The pairings for the upcoming high school football playoffs will have a much different look this season. Gone is the format from the past few years where the entire bracket is released for all six classes and instead the pairings will be put together after each round. Todd Tharp of the Iowa High School Athletic Association says the new format is designed to limit travel.

He says school administrators have shared their concerns with schools traveling over three-hours to a ball game that their patrons have a hard time traveling to. The IHSAA visited with its Football Advisory Committee and Board and discussed putting in place the 125-mile travel limitation for the 8-Player through 3-A games.

Tharp says the new system won’t change the pairings when it comes to seeding but there could be district rematches in the first two rounds. He says “There’ll still be the District Champion. We’ll still play the 4th place team. The district runner-up will still play the 3rd place team. Unfortunately in some areas of the State, there might be some district rematches that will take place where the District 1 champion will still have to play the District 1st 4th place team on that first Wednesday night.”

Tharp says they will no longer be automatically matching teams from neighboring districts. “The number one team might be in the southern part of one district, and the number four is in the northern parts of another district. They might get matched-up, and maybe the number two is one the east side and the number three is one the west side from another district. You could combine maybe three different districts together to get those games in the first round,” according to Tharp.

He says they should have all 192 qualifiers and their seeding on the association website before midnight. It will then take a couple of hours to complete the pairings. Tharp says he’s “Hoping between two and two-thirty on Saturday morning, that we will have all 96 games on the website (at http://www.iahsaa.org/). The home team, visiting team, and their seed [will be there] for fans to see, at that particular time.”

The first round for all six classes is Wednesday night.

(Radio Iowa)

(3-1) Carroll 25-25-17-25, ADM 20-21-25-20
(2-0) CB Abraham Lincoln 24-21, Sioux City East 22-8
(3-1) CB Abraham Lincoln 25-25-13-25, Sergeant Bluff-Luton 15-15-25-20
(3-0) Harlan 25-25-25, Clarinda 8-12-10

Class 3-A District 8
Harlan @ ADM
Creston @ Atlantic
Glenwood @ Dallas Center Grimes
Winterset @ Bondurant-Farrar

Class 2-A District 8
Clarinda @ Prairie Valley
East Sac County @ Red Oak
Shenandoah @ Kuemper Catholic
Missouri Valley @ West Central Valley

Class 1-A District 1
A-H-S-T-W @ West Monona
IKM-Manning @ Underwood
Missouri Valley @ West Central Valley
Treynor @ OA-BCIG

Class 1-A District 8
Central Decatur @ Van Meter
Des Moines Christian @ Woodward-Granger
Interstate 35 @ Southwest Valley
Woodward Academy @ Panorama

Class A District 1
St. Albert @ Audubon
Tri-Center @ Griswold
Logan-Magnolia @ Westwood
Riverside @ Maple Valley

Class A District 8
Nodaway Valley @ Bedford
Clarinda Academy @ Pleasantville
Martensdale-St. Marys @ Earlham
SE Warren @ Mount Ayr

8-Man District 1
River Valley @ Ar-We-Va
Boyer Valley @ Woodbine
Kingsley-Pierson @ Exira/EHK
West Harrison @ Newell-Fonda

8-Man District 7
Guthrie Center @ Adair-Casey
Ankeny Christian Academy @ Murray
East Union @ Coon Rapids-Bayard
Glidden-Ralston @ NE Hamilton

8-Man District 8
Lenox @ CAM
East Mills @ Sidney
Fremont-Mills @ Essex
Stanton @ Nishnabotna