Millard South Football

[Mavric]

Many Private schools win on participation vs enrollment. Also smaller towns on the outskirts of larger areas.

Yes. That is another argument that has raged for years that there is no easy solution to.

I haven't looked lately but a couple of weeks ago the Class C-2 football rankings had seven private schools in the top eight. The one public school had already lost to two of those private schools.

 

[Hilltop]

NSAA Football Classifications



Pointing to enrollment doesn't prove anything. As has been discussed, it's participation that's the problem. South Sioux City is in Class A. They played Class C2 Yutan this year, probably because that was someone who agreed to play them that they wouldn't get pummeled as badly. Yutan beat them 28-0.

Edit: South Sioux City has NINE TIMES the enrollment of Yutan.

Those teams opting down have also gotten beat badly. Johnson County Central got beat 54-8. Wakefield is winless and only one of their games has been within three touchdowns. Tri County has beaten two team fairly badly but those two teams have combined to win one game - those teams are getting pummeled by everyone. Tri County has gotten blown out three times. Same with West Holt. It's not right for those schools to have to play 11-man where they would be getting beaten even worse just because they don't have boys out for football.

Appreciate the info. This has helped expand my perspective. Our local school isn't great and is starting my sophomore Nephew at QB. They played against David City one of the games and it just seemed odd for them to have over 40 kids on the sideline playing 8 man football. They only list 39 but we counted 43 suited up. Their enrollment is way above the 47 enrollment cutoff so it just made no sense why they were in 8 man football.

 

[gobiggergoredder]

Appreciate the info. This has helped expand my perspective. Our local school isn't great and is starting my sophomore Nephew at QB. They played against David City one of the games and it just seemed odd for them to have over 40 kids on the sideline playing 8 man football. They only list 39 but we counted 43 suited up. Their enrollment is way above the 47 enrollment cutoff so it just made no sense why they were in 8 man football.

I was at an Omaha metro school in the late 90s. 21 starters were seniors. Unheard of that sophomore would even play let alone start.

 

[JJ Husker]

It’s probably past time for the NSAA to consider more than enrollment to determine class and schedule. This type of competitive imbalance is not good for anybody or the future of sports. Back in the day, the class A-B-C thing based on enrollment worked fairly well. I say fairly well because I played for, at the time, one of the smallest class A schools. It was fine when we played Norfolk, Fremont, Hastings, Grand Island, South Sioux, Kearney etc. but even then when we got into Lincoln or Omaha schools we were usually significantly overmatched. A little of that is okay but regularly having 6-8+ TD blowouts….something is obviously wrong. There is no reason ever to have a Millard South scheduled to play North Platte.

It’s broken and more than enrollment numbers need to be considered to restore some semblence of competitive balance.

 

[Hilltop]

I was at an Omaha metro school in the late 90s. 21 starters were seniors. Unheard of that sophomore would even play let alone start.

My oldest son started at center as a freshman for our local school and finished his career playing for a state title in memorial stadium. In class C, you play who you have...

 

[Mavric]

It’s probably past time for the NSAA to consider more than enrollment to determine class and schedule. This type of competitive imbalance is not good for anybody or the future of sports. Back in the day, the class A-B-C thing based on enrollment worked fairly well. I say fairly well because I played for, at the time, one of the smallest class A schools. It was fine when we played Norfolk, Fremont, Hastings, Grand Island, South Sioux, Kearney etc. but even then when we got into Lincoln or Omaha schools we were usually significantly overmatched. A little of that is okay but regularly having 6-8+ TD blowouts….something is obviously wrong. There is no reason ever to have a Millard South scheduled to play North Platte.

It’s broken and more than enrollment numbers need to be considered to restore some semblence of competitive balance.

It would be helpful but I've never heard of any fair way to add any other component.

 

[gobiggergoredder]

It’s probably past time for the NSAA to consider more than enrollment to determine class and schedule. This type of competitive imbalance is not good for anybody or the future of sports. Back in the day, the class A-B-C thing based on enrollment worked fairly well. I say fairly well because I played for, at the time, one of the smallest class A schools. It was fine when we played Norfolk, Fremont, Hastings, Grand Island, South Sioux, Kearney etc. but even then when we got into Lincoln or Omaha schools we were usually significantly overmatched. A little of that is okay but regularly having 6-8+ TD blowouts….something is obviously wrong. There is no reason ever to have a Millard South scheduled to play North Platte.

It’s broken and more than enrollment numbers need to be considered to restore some semblence of competitive balance.

I think participation, by class/grade, weighted towards upper classes may be a more important determining factor of competitiveness. You likely have to use the previous year data, or potential estimates that the school would have to be held to.

 

[Mavric]

Appreciate the info. This has helped expand my perspective. Our local school isn't great and is starting my sophomore Nephew at QB. They played against David City one of the games and it just seemed odd for them to have over 40 kids on the sideline playing 8 man football. They only list 39 but we counted 43 suited up. Their enrollment is way above the 47 enrollment cutoff so it just made no sense why they were in 8 man football.

David City does appear to be the outlier this year. They are 4-2 - although three of the teams they beat haven't won a game. So, again, they did beat those three teams pretty badly but those teams are getting beat pretty badly by everyone (sorry if one of those is your nephew's team). But two years ago when they were still playing 11-man, they scored a total of 34 points in eight games and only came within four touchdowns once, losing 24-7 to 2-7 Louisville). So I'm sure they were tired of their kids getting beat up every week as well.

 

[Mavric]

I think participation, by class/grade, weighted towards upper classes may be a more important determining factor of competitiveness. You likely have to use the previous year data, or potential estimates that the school would have to be held to.

That is an interesting thought, but I'm not sure it would really help all that much. It's already based on just the Sophomore/Junior/Senior enrollment (carried forward from the previous year) so it's a bit weighted that way already. And it would probably only affect a couple of schools in each class, unless there was a huge outlier.

 

[Crusader Husker]

You could do what California does, or at least did. Any school could play 8 man. They just had 2 divisions by size. We played an 8 man school that had 400+ students.

 

[Mavric]

I have heard discussions that they are going to 3 classes for 8 man next year based on enrollment. I think that will help a lot.

There will be three 8-man classes next year. They are also raising the line to be eligible for 8-man so some of the small C-2 will probably go that route.

That will definitely help with the participation issue, so I think that's good. It will also make for fewer schools in each 8-man class so the disparity top-to-bottom will be less.

 

[gobiggergoredder]

That is an interesting thought, but I'm not sure it would really help all that much. It's already based on just the Sophomore/Junior/Senior enrollment (carried forward from the previous year) so it's a bit weighted that way already. And it would probably only affect a couple of schools in each class, unless there was a huge outlier.

I just think enrollment alone isn’t working.

I had a buddy tell me last year Millard North had to cancel JV games because they didn’t have enough players. It’s been a little while, but Millard North was once a strong program.

Kids are not playing football. But it’s also happening in basketball.

No varsity girls basketball at GISH in 2024-25 due to declining player numbers

At this time, GISH does not have any Junior or Senior student athletes going out for the sport.

www.ksnblocal4.com

 

[Mavric]

 

[Mavric]

I just think enrollment alone isn’t working.

Weighting enrollment is still enrollment. That won't fix much if anything.

It would be nice if there were something else. But I don't see what that would be.

I had a buddy tell me last year Millard North had to cancel JV games because they didn’t have enough players. It’s been a little while, but Millard North was once a strong program.

Kids are not playing football. But it’s also happening in basketball.

No varsity girls basketball at GISH in 2024-25 due to declining player numbers

At this time, GISH does not have any Junior or Senior student athletes going out for the sport.

www.ksnblocal4.com

Agreed. It's a participation issue. Grand Island Senior High is the biggest school in the state. They cancelled their varsity girls basketball season last year for lack of players.

 

[gobiggergoredder]

Weighting enrollment is still enrollment. That won't fix much if anything.

It would be nice if there were something else. But I don't see what that would be.

I'm saying by participation. Basically, enrollment doesn't work at all.

The Grand Island example is perfect. You have the highest enrollment, and you have no SRs or JRs on a team that needs 5 players.

I think some kind of formula that shows participation, with a weight associated with the upper classes, may make more sense. In theory, maybe the GI girls basketball team would end up being Class C or something? This probably wouldn't work any because of conferences and scheduling. But it's not working now either.