High school football playoff format adjusted a day after initial OK

Less than 24 hours after a high school football playoff structure was approved, the Nevada Interscholastic Activities Association reversed course and implemented a new format.

The number of state championship games is still reducing to six, but Northern schools will not compete for the newly created Open Division title after a vote at a Board of Control meeting Wednesday in Reno.

Instead, the top four Southern Class 5A teams, based on a rating system, will compete for the Open championship.

The playoff format, approved Wednesday by an 8-3 vote, will go into effect for three seasons starting this fall. Class 5A had been split into three divisions for the past two seasons.

Also, Northern and Southern region playoff brackets were reinstated for 5A and 4A on Wednesday after the format approved Tuesday by a 6-4 vote placed all teams in one bracket regardless of geography. That could have resulted in Northern or Southern teams having to travel across the state multiple times in the postseason.

Now, the Northern and Southern region champions will meet in the state title games in 5A and 4A.

The 5A and 4A playoff fields will include 12 teams now (eight Southern, four Northern) after the format approved Tuesday had eight playoff teams in 5A and 4A, placed regardless of region.

Now, after the four highest-ranked Southern teams are selected for the Open Division, the next eight highest-ranked teams will compete for the 5A Southern Region title. The eight highest-ranked 4A Southern Region teams will compete for that title.

The rating system will use an average of a team’s MaxPreps rankings, NIAA rubric points and Harbin points to determine the Southern postseason teams. Harbin points are a system in which teams earn points for beating an opponent and earn secondary points based on how many wins their defeated opponents have.

In the North, the top four 5A and 4A teams in the regular-season standings will qualify for the region playoffs.

No changes were made to the alignment of football teams placed in 5A and 4A, which were approved Tuesday. There are 18 Southern teams in 5A and 19 in 4A. The NIAA will place them in leagues at a later date.

In football, Palo Verde’s appeal to move down from 5A to 4A was denied. Losee’s appeal to move down from 5A to 4A died when no motion to approve or deny the appeal was brought up.

Also at the meeting, the board approved alignment proposals for the eight other fall sports and all 2A and 1A sports.

Contact Alex Wright at awright@reviewjournal.com. Follow @AlexWright1028 on X.