Class 2-1A Districts Undergo Changes
Article reprinted from the Salina Journal
It's going to be more difficult for Class 2-1A football teams to make the playoffs starting with the 2010 season. Significantly more difficult, in fact.
With the number of schools competing in 2-1A football falling at a fairly high rate in recent years, officials with the Kansas State High School Activities Association knew changes would have to be made to the district format currently used to determine playoff qualifiers.
That format change will cut the number of teams reaching the 2-1A playoffs in half -- from 32 in 2009 to 16 for the 2010 and 2011 seasons. No changes are planned for Class 6A through 3A district formats, or for eight-man teams.
A proposal by the Northwest Kansas League to modify the 2-1A district assignments was recently approved by the KSHSAA executive board. That proposal will decrease the number of districts in 2-1A from 16 to eight starting next year -- the same district format used by eight-man teams in Kansas.
"I think this was the pattern that people in this class of schools could see evolving over the last six or eight years," said Rick Bowden, assistant executive director of the KSHSAA. "There were going to be fewer schools that could field competitive 11-man teams and a lot more schools dropping to eight-man.
"Any time a new school opens, it is not going to be a 2A or 1A school. There was no way that group of schools could grow and they were always going to be faced with the possibility of dwindling numbers."
The shrinking number of teams in 2-1A football could be attributed to two factors, the first being school consolidations. A more prominent factor was schools with declining enrollments choosing to compete in eight-man football as opposed to 11-man.
Football district assignments are made every two years. The number of 2-1A teams dropped from 59 for the 2006-07 cycle, to 52 for the 2008-09 cycle. At the same time, schools competing in eight-man football increased from 91 in 2006-07 to 97 in 2008-09.
Bowden said it was too early to know how many schools might be competing at the 2-1A level when football classifications for the 2010 and 2011 seasons are announced in October, but he expects to see that number drop.
"We get calls from schools and obviously this is a lot of speculation right now," Bowden said, "but we'll probably see a decrease of two to three schools dropping to eight-man, with possibly as many as seven or eight."
If the 2-1A division dropped below 48 schools, it would have made for an unusual situation under the current district format. With 16 districts and less than 48 teams, it would have left some districts with only two teams and both would have automatically qualified for the playoffs.
Although the new system for 2-1A will be similar to that of the eight-man divisions, there will be one major difference. Eight-man teams currently start the playoffs on Tuesday following the completion of the regular season and play again the following Saturday. That allows eight-man teams to conduct their state championship games the Saturday before Thanksgiving.
Class 2-1A teams will no longer compete in Tuesday night playoff games. They will start their playoffs on Friday night, giving them a full week between the end of the regular season and their first postseason game. They also will continue to hold their state championship game on the Saturday after Thanksgiving, along with the rest of the 11-man classes in Kansas.
"They've asked to keep the 2-1A state championship the same weekend as the other 11-man championships," Bowden said. "They will follow the same cycle as 6A and 5A. They won't play that Tuesday-Saturday schedule the first week of the playoffs and they kind of like that.
"With a smaller number of kids on their squads and more kids playing both ways, playing three games in nine days can be a tough schedule for those kids."
Under the current format, district play for 2-1A teams started in week seven of the nine-week regular season. Under the new format, with six and possibly seven teams in each district, the 2-1A teams will start district play in week five and possibly as early as week four.
Competing in a three-team district, Sacred Heart needed to win only one game to reach the 2008 playoffs and will face a similar situation this fall. The Knights went 2-0 in district play and eventually reached the second round of the 2-1A playoffs.
Under the new format, coach Jim Wittman's team likely will have to win at least four of five district games to qualify, if the Knights remain at the 2-1A level in 2010. There is a possibility Sacred Heart could return to 3A for the next football cycle.
"With more teams in the districts, now some of those earlier games will be even more important," Wittman said. "If you lose one or two of those early district games, you might not make the playoffs.
"Right now, you hope to be playing your best ball by week six or seven. Now you may be playing district games before that. But everyone is in the same boat, where one bad game or two could really mess up your season."
