8 Man Football Debate

MelroseHawkins

Well-Known Member
Ok. Can someone provide some insight on how it works for a school to play 8 man? What criteria is to be met? Don Bosco for instance. I had a nephew who played on the championship team two years ago. When I look at their sidelines, it looks like they have plenty of players. Maybe they invite their JV to be on the sidelines, but it looked like the sidelines could field two teams itself. They crush teams every week. How come they aren't forced to play 11 man? Obviously, they like the 8 man because they can annihilate teams every week and play for a state championship.

How does it work? If a team plays 8 man, do they get evaluated on a yearly basis to see if they should be moved up to 11 man? What if a team has success so many more go out for football in subsequent years? Makes me wonder how many 8 man teams should really be playing 11 man, but just choose to play 8. Does the IHSAA evaluate the schools to make sure they meet certain criteria?

I guess I always had the impression that these schools had to scrounge just to get enough players including lowerclassmen. I also thought maybe they don't even have a JV but put all together, but guess I may be wrong there. I was just wondering how it works and if anybody else had a problem with some 8 man teams that should be playing up.
 


I think it has to do more with school enrollment than it does kids out for football. So if there is really low enrollment, but you get every kid out for football, maybe your sideline does look pretty full. I do believe it's evaluated at some point annually to see if a team should move up to the A level.
 


BEDs number has to be under 117. That's the number of students in your school 10-12. That's really the only requirement. Glidden-Ralston is the same way. Those schools have a good tradition, which gets every boy in the high school to go out for football. 60 boys on the sideline isn't a surprise when G-R is playing. I'm sure it's the same for Don Bosco.

At small schools, it's rare that you don't just bring everyone to the varsity games. My HS was 2A in football in the 90s and we suited everyone at home but only 40-50 on the road.
 


Also, this is evaluated every two years. The state will put out the schedule for 2 years and then look at numbers again.

Sometimes it gets messy between the two year period, if school consolidate or if a school can't field a varsity team. Otherwise, it's 2 years.
 


At small schools, it's rare that you don't just bring everyone to the varsity games. My HS was 2A in football in the 90s and we suited everyone at home but only 40-50 on the road.

Holy balls. You were 2A and 50 kids wasn't everyone? My school's been 2A for as long as I can remember and we never had more than 30-35 kids out total. How many buses did you guys travel with?
 




Top