IHSAA considers expanding football playoffs

Lang
12/21/19

The Iowa High School Athletic Association is considering expanding the football playoffs to 32 teams per class.

Two recommendations for 32 qualifiers per classification were made at the football advisory committee meeting on December 11. Both were proposed by the Iowa Football Coaches Association and approved by the advisory committee, and both would affect the postseasons for classes 3A, 2A, 1A, A, and Eight-Player.

The first recommendation for fall 2020 involved a nine-game regular season and five rounds of playoffs with six days between rounds. The Board of Control denied that proposal on Thursday, prompting the committee’s second recommendation which offered an eight-game regular season and five rounds of playoffs with postseason games remaining on Fridays until reaching the semifinals.

No recommendations were made for Class 4A, currently the 42 largest high schools in the state by enrollment. Both recommendations had the regular season starting with Week 1 on August 28. All classes currently have a nine-game regular season schedule with 16 playoff qualifying spots.

The Board of Control will wait until January’s meeting to take action on the recommendation with eight regular season games and 32 playoff spots per class, to allow the IHSAA to meet with Class 4A schools and further discuss football’s playoff qualifying issue.

The advisory committee also recommended allowing the game clock to continuously run any time the scoring margin reaches 35 points or more, unless previously implemented exceptions such as injury, score, timeout, or the score falls back under 35-point margin, occur. Previously, the continuous clock only began running during a margin of 35 points or more in the second half.