I watched Iowa games on
I also like how they alternate small/big schools on game day
It looked like the stadium was packed because of size of crowd relative the capacity of the stadium
Dowling catholic won on a bad punt snap
Their 6 in a row
Well attendance is helped by neutral observers like I used to be because it’s indoors.
They don’t really alternate small/big they just make sure the 2 biggest classes play the night games. Day 1 is 8-man then Class A and the night game is 3A... day 2 is Class 1A then 2A then 4A. So the small schools play earlier games and both night caps are the 2 largest classes.
Iowa classes are:
8-Man
A
1A
2A
3A
4A
They don’t punish private schools they play in what ever class their enrollment dictates just like public schools.
They have districts in Iowa and used to take the top 2 in each of 8 districts per class now they have odd numbers of districts as dictated by need depending on how many schools fall into each class and they take the district champs and then at-larges to fill out the 16 team brackets and for first time they used an RPI rating system to pick the at larges. They had a 4-5 team with the toughest schedule in the state get in based on that this year in 4a and made a deep run and lost in the semifinal game 26-12 to cedar falls who played dowling tight in the title game, so they were very good for 4-5, I’d say the RPI system worked as intended. I saw them play because they play both semis and title games in the dome and both are broadcast on TV.