Football playoff qualifiers will shrink to 16 in 2016 season

Making the state football playoffs just got a little harder.

Beginning with the 2016 season, each of Iowa’s six football classes will advance 16 teams to the state football playoffs, according to a change announced last week by the Iowa High School Athletic Association Board of Control. The change means a reduction from 32 teams who currently qualify for the postseason in each class.

The schedules for this fall and the 2015 regular season and playoffs remain unchanged.

The move comes after review of the current playoff system, which allows fewer days of rest and recovery between each game in the postseason. In a nod toward player safety and risk-minimization, the IHSAA has been looking at several options.

“Today’s actions put in place a scenario for the football postseason which allows for one week between games,” said Alan Beste, IHSAA Executive Director. “The driving force behind this decision is player safety and keeping the best interest of our students at the forefront.”

At their meeting on April 29, the IHSAA Board of Control had a discussion regarding the football start date and schedule beginning with the 2016 season.  The Board considered many options at that meeting, but decided to gather further input from the IHSAA membership through the IHSAA Representative Council, Iowa High School Athletic Directors Association (IHSADA), and Iowa Football Coaches Association (IFCA).  

At a June 15 IHSAA Representative Council meeting, representatives from the IHSADA and IFCA discussed the issue amongst the IHSAA Representative Council. Also present for the discussion were members of the IHSAA administrative team as well as the IHSAA Board of Control.  Following the Representative Council meeting, the IHSAA Board of Control convened and in a unanimous vote decided to retain a nine regular season game schedule and move toward a 16-team playoff qualifier structure.

Glenwood football coach Cory Faust, who sits on the IFCA Board of Directors, supports the committee’s decision to spread the playoffs out to one game per week for teams in all classes.

“I think reformatting the playoff schedule to one game per week is best for student-athletes,” Faust said. “Playing four games in 15 days, which playoff teams currently do, is very tough on some of the athletes and is not in line with the current movement in football to make the game as safe as possible.”

However, Faust admits, he favored keeping 32 qualifiers and either adding a week to the season, either beginning a week earlier or running a week longer, to remedy tight playoff window issue.

Almost all the other high school sports allow all teams into the post season, Faust explained. To further trim the number of teams in football further denies student-athletes the playoff experience.

“I think players have a better experience when they get a chance to play playoff football,” he said. “There have been multiple occasions each year since the playoffs were expanded where teams who would not have qualified for the playoffs under the old format actually won playoff games.”

Faust points to 2009 when Pella made it all the way to the Class 3A State Championship Game as a No. 4 seed.  

“Letting more teams in the playoffs does not ‘soften kids’ as I’ve heard some say,” Faust said.  “Teams are eliminated in the playoffs and there is still only one champion per class.”

Going into last month’s board of control meeting, Faust said he felt the groups of people making the decisions on the playoff structure – administrators, coaches and the IAHSAA – were in favor of a nine game regular season, one week between games in the playoffs and keeping the number of qualifiers at 32 in each class.  The main question, Faust said, was whether to start the season a week earlier or let it run a week later.  He thought it very unlikely that the IAHSAA would part with the 32 qualifiers structure in each class for financial reasons making last week’s announced decision a bit of a surprise to the coach.  

Faust said there has been talk of adding a seventh football class but that is just speculation presently.

The changes will not effect this fall’s football season with the current 32-team playoff structure remaining in place. Faust said he and his team will focus on the things they can control heading into this season and the next.

“Our program vision of competing for a district championship on a yearly basis is still the same, and the process that it takes to achieve that vision is still the same,” he said. “If we follow the necessary process and have the right work habits and mind set, things will work out.  We are thankful for the opportunity to play and compete every chance we get, and we’re looking forward to the 2015 season.”

Football is the largest high school participation sport in Iowa among males with 20,630 participants, according to the 2013-2014 IHSAA annual participation survey.