Nebraska high school football scheduling has been a topic of conversation throughout the state for some time.
Thursday, the NSAA Board of Directors voted unanimously (8-0) to approve schedule changes for Class A football in the upcoming two-year cycle (2026-27).
Those changes include eliminating districts and using the previous two seasons’ wild card points as part of the guidance the NSAA, specifically NSAA Assistant Director Nate Neuhaus, uses to create the next two-year scheduling cycle.
Football is the only NSAA-sanctioned sport that uses the NSAA to create a statewide schedule for all schools.
The reason for the Approved Ruling, submission by the working competition committee (Class A school administrators), is the timing.
An Approved Ruling can circumvent the NSAA’s legislative process if a majority of schools in the specific class (A, B, C1, D1, D2, D6) are in agreement. For example, the board approved using shot clocks in basketball with an Approved Ruling by Class A schools only at first.
In the most recent scheduling cycle (2024-25), the NSAA requested schools make a declaration of participation or classification (11-man, 8-man, 6-man) before Nov. 30, 2023.
After collecting that data, district assignments for the 2024-25 football season were made using the previous two years’ wild card points and the serpentine method to put teams in their five or six districts, with the district champion and runner-up being automatic qualifiers to the state playoffs.
With the changes, the automatic qualifiers are gone, the top 16 teams in wild card points will make the Class A playoffs.
On Dec. 12, 2023, classifications and district assignments for the 2024 and 2025 football seasons were released. Schools were then asked to submit a priority list of non-district schools they would like to have on their 2024 and 2025 football schedules.
The one addition to the Approved Ruling that the board approved on Thursday is for the upcoming scheduling cycle. Schools will expand their priority list of opponents from four or five in previous years to, in some cases, seven or eight.
Neuhaus and the staff at the NSAA will then use the wild card points from the previous two seasons to create evenly matched schedules using the priority lists as guidance. One thing that will do is keep traditional rivalries.
The elimination of districts will balance the schedules into tiers or buckets, if you will. Those will be the top 10-14 teams, depending on the number of schools in Class A each cycle.
With this approved for the 2026-27 scheduling cycle, Class A schools will play a schedule similar to what they have played the first four weeks of the season in the current scheduling cycle and eliminate the serpentine method, which forced lopsided matchups the last five weeks of the season.
Next for the NSAA staff is to establish football schedules for the 2026 and 2027 football seasons in all classes (A, B, C1, D1, D2, D3, D6) and release those on Feb. 11, 2026.
Class B Football Changes
Not only did the board approve changes to Class A districts, it also approved adjustments to Class B football districts by a vote of 7-1 .
The nuts and bolts of that proposal reads as follows.
Based on 24 teams in Class B, the top teams in wildcard points from the 2024-25 seasons will be placed in three geographical districts.
District assignments will now be based on the previous two years’ wild card average. Teams coming into Class B from another class, C1 for example, will use their previous two–year average of wild card points.
Top teams from the previous two years’ performance according to wild card points would be split geographically into districts moving west to east.
The remaining schools, up to eight teams, will go into an “emerging” district, with each team playing every team in their district. Two non-district games would be scheduled by the NSAA staff based on the priority list system that is currently in place.
The top three teams from the three geographical districts and the emerging district champion will be automatic qualifiers for the 16-team playoffs, with the remaining six teams chosen from the wild card point standings.
The “emerging” district will receive one automatic qualifier based on head to head standings in district play. Tiebreakers will stay the same as they currently are and the emerging district champion will automatically be the No. 16 seed in the playoffs.
The teams in the emerging district that did not get the automatic qualifier are not eligible for a wild card spot in the playoffs.
