"Size" of football in your state?

I don't have the actual figures in front of me, but in Nebraska it is like this

Class A (28 largest schools- 16 qualify for playoffs)
Class B (32 next largest- 16 qualify)
Class C (remaining 11 man- divided in to two classes- C1 and C2. Each class has about 64 schools- 32 qualify)
Class D- (8 man schools- under 110 enrollment- divided in to 2 classes, D1 and D2- about 68 per class, 32 qualify).
There is also a renegade 6 man (not sanctioned currently) with 10 schools. If the number of schools reaches 18, 6 man will again be sanctioned.

In Class B-D, Playoffs start on the last Thurs. in Oct. (for ex., say it is Oct 29). They would then play following rounds on Wed. Nov 3, Mon Nov. 8, Sat Nov 13. Thurs Nov. 18- Sat. Nov. 20 are the championship games (that schedule may change next year). Class B would play their last reg season game on the last Thurs. in Oct., and starts playoffs on Wed., since they have a 16 team bracket rather than a 32 team.

Class A plays every week on Fri (or Sat.), but everyone else plays 5 games in 4 weeks (or 4 in 3).

District Champions (districts of 6-7 teams in lower classes) qualify (10 districts), followed by the top 22 teams in wildcard power points (excluding district champs).

The playoff system gets tweaked here a lot. Someone is always unhappy.

We were #16 in points, but because of geographic divisions (east-west) we were the #11 seed in the east... #6 seed was the #1 team in state (rankings, not power points), so we got to open the playoffs with them... so we got a raw deal this year. 5 years ago, we were 6-1 going in to our last game against another 6-1 team... we lost by 1 to go 6-2, they were 7-1... their reward for beating us was to play AT out place for the first round playoff game (which we won by 19).

That's our system... not saying it is good. Kind of like Pete Carroll's comment on the BCS... "It is what it is".

I am not positive but here in NC there are over 350 football playing schools. They are divided in 4 classifications 1a-4a, with about equal numbers in each class (about 90 schools per class). The for the playoffs all 4 classes are subdivided. (1a is for smallest schools, 1aa for next smallest schools and so on). We end up with 8 state champions (1a, 1aa, 2a, 2aa, 3a, 3aa, 4a, 4aa) and 64 teams in each classification make the playoffs and are seeded 1-16 based on conference finish and overall record.

That being said there are parts of NC which are crazy about high school football, and parts that are very luke warm.

Regarding school size - We have the largest school in the NorCal section in our league, James Logan in Union City. According to CIF while they have 4.068 students, they are only the 17th largest football-playing school in the state. Our school is 2,001, the 2nd smallest in our 7-team league, and 446th in the state.

Casey
IHS Vikings

Colorado has five 11 man classes, one 8 man class and one 6 man class.

5A-enrollment of 1641 and up will have 44 schools with 32 teams making
the playoffs

4A-enrollment 1201-1640, 49 schools, 32 teams making
the playoffs

3A-enrollment 601-1200, 39 schools, 16 teams in the playoff

2A-enrollment 276-600, 50 schools, 16 teams in the playoffs

1A-enrollment 126-275, 38 schools, 16 teams in the playoffs

They make changes to this system every 2 years, moving teams up and down. Both public and private play under this system. Most conferences get to 2 teams into the playoffs, the rest is determined via wild card points (strength of schedule, etc).

Small correction, it's actually grades 9-11, but the numbers are basically the same thing.

Also, in PA you can choose to play up. Meaning, a Class A team can decide to play in Class AA...

I forgot to mention that classification in Rhode Island is bases on number of boys and how successful the program is. Rhode Island re-aligns every 3 years or so. A Good example is Barrington HS. Just 8 years ago they were in Division III, now they are all the way up in Division 1. With a Div. 1 State Championship a couple years ago.

In TN its broken down like so (I could have parts of this wrong.):
5 Div 1 Classes:
A smallest AAAAA Largest
In 4 of the 5 the top 4 from each region makes the playoffs
In AA the top 3 from each region make the playoffs with 8? wildcards making the playoffs, based on strength of schedule and some other things.

So thats 32 teams making the playoffs from each classification.
Teams are allowed to play up in a division as well.
There is the multiplier rule as well for schools that offer tuiton assistance to all students in the private schools, they don't offer athletic scholarships. It is I think 1.75 x enrollment and cannot force a team above 1 classification.

Alcoa (AA) and Maryville (AAAA) are going for their 4 consecutive state championships this weekend, both are about 10 minutes from each other, they are rivals and play each other in the regular season as well.

2 Div 2 Classes:
16 teams ? -These are the complete private schools.
I really don't know all the Div 2 details as I have never had to deal with that.

You can probably find more information at: www.tssaa.org or known to a lot of people as T$$AA.

South Dakota
11AA - 16 largest schools, 4 regions, seed based on power rating #1-16 (all qualify)
11A - Next 20 schools, 16 qualify in 4 regions, #s1-3 in region based on power rating, next 4 qualify as wild cards (IE Top three per region + four next best power ratings)
11B - Next 29 teams, same playoff qualification as for 11A.
9AA - Next 27 teams, same.
9A - Next 27 teams, same.
9B - Next 27 teams, same.

School numbers are taken from ADM of student in grades 9-11 (boys & girls).

Power rating is based on following:

Class 11-A, 11-B, 9-AA, 9-A, & 9-B
a. Each team will receive:
50 points win over upper division team
45 points win over same or lower division team
30 points loss to upper division team
25 points loss to same or lower division team
b. Each team will receive 3 bonus points for each of their opponents wins during the season.
1) Opponents wins are tabulated each week even though your school has not yet played that
opponent.
2) Schools do not receive bonus points for opponent s win over their school.
3) Teams who have an opponent whose 8th game is after the regular season has ended, will
receive 1.5 bonus points per team played.
c. A team s point rating will be determined by dividing the total number of points earned by the number of games played.
d. One additional Point will be added to the final point average for an undefeated season.
e. If a team plays the same opponent twice during the regular season then that opponent s wins will be x 6 points.
f. For those schools (teams) having an out-of-state opponent on their schedule of games and the opponent plays a nine-week schedule, the first eight games listed on the schedule will be used in the tabulating of bonus points.
**Computing Point Average. Point average for the season is computed to the nearest .000.

For Class 11AA
a. Each team will receive: 45 points for a win over a same division team (Class 11AA) 40 points for a win over a lower division team (Class 11A or 11B)
25 points for a loss to a same division team (Class 11AA) 20 points for a loss to a lower division team (Class 11A or 11B)
b. Each team will receive 3 bonus points for each of their opponents' wins

www.sdhsaa.com/athletics/football/Regular%20Season/Power%20Point%20Explanation.pdf

IN 317 footbal playing schools. Count 9-12 boys and girls.

5A- 4495-1511 Kids
4a- 1502-913
3a- 912-609
2a- 608-444
1a- 443-97

Everyone makes a 6 round playoff with finals played thanksgiving weekend.

Our issue is the disparity between in class 5a 4500 vs 1500. Do we need another class with 317 schools? Of like the 25 class 5a champions, only 2 have been out of the top 10 in enrollment.

Largest is 1246 went 0-10 this year...The number is number of boys grades 10-12

3rd and 4th largest played for the state title this year

So let me ask this....... Do you think your state has too many or too few classes? Here in PA they have thrown around the idea of a 5A class for the biggest schools but I think there would be like 40 or so schools in it. I really like our 4 class system, just seems to me when you win a state title it means more when there are less classes and more schools going for the same goal. Whats everyone else think of their state?