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Iowa HS football teams have to potentially play 4 games in only two weeks.
(last reg. season game is on Friday. "substate" game is on Wednesday, "first round" is on Monday, "second round" is on Friday.

(the actual first round of playoffs is technically called "substate", with the next round being called the "first round" of the state playoffs. hence the quotes)

Do other states condense things into that short a timeframe too?

Seems incredibly dangerous.

Huntley Project, school outside of Billings, won last weekend 71-0 over Whitehall. 51-0 at the end of the 1st quarter. Now THAT's an ass whoopin'.

JayJ79 wrote:Do other states condense things into that short a timeframe too?

Not aware of that in DE, PA, NJ or MD.

I'll second AZGriz's sentiment. That seems not only dangerous, but a hinderance to classwork. Weeknight games in HS? That's ridiculous. Sounds like Iowa needs to split into more classifications.

93henfan wrote:I'll second AZGriz's sentiment. That seems not only dangerous, but a hinderance to classwork. Weeknight games in HS? That's ridiculous. Sounds like Iowa needs to split into more classifications.

They have 6 classifications (8-player, and 5 classes of regular football).
They added another round of playoffs (the "substate") a year or two ago, doubling the amount of teams in (which leads to some not-very-good teams making the playoffs. Heck, I think there was a 2-7 team in this year). But I'm pretty sure they had some weeknight games even before that.

PA schools (at least the ones in my area) schedule 12 games, but the playoffs start after week 10.

If you make the playoffs, you don't play the 11th team on your schedule (teams know this when they schedule, and it's usually not a conference opponent). The 12th game is often the Thanksgiving day game. I've seen teams play this game and also play a playoff game 2 days later, I've also seen them not play it. It's only an issue if you win 2 playoff games.

Our local H.S. won 1 playoff game last year, and by coinicidence, was eliminated a week later by the team they scheduled for week 11. They are even better this year and will likely be favored to win 2 games this year, so it will be interesting to see if they play their Thanksgiving rival.

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grizzaholic wrote:

BlueHen86 wrote:PA schools (at least the ones in my area) schedule 12 games, but the playoffs start after week 10.

If you make the playoffs, you don't play the 11th team on your schedule (teams know this when they schedule, and it's usually not a conference opponent). The 12th game is often the Thanksgiving day game. I've seen teams play this game and also play a playoff game 2 days later, I've also seen them not play it. It's only an issue if you win 2 playoff games.

Our local H.S. won 1 playoff game last year, and by coinicidence, was eliminated a week later by the team they scheduled for week 11. They are even better this year and will likely be favored to win 2 games this year, so it will be interesting to see if they play their Thanksgiving rival.

Delaware State?

I live in Pennsylvania, which is why I started my post with "PA schools..."

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grizzaholic wrote:

BlueHen86 wrote:
I live in Pennsylvania, which is why I started my post with "PA schools..."

My bad. I just skimmed it.

I wasn't sure, I thought you may have been taking a shot at Delaware St being a high school team.

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My alma mater (Capital High) is in the midst of a 30-something game win streak, and going for its fourth state title in a row.

TX playoffs are weekly, no midweek games...but some on Thursdays until the latter rounds. They go pretty far into Dec.

Iowa added the "substate non-playoff game" last year so that more kids could get the opportunity to get in to the playoffs. They did this because there were 7-2 or 8-1 teams that didn't get in because their only loss was to teams that finished 1st or 2nd in the district so they lost the tiebreak. That happened like 4 times in 8 years so they state said, instead of top 2 from each district we will go 4 from each district. Of course, there was big outrage about dumbing down the playoffs with that set up, because there are now MANY sub .500 even 3-6 and this year 2-7 teams in the field. The state then said, "Well these aren't playoff games, they will be the substate games, and the winner gets into the playoffs." However, the state mandates charging playoff prices for tickets and not allowing students or anyone with the sports pass to use them, making them buy the tickets for the game.


In essence it is a playoff game, and now half the state of Iowa gets into the playoffs, even though the state won't call it that. That, like Jay pointed means 4 games in two weeks. That wouldn't be so bad, but the way the state sets it up there are schools that drive 4 hours one way to get to that substate game. The school I coach baseball for traveled to Emmetsburg for their substate game. Gladbrook to Emmetsburg is about 3.5 hours one way. I know a school about 10 miles from where I grew up traveled 4.5 one way to their game.


Weeknight games in Iowa aren't that odd though. Many 4A (the largest class in Iowa) games are played on Thursday nights

In Illinois we have 8 classes, 1A thru 8A, divided by size. They take 256 schools for the playoffs based on a point system, you get 1 point for a win, and 1 point for each game each of your oponets wins, so you get credit for playing a tougher schedule. At the end of the regular season they take the top 256 based on points, the 32 largest are 8A, the next 32 are 7A, and so forth.

All playoff games are Friday or Saturday. Each of the classes is split into 2 16 team regions, pretty much North and South to limit travel. Each of the 2 divisions are seeded 1-16, so in the end if it all goes as planned the 2 #1's meet for the title.

First round games are the week after the regular season ends, and each weekend thereafter with the championships held the weekend after Thanksgiving.

The only thing I don't like about it is that some 5-4 teams get in over 6-3 teams because of the points system.

OSBF wrote: The only thing I don't like about it is that some 5-4 teams get in over 6-3 teams because of the points system.

No, at 6 wins you automatically qualify for the playoffs, all 6-3 teams make it unless they are on double secret probation or something that drastic

isumatt wrote:

OSBF wrote: The only thing I don't like about it is that some 5-4 teams get in over 6-3 teams because of the points system.

No, at 6 wins you automatically qualify for the playoffs, all 6-3 teams make it unless they are on double secret probation or something that drastic

I thought they changed it to a straight point system? Because of the "smaller" Chicago area schools that played "up" all season long in conference and were complaining about not getting in.

Florida playoffs start toward the end of the month. most district races are being settled this week. In Florida there are 7 classifications (1A,1B,2A,2B,3A,4A,5A, and 6A) the brackets are divided into two regions (North and South) the winner and the runner up from each district makes the playoffs. I've seen a couple of 3-7 teams from Tampa make the playoffs and get throttled by an undefeated Lakeland team.

In NY it depends on the Section and how many teams in each class are in the Section.

My brother's team is a Class AA team in Section IX. Class AA is the biggest Class in NYS.

He plays a 8-game regular season and then has a two game Section Playoff.
The top 2 teams from each division (AA-1 and AA-2) make the section playoffs. AA-1 and AA-2 are broken down by school size. My brother is the smallest AA team.

His team won the AA-2 and then won the first playoff game against the 2nd seed from the AA-1. He now has the Section championship Saturday against the winner of AA-1, which beat the 2nd seed from AA-2 last weekend.

Unfortunately for him, the team he has to play is the #1 team in the state and the #5 team in the Tri-State (NY/NJ/CT) area.

Once you win the Section you have to win 2 more games to get into the State championship.

NY is easier because the NYC and Long Island teams do not participate in the playoffs. Long Island has its own championship and NYC has its own as well which puts the winner of the public high school league against the winner of the catholic high school league.

Since there are four teams in class 2A District 3 then everyone regardless of record goes to the playoffs. It isn't right, but things like this happens.

where are the state title games held in your state? In Florida they play at the Citrus Bowl and in Louisiana they play at the Superdome.

tampajag wrote:where are the state title games held in your state? In Florida they play at the Citrus Bowl and in Louisiana they play at the Superdome.

Semi-finals and finals are in the UNIdome

The NY championship is played at the Carrier Dome in Syracuse.

In NJ, they play them at Giants Stadium.

The two state championship games in DE are played at Delaware State.

93henfan wrote:The two state championship games in DE are played at Delaware State.

do those games draw more than delaware state?

on the subject of weekday games, they only play games on Thursday in Tampa when school's out on Friday. In Baton Rouge Thursday games are a regular because some teams share two city owned fields.