PROPOSAL FOR CHANGE IN NSAA REGULATIONS Proposal Generated by Chuck Johnston, Papillion-La Vista, School Access Code, District 2 This proposal was submitted on: Oct 06, 2009 This proposal is submitted by: Name: Chuck Johnston School: Papillion-La Vista NSAA District: 2 The proposal deals with: Activities Manual: Football  Page: 16 The section/paragraph/sentence indicates what is to be added/deleted/changed to the current Bylaw/Approved Ruling: ADDITIONS are in all capital letters. (Changes/Deletions are in parentheses.) Class A football playoffs: The 28 schools in Class A are divided into five districts. The district assignments divided the Omaha Metropolitan area into three districts by enrollment going from left to right. The six Lincoln schools, Elkhorn, Fremont, Grand Island, Kearney, Norfolk and North Platte were placed in two districts by enrollment going left to right. The teams within the district will play a round-robin schedule with the (first second-and third-place teams in each district qualifying for the football playoffs. Using the point system and point system tiebreaker, the team with the highest regular season point average that did not finish as a 1st, 2nd or 3rd place team in their district, will qualify for the playoffs, making a total of sixteen teams.)FIRST AND SECOND PLACE TEAMS QUALIFYING FOR THE FOOTBALL PLAYOFFS. USING THE POINT SYSTEM TIEBREAKER, THE SIX TEAMS WITH THE HIGHEST REGULAR SEASON POINT AVERAGES THAT DID NOT FINISH AS A 1ST OR 2ND PLACE TEAM IN THEIR DISTRICT WILL QUALIFY FOR THE PLAYOFFS, MAKING A TOTAL OF SIXTEEN TEAMS. The section/paragraph/sentence that needs to be added/deleted/changed would read as follows: The teams within the district will play a round-robin schedule with the first and second place teams qualifying for the football playoffs. Using the point system tiebreaker, the SIX teams with the highest regular season point averages that did not finish as a 1st or 2nd place team in their district will qualify for the playoffs, making a total of sixteen teams. Cost Analysis of Proposal: none - cost will remain the same Rationale for the proposed change: The current Class A Football Playoff format in Nebraska allows for the top three teams in each district to advance to the post season, while allowing room for only one wildcard team. The idea of a playoff system is that the best sixteen teams in the state have a chance to compete for a championship. Under the current format the best sixteen teams are not guaranteed a spot in the playoffs each year. By allowing the top three teams in each district to make the playoffs means that a team must only rank in the top sixtieth percentile of their district. In reality, this is saying that in order for a team to make the playoffs they must only be better than two teams on their schedule. If a team is part of a weak district, they could easily take a spot in the playoffs while a team that is in a very competitive district would be left out of the playoffs. Under the current format, it is possible that a 2-7 team could make the playoffs, while a 6-3 team may not. Having only one wildcard spot allows very little room for the correction of differences in difficulty among the districts. This proposal is that Nebraska’s Class A football playoff system takes the top two teams from each district and allows six teams the chance for a wildcard spot. This will help guarantee that the top sixteen teams in the state will be the sixteen teams that are in the playoff brackets. Each district will send two teams while power points will determine the other six teams. This will help to ensure that every game that takes place in the playoffs is a game between two quality teams which will promote highly competitive playoff games. This would only benefit all of those who are involved with or are fans of high school football in Nebraska.