LEGISLATIVE PROPOSAL FOR CHANGE IN NSAA RULES AND REGULATIONS
Title:

8 Man Football Eligibility (55) and Creation of D1, D2, and D3 Classifications

Author:Scott Jorgensen
School:Paxton
NSAA District:4
 
Proposal for:Activities Manual
 
Classes Affected:Class D
Activities Affected:Football
This proposal:WILL NOT increase costs to the school
WILL increase costs to the NSAA
WILL NOT increase travel for participating schools
WILL NOT decrease a student's or coach's instruction time
Implementation date:2024-09-27
Sections affected in Activities Manual:Page
28
29
29-31
53-58
Article

Section
Classifications
Classifications
Boy Enrollment for FB
8 Man Playoffs
Summary:Please note that I am brining this proposal to District IV for consideration from a school in another District. This proposal has two major components that would affect the classification and playoff structure of 8- man football. First, this proposal would move the eligibility number for 8-man football to 55 boys in the three-grade count. Currently, that number sits at 47. Second, this proposal would change the 8-man classification structure from a two-class division to a three-class division. 8-man teams would be classified in one of three classes (D1, D2, or D3). *Would use the largest 32 schools for class D1 and separate the remaining schools equally between classes D2 and D3. Every attempt would be made to make sure a D3 school is not scheduled against a D1 school due to the overall school size, thus protecting D3 schools and not causing a group of ineligible schools to participate in D6.
Rationale:For years, we have dealt with the issue of having 8-man football teams ineligible due to their enrollment. Moving that number to 55 would help align us with what neighboring states with 8-man football use. Kansas allows schools with a combined three year enrollment of 99 (50 boys) to play 8-man football. Iowa allows for schools with 105 students (53 boys with a 50/50 split) to participate in 8- man football. Colorado allows schools to use a four year enrollment number of 158 (59 boys for a 3 year enrollment). Missouri allows schools with a combined 3 year enrollment of 150 (75 boys) to be eligible. By moving to 55, we would at least be closer to what our neighbors use for a number to determine who can play 8-man football. The move to the number 55 would be beneficial for a few reasons: 1. It would help those schools who have struggled through ineligibility because they were just over the 8-man number, but had 8-man participation rates. In most of these cases, these are schools who don't get a lot of kids out and who cannot play 11-man football on their own. 2. It would help those schools who want to co-op. I am aware of a couple of situations where struggling 8-man programs wanted to explore options with their 8-man neighbors, but immediately shut down talks when they realized that adding their enrollments together would put them into 11-man or as an 8-man ineligible team. The division of classes would be as follows: D1 - the largest eligible 32 schools D2 and D3 -remaining schools would be split evenly If the number does not divide out equally, the first extra team would go into D3. In terms of bonus points and playing across classes, teams would get 1 bonus point for playing up a division and 2 bonus points for playing up two divisions. Every effort should be made to schedule teams within classes against each other, but our geography may require that a D1 play a D2, or a D2 play a D3 because of a lack of available teams in an area. Every effort would be used to not schedule a D3 vs a D1 because of the overall differences in school size. D3 vs D1 would only be allowed if the D3 school agreed to playing the D1 school. In the new three-class 8-man system, all teams would play 9 regular season games, and the playoffs would move to 16 teams in each of the three classes. This would align with the current structure of both 11-man and 6-man football. All playoff games could be played on Friday nights.
Pros:*Aligns us with neighboring states' number for 8-man classification *Could create more co-op opportunities for small 8-man schools who need help *Should help reduce ineligible teams, while also allowing the smallest 8-man schools a division to compete against like-sized schools *Gives all 8-man teams a 9th regular season game *All playoff games would move to Friday nights *Creates equity in class sizes and playoff structures across all divisions of football (6-man, 8-man, 11-man)
Cons:*Could shrink the sizes of Classes C1/C2 if newly eligible teams decide to move down to 8-man *Would add a championship game to the current football finals schedule *Would require an additional set of medals and trophies