorrow they will announce that they are adding classifications to football, they are meeting today.
In a letter from Tharp this week dont expect anything football wise to be announced before Feb. Also dont expect districts to be announced before the state basketball tournys. Yes the board of directors are meeting today but the only thing that will come out of that meeting is what they are going to do for the state wrestling tournament.
 
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Correct they won't announce districts or schedules until possibly April, but they should announce classifications soon.
 
Looks like 36 teams in each of the top 3 classes, based off of last years BEDS that will move many 3A teams up to 4A and Many 2A teams up to 3A. 36,36,36 Does this mean the top 108 sized schools will be 3A-5A?
 
Looks like 36 teams in each of the top 3 classes, based off of last years BEDS that will move many 3A teams up to 4A and Many 2A teams up to 3A. 36,36,36 Does this mean the top 108 sized schools will be 3A-5A?
Will be interesting to see some of the records of playoff teams
 
Personally I like what they did, the big school class is going to have very few real contenders no matter what you do, where I think it evens out the class is in 4A and 3A because while you had a few traditional powers who were smaller schools in the old 3A the old 4A schools that got to move down 6 years ago or so have really dominated, now those schools are going to still be tough but have more competition and the smaller schools in the new 4A tend to be good programs and the new 3A will only be about 20 kids different per class instead of 120.
 
I was paying attention now 5A will affect a lot of teams. I heard 5A,4A,3A 36 teams and then my son change the channel. I just moved back to Iowa from Minnesota.

I quit referee. Hated it. Up their it's even worst then Iowa. I do still referee jr high here instead of high school. Maily northern Iowa mason city area.
 
5A, 4A, 3A (36 teams in each)
9 regular season games, 16 playoff qualifiers

2A(48), 1A(48), A(?), 8-Man (?)
8 regular season games, 32 playoff qualifiers
*Teams not making the playoffs may schedule their own 9th game

I like this, now those teams that are 0-8 or 1-7 can (if they choose) schedule a 9th game to end their season against another opponent with a similar record instead of getting beat 60-0 by an 8-0 team. It should make a better ending to the season for those kids on poor teams.
 
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Remember all the work the IHSAA did last year (pre-pandemic), setting up those tiers of performance levels in 4A as an attempt to address the gaps in program performance? Where the Tier 1 teams couldn’t play anyone from Tier 4 or below? With the promise that in 2021 they’d take a serious look at reorganizing the classes to address socioeconomic and historical performance factors and not just enrollment?

Well, it’s like none of that ever happened. Sure, they split the biggest schools out into a 5A, but it’s still strictly based on the BEDS. You’ve still got the Council Bluffs schools and the Sioux City schools and the Des Moines city schools thrown in with Dowling and Ankeny and Centennial and Valley. The 5A spread goes from a BEDS of over 2000 (Valley) to less than 1000 (CB Thomas Jefferson).

So why did they do all that work last year, telling us they’d try even harder this year, only to throw it all out?
 
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Looks like 36 teams in each of the top 3 classes, based off of last years BEDS that will move many 3A teams up to 4A and Many 2A teams up to 3A. 36,36,36 Does this mean the top 108 sized schools will be 3A-5A?

The BEDS list that’s available is for the 2020-21 athletic year, so there will be some movement of some schools here, making these lists completely tentative.

Going from the most recent BEDS, and with Waukee splitting into two 5A schools, the new 4A would range from Ottumwa (955 BEDS) to Carroll (397). You’ve got Ottumwa, Davenport North, Fort Dodge, Indianola, and Iowa City Liberty moving from the biggest class (“old 4A”) to the second-biggest (”new 4A”).

Traditional “old 3A” schools like Harlan, Fairfield, Washington, Charles City, Gilbert, Ballard, and Grinnell are now going to be among the largest “new 3A” schools. It looks like these schools could move up into the “new 3A”: Maquoketa, South Tama, CPU, Solon, Independence, Saydel, MOC-Floyd Valley, Hampton-DuPont-Cal, Atlantic, Algona, Mount Vernon, Clear Lake, and Sioux Center. If I figured it right ...
 
5A, 4A, 3A (36 teams in each)
9 regular season games, 16 playoff qualifiers

2A(48), 1A(48), A(?), 8-Man (?)
8 regular season games, 32 playoff qualifiers
*Teams not making the playoffs may schedule their own 9th game

I like this, now those teams that are 0-8 or 1-7 can (if they choose) schedule a 9th game to end their season against another opponent with a similar record instead of getting beat 60-0 by an 8-0 team. It should make a better ending to the season for those kids on poor teams.

I also like the option for non-playoff teams in 2A and below to pick up a 9th game if they want. That’s something I’ve been advocating for for a while.

As for A and 8-player, obviously that’s going to change with whatever the decision is for 8-player thresholds and what a lot of the smaller districts decide they want to do with their programs, but if we go by how things were shaking out a year ago ... there were 330 schools planning to play football in 2020.

* 40 in 4A
* 54 in 3A
* 54 in 2A
* 54 in 1A
* 60 in A
* 68 in 8-player

Adding a Waukee school to that makes 331, but I’d be stunned if several of those districts don’t decide to give up football or combine programs for this fall. Let’s just use 330 again, so for 2021 it looks like:

* 36 in 5A
* 36 in 4A
* 36 in 3A
* 48 in 2A
* 48 in 1A

Which leaves 126 divided between A and 8-player, which is almost exactly the same as the 128 in those two classes last year.

I’d also assume 5A/4A/3A is going to be six districts of six (so five district games, four non-district) and 2A/1A will likely be eight districts of six (they could go six districts of eight, which leaves them only one non-district game, but I’d lean the other way). As for playoffs, would they go top two in each district and then RPI for the other four qualifiers (5A/4A/3A), or use RPI for all ten other playoff teams besides the district champs? I’d almost figure they go district champs/RPI for the rest, but who knows. In 2A/1A they could just go top 4 in each district (with eight districts) which would make it simple ... only the bottom two in each district would be eliminated. Eight districts, 48 teams, and 32 qualifiers makes RPI pretty useless.
 
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Football Coaches Assocation wanted 5A and 4A to be 24 teams each. Didn't get it.

Winners: Ottumwa, Davenport North, Fort Dodge, Indianola, IC Liberty, Mason City, Waterloo East, Hoover (Playing 4A football).

Losers: Des Moines East, Roosevelt, Lincoln, North (no socio-economic component - need to be in 4A football or combine for one Des Moines city team); Mount Pleasant, Webster City, Fort Madison, ADM, Carroll (Likely moving up to 4A).

It's time for SC West, East, and North to combine for one Sioux City team. It is also time for Davenport West and Davenport Central to combine for one team.
 
Remember all the work the IHSAA did last year (pre-pandemic), setting up those tiers of performance levels in 4A as an attempt to address the gaps in program performance? Where the Tier 1 teams couldn’t play anyone from Tier 4 or below? With the promise that in 2021 they’d take a serious look at reorganizing the classes to address socioeconomic and historical performance factors and not just enrollment?

Well, it’s like none of that ever happened. Sure, they split the biggest schools out into a 5A, but it’s still strictly based on the BEDS. You’ve still got the Council Bluffs schools and the Sioux City schools and the Des Moines city schools thrown in with Dowling and Ankeny and Centennial and Valley. The 5A spread goes from a BEDS of over 2000 (Valley) to less than 1000 (CB Thomas Jefferson).

So why did they do all that work last year, telling us they’d try even harder this year, only to throw it all out?

I believe one of the reasons (at least from what I've read) is that it breaks discrimination laws to consider someone of low-socioeconomic status as less than someone else, therefore making free and reduced lunch numbers discriminatory. They also questioned whether you count the number of students that are eligible or the number that actually apply for free and reduced lunch. It was a lot of legal mumbo-jumbo that I read through quickly, but my impression was that the state might be setting themselves up for some kind of lawsuit if they use low socio-economics as a factor in determining classification.

**I could very well be wrong, just my interpretation....
 
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If I figured correct off of the new BEDS numbers (some of these can be a little different in the bigger districts) these would be the classifications in the biggest 3 classes, I don't have the parochial school enrollments, but they should be close to what they had last year I would think.

5A
Valley
DSM Lincoln
Johnston
Linn Mar
Southeast Polk
DSM East
DSM Roosevelt
Centennial
Waterloo West
Ankeny
Cedar Falls
Prairie
CR Kennedy
Davenport Central
SC North
Hempstead
Waukee
Waukee NW
Pleasant Valley
City High
Marshalltown
Bettendorf
SC East
IC West
CR Jefferson
Muscatine
Davenport West
DSM North
Senior
Dowling
Ames
CB Lincoln
Davenport North
Ottumwa
SC West
Urbandale

4A
CB Jefferson
Liberty
CR Washington
Fort Dodge
Indianola
Waterloo East
Mason City
Norwalk
DSM Hoover
North Scott
Clinton
Burlington
Lewis Central
Western Dubuque
DCG
Newton
Storm Lake
Dension
Spencer
Pella
WSR
CCA
Marion
Boundurant Farrar
Carlisle
Boone
LeMars
Oskaloosa
Xavier
Webster City
Glenwood
Winterset
Decorah
Fort Madison
Mount Pleasant
Carroll

3A
Keokuk
Perry
ADM
North Polk
Glibert
Creston
Charles City
Fairfield
Central DeWitt
Solon
Knoxville
BH RV
Wahlert
Benton
Humboldt
Grinnell
Maquoketa
SBL
Heelan
Assumption
West Delaware
Washington
CPU
Harlan
Independence
MOC
South Tama
Ballard
Vinton
Nevada
Algona
Sioux Center
Saydel
Hampton Dumont
Atlantic
Mount Vernon

Carroll and Keokuk actually have the same enrollment, I don't know who would be 4A based upon the states alphabet rule this year.
 
If I figured correct off of the new BEDS numbers (some of these can be a little different in the bigger districts) these would be the classifications in the biggest 3 classes, I don't have the parochial school enrollments, but they should be close to what they had last year I would think.

5A
Valley
DSM Lincoln
Johnston
Linn Mar
Southeast Polk
DSM East
DSM Roosevelt
Centennial
Waterloo West
Ankeny
Cedar Falls
Prairie
CR Kennedy
Davenport Central
SC North
Hempstead
Waukee
Waukee NW
Pleasant Valley
City High
Marshalltown
Bettendorf
SC East
IC West
CR Jefferson
Muscatine
Davenport West
DSM North
Senior
Dowling
Ames
CB Lincoln
Davenport North
Ottumwa
SC West
Urbandale

4A
CB Jefferson
Liberty
CR Washington
Fort Dodge
Indianola
Waterloo East
Mason City
Norwalk
DSM Hoover
North Scott
Clinton
Burlington
Lewis Central
Western Dubuque
DCG
Newton
Storm Lake
Dension
Spencer
Pella
WSR
CCA
Marion
Boundurant Farrar
Carlisle
Boone
LeMars
Oskaloosa
Xavier
Webster City
Glenwood
Winterset
Decorah
Fort Madison
Mount Pleasant
Carroll

3A
Keokuk
Perry
ADM
North Polk
Glibert
Creston
Charles City
Fairfield
Central DeWitt
Solon
Knoxville
BH RV
Wahlert
Benton
Humboldt
Grinnell
Maquoketa
SBL
Heelan
Assumption
West Delaware
Washington
CPU
Harlan
Independence
MOC
South Tama
Ballard
Vinton
Nevada
Algona
Sioux Center
Saydel
Hampton Dumont
Atlantic
Mount Vernon

Carroll and Keokuk actually have the same enrollment, I don't know who would be 4A based upon the states alphabet rule this year.
Where do you go to find the beds numbers for schools that use for this list?
 
The department of Ed has them out, they just aren't in the neat package that the IAHSAA puts out, also West Burlington ND may actually be up in 3A, which would bump down Atlantic or Mount Vernon which would again would be broken by the alphabet rule.

I will say that these numbers can vary a tiny bit but for most schools they don't change at all.

If you google Iowa School Enrollment by grade you can find them.
 
I will also say that there are some coops that I am sure that I am forgetting about that could bump a school up or down, like I believe Central DeWitt in the past has been with Calmus Wheatland which could bump them up to the 4A class.
 
I'm working on them, I am finding a few more changes than I thought. Plus with 2A, 1A and A I don't know the enrollment figures for parochial schools, for 5A, 4A, and 3A I am pretty confident putting the schools where they are at, I am not for the smaller ones.
 
Football Coaches Assocation wanted 5A and 4A to be 24 teams each. Didn't get it.

Winners: Ottumwa, Davenport North, Fort Dodge, Indianola, IC Liberty, Mason City, Waterloo East, Hoover (Playing 4A football).

Losers: Des Moines East, Roosevelt, Lincoln, North (no socio-economic component - need to be in 4A football or combine for one Des Moines city team); Mount Pleasant, Webster City, Fort Madison, ADM, Carroll (Likely moving up to 4A).

It's time for SC West, East, and North to combine for one Sioux City team. It is also time for Davenport West and Davenport Central to combine for one team.

Hoover, Mason City, and Waterloo East were 3A last year.
 
Creston also co-ops with Orient-Macksburg and it would put them in 4A dropping Carroll to 3A along with (potentially) Mt Pleasant.
 
At first blush, classifications seem fine but the real issue is the scheduling.
 
can/will schools opt up? and will they do things like split up the CB schools? lot of questions
 
I believe one of the reasons (at least from what I've read) is that it breaks discrimination laws to consider someone of low-socioeconomic status as less than someone else, therefore making free and reduced lunch numbers discriminatory. They also questioned whether you count the number of students that are eligible or the number that actually apply for free and reduced lunch. It was a lot of legal mumbo-jumbo that I read through quickly, but my impression was that the state might be setting themselves up for some kind of lawsuit if they use low socio-economics as a factor in determining classification.

**I could very well be wrong, just my interpretation....
Minnesota uses free and reduced as criteria.
 
I believe one of the reasons (at least from what I've read) is that it breaks discrimination laws to consider someone of low-socioeconomic status as less than someone else, therefore making free and reduced lunch numbers discriminatory. They also questioned whether you count the number of students that are eligible or the number that actually apply for free and reduced lunch. It was a lot of legal mumbo-jumbo that I read through quickly, but my impression was that the state might be setting themselves up for some kind of lawsuit if they use low socio-economics as a factor in determining classification.

**I could very well be wrong, just my interpretation....

I had heard that the socioeconomic idea is still on table they just ran out of time before this cycle needed to be done. The socioeconomics will effect more than the metro Des Moines. There are other rural schools that cannot compete with the likes of a Van Meter or a Solon because they are bedroom communities for larger metropolitan cities.
 
I had heard that the socioeconomic idea is still on table they just ran out of time before this cycle needed to be done. The socioeconomics will effect more than the metro Des Moines. There are other rural schools that cannot compete with the likes of a Van Meter or a Solon because they are bedroom communities for larger metropolitan cities.

Ran out of time? When they were supposedly working on them a year ago? :confused:
 
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can/will schools opt up? and will they do things like split up the CB schools? lot of questions
Schools can always volunteer to play up a class. All they have to do is inform the IHSAA, I think by sometime in January. I don't know if any school has ever done that, though (when Xavier and Wahlert were 4A schools back in the MVC days, that's because the MVC required members to play as 4A in football - so maybe you could count that as 'playing up,' I don't know - likewise Assumption in the MAC).
 
Hey, PNation, I've been cheating by just looking at last year's BEDS, but how are you calculating your enrollment numbers from the DoE website? I haven't found a BEDS equivalent myself, other than looking at each and every district's by-grade enrollment and adding up grades 9-11 (and I don't know about you, but I don't have the time and energy for that right now, especially when the official BEDS will be out in a few weeks).

I mean, just from what I know I wouldn't expect Cedar Rapids Washington's BEDS to fall enough to put them below Ottumwa or Davenport North, but who knows.
 
Ran out of time? When they were supposedly working on them a year ago? :confused:
You know the boys in boone. Got to have the January of because of new years. July off for the 4th. December off because of Christmas. A week off after each state tournament. But dont forget all the time they spent this year ruling "almost" all transfers ineligible.

You are correct they should have had it done. Much larger states such as Texas have it done almost as the state championships are finalized.
 
Again, just using last year's BEDS, so this isn't going to be anything exact, but I threw together some potential districts for 4A this fall. I can't say they're perfect, because they're not, but assuming these are the 36 4A schools these are possible:

D-1: LeMars, Spencer, Storm Lake, Webster City, Fort Dodge, Denison-Schleswig
D-2: Mason City, Decorah, Waverly-Shell Rock, Waterloo East, Western Dubuque, CR Xavier
D-3: Marion, Clinton, Davenport North, North Scott, Iowa City Liberty, Clear Creek-Amana
D-4: Pella, Oskaloosa, Ottumwa, Mount Pleasant, Burlington, Fort Madison
D-5: Boone, Bondurant-Farrar, Newton, DM Hoover, Carlisle, Indianola
D-6: Lewis Central, Glenwood, Creston-OM, Dallas Center-Grimes, ADM, Norwalk
 
PNation, great work! What numbers did you have for Urbandale and TJ? I had them switched. Also, had Keokuk and Carroll deadlocked.
 
If I figured correct off of the new BEDS numbers (some of these can be a little different in the bigger districts) these would be the classifications in the biggest 3 classes, I don't have the parochial school enrollments, but they should be close to what they had last year I would think.

5A
Valley
DSM Lincoln
Johnston
Linn Mar
Southeast Polk
DSM East
DSM Roosevelt
Centennial
Waterloo West
Ankeny
Cedar Falls
Prairie
CR Kennedy
Davenport Central
SC North
Hempstead
Waukee
Waukee NW
Pleasant Valley
City High
Marshalltown
Bettendorf
SC East
IC West
CR Jefferson
Muscatine
Davenport West
DSM North
Senior
Dowling
Ames
CB Lincoln
Davenport North
Ottumwa
SC West
Urbandale

4A
CB Jefferson
Liberty
CR Washington
Fort Dodge
Indianola
Waterloo East
Mason City
Norwalk
DSM Hoover
North Scott
Clinton
Burlington
Lewis Central
Western Dubuque
DCG
Newton
Storm Lake
Dension
Spencer
Pella
WSR
CCA
Marion
Boundurant Farrar
Carlisle
Boone
LeMars
Oskaloosa
Xavier
Webster City
Glenwood
Winterset
Decorah
Fort Madison
Mount Pleasant
Carroll

3A
Keokuk
Perry
ADM
North Polk
Glibert
Creston
Charles City
Fairfield
Central DeWitt
Solon
Knoxville
BH RV
Wahlert
Benton
Humboldt
Grinnell
Maquoketa
SBL
Heelan
Assumption
West Delaware
Washington
CPU
Harlan
Independence
MOC
South Tama
Ballard
Vinton
Nevada
Algona
Sioux Center
Saydel
Hampton Dumont
Atlantic
Mount Vernon

Carroll and Keokuk actually have the same enrollment, I don't know who would be 4A based upon the states alphabet rule this year.
Where are you getting the “new” BEDS numbers? All I have seen is the numbers that were used for last year.
 
In 5A, 7 of top 10 are in DSM area and only 3 of top 20 (including 19 & 20) East of Iowa City. Bigs get bigger and the rest fodder.
 
Remember all the work the IHSAA did last year (pre-pandemic), setting up those tiers of performance levels in 4A as an attempt to address the gaps in program performance? Where the Tier 1 teams couldn’t play anyone from Tier 4 or below? With the promise that in 2021 they’d take a serious look at reorganizing the classes to address socioeconomic and historical performance factors and not just enrollment?

Well, it’s like none of that ever happened. Sure, they split the biggest schools out into a 5A, but it’s still strictly based on the BEDS. You’ve still got the Council Bluffs schools and the Sioux City schools and the Des Moines city schools thrown in with Dowling and Ankeny and Centennial and Valley. The 5A spread goes from a BEDS of over 2000 (Valley) to less than 1000 (CB Thomas Jefferson).

So why did they do all that work last year, telling us they’d try even harder this year, only to throw it all out?
Becasue all of us 3A schools don't want to compete with you. Leave us alone. Its your fault you stink at Football.
 
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