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8-Man Football


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There was an 8-man clinic that ran concurrently with the normal IFCA clinic two weeks back. I have no idea when the initial pilot season will be, but it looks like the IFCA is all-in on 8-man football and I do know that they have the requisite number of schools ready to feel comfortable starting the program. 

The only hang-up I have on 8-man football is the amounts of travel that will probably occur due to schools being so spread out from one another. But hopefully people around the state see it as a good thing because it's giving students a new opportunity to demonstrate their talents off the field! 

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I'm excited about 8-man football being an option for smaller schools who might not have the numbers for 11-man football. 

The more opportunities kids have to play, the better for the game (and for kids). Football has so much to offer. 8-man (and even 6-man) football is pretty common in the plains states where there are a lot of very small schools. Hopefully, this leads to more growth of the sport. 

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I could probably look this up myself, but I'd rather someone else tell me this morning as I've got work to do 😛 

Does 8-man football play on the same size field as a regular high school football field? As well, if these new 8-man football schools are likely NEW completely to football, will they be building new stadiums or using a nearby school's facilities instead? Is the thought that games will be played on Friday night as well? I would guess many of the schools would want/need to rent other school's facilities and then for logistics purposes, games will be played on a night other than Friday, yeah?

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46 minutes ago, NLCTigerFan07 said:

I could probably look this up myself, but I'd rather someone else tell me this morning as I've got work to do 😛 

Does 8-man football play on the same size field as a regular high school football field? As well, if these new 8-man football schools are likely NEW completely to football, will they be building new stadiums or using a nearby school's facilities instead? Is the thought that games will be played on Friday night as well? I would guess many of the schools would want/need to rent other school's facilities and then for logistics purposes, games will be played on a night other than Friday, yeah?

The 8 man field is a little smaller. When I lived in Montana, 8 man and 6 man football was pretty popular. We recruited a lot of 8 man and 6 man players! The games were also played on Friday nights there, but doesn't necessarily mean it would be best here.  This entire thing is going to be very good if done right. I love it. 

Edited by footballfan2012
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1 hour ago, crimsonace1 said:

I'm excited about 8-man football being an option for smaller schools who might not have the numbers for 11-man football. 

The more opportunities kids have to play, the better for the game (and for kids). Football has so much to offer. 8-man (and even 6-man) football is pretty common in the plains states where there are a lot of very small schools. Hopefully, this leads to more growth of the sport. 

I agree.  I have heard grumblings that "it's not real football."   The same can be said about Sprint (less than 175lbs) football that SMWC, Calumet, Bellarmine, among others, are adding at the collegiate level.

I'm all for more opportunity for kids to play in HS and in college, even if 8-man or sprint versions. 

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5 hours ago, NLCTigerFan07 said:

I could probably look this up myself, but I'd rather someone else tell me this morning as I've got work to do 😛 

Does 8-man football play on the same size field as a regular high school football field? As well, if these new 8-man football schools are likely NEW completely to football, will they be building new stadiums or using a nearby school's facilities instead? Is the thought that games will be played on Friday night as well? I would guess many of the schools would want/need to rent other school's facilities and then for logistics purposes, games will be played on a night other than Friday, yeah?

Was told by an AD 8 man football would be a spring sport 

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On 3/23/2022 at 10:22 AM, footballfan2012 said:

The 8 man field is a little smaller. When I lived in Montana, 8 man and 6 man football was pretty popular. We recruited a lot of 8 man and 6 man players! The games were also played on Friday nights there, but doesn't necessarily mean it would be best here.  This entire thing is going to be very good if done right. I love it. 

I used to get out to Wyoming (Casper area) for business and local sports page featured their 8 man HS teams.....but always 2nd fiddle to rodeo.  I thought that was really cool.

Edited by Bash Riprock
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What are common days for Jr High, Freshman, C-team/JV games? I remember Monday for JV, Tuesdays for Jr High, Thursday for Frosh, and obviously Friday for Varsity. If thats common still then Wednesday or Thursday could work well.

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I'll be anxious to see if some of the schools up here in NW IN will start up 8 man football teams. Up here the schools that don't play football offer boys volleyball in the fall. I just wonder if the smaller schools will have the numbers to have both 8 man football and soccer/cross country/boys vb or 8 man football and track/baseball. I know some of the smaller schools (Kouts, Hebron) share athletes in some sports

1 hour ago, Basementbias said:

What are common days for Jr High, Freshman, C-team/JV games? I remember Monday for JV, Tuesdays for Jr High, Thursday for Frosh, and obviously Friday for Varsity. If thats common still then Wednesday or Thursday could work well.

Seems like Saturday mornings have replaced Monday JV games for a lot of school here in the north. 

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1 hour ago, Basementbias said:

What are common days for Jr High, Freshman, C-team/JV games? I remember Monday for JV, Tuesdays for Jr High, Thursday for Frosh, and obviously Friday for Varsity. If thats common still then Wednesday or Thursday could work well.

 

10 minutes ago, WolvesOnTheProwl said:

I'll be anxious to see if some of the schools up here in NW IN will start up 8 man football teams. Up here the schools that don't play football offer boys volleyball in the fall. I just wonder if the smaller schools will have the numbers to have both 8 man football and soccer/cross country/boys vb or 8 man football and track/baseball. I know some of the smaller schools (Kouts, Hebron) share athletes in some sports

Seems like Saturday mornings have replaced Monday JV games for a lot of school here in the north. 

I agree that Saturdays seem to have been the call for JV recently ... at least up north here.  I don't know if that's tied to class or not.  Harrison has, for the most part, played the bulk of its JV games on Saturdays.

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10 minutes ago, Bobref said:

So, the IHSAA has to be fully on board with this. That means we’re going to have to develop a mechanics manual for the officials. What states have big 8 man programs, so we can steal from them?

Oklahoma has about 80 teams across two divisions that play 8-man.  Here's a link to their IHSAA equivalent.  Don't know if they have links to officiating mechanic guidelines or anything like that there, but it's a starting point.

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29 minutes ago, foxbat said:

Oklahoma has about 80 teams across two divisions that play 8-man.  Here's a link to their IHSAA equivalent.  Don't know if they have links to officiating mechanic guidelines or anything like that there, but it's a starting point.

Where’s this mysterious link? 😂🤣

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52 minutes ago, Bobref said:

So, the IHSAA has to be fully on board with this. That means we’re going to have to develop a mechanics manual for the officials. What states have big 8 man programs, so we can steal from them?

Our neighbors to the west have 8 man.

https://i8fa.org/

I had to google it, because it doesn't look like it's an IHSA sport, but a separate association? One of the schools is about 10 minutes from my relatives - and is only about 200 students max. 

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1 hour ago, foxbat said:

 

I agree that Saturdays seem to have been the call for JV recently ... at least up north here.  I don't know if that's tied to class or not.  Harrison has, for the most part, played the bulk of its JV games on Saturdays.

Feel like it's conference based for the most part. I know Bellmont used to do Saturday mornings in the NHC but I think it moved when the NE8 formed. Could be wrong but our youth games moved from practice field to HS fields after that change. ACAC had been Mondays unless that has changed.

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36 minutes ago, Basementbias said:

Feel like it's conference based for the most part. I know Bellmont used to do Saturday mornings in the NHC but I think it moved when the NE8 formed. Could be wrong but our youth games moved from practice field to HS fields after that change. ACAC had been Mondays unless that has changed.

A lot of the youth league stuff in the area tends to be Sundays to allow for the use of the high school fields with no need for worrying about potential conflicts since IHSAA doesn't allow high school stuff on the Sundays.  

I'm not so sure about conference-based in Harrison's case though as last season, Harrison's JV only played three games with NCC opponents and, the season before, it only ended up being two games within conference.

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2 hours ago, foxbat said:

A lot of the youth league stuff in the area tends to be Sundays to allow for the use of the high school fields with no need for worrying about potential conflicts since IHSAA doesn't allow high school stuff on the Sundays.  

I'm not so sure about conference-based in Harrison's case though as last season, Harrison's JV only played three games with NCC opponents and, the season before, it only ended up being two games within conference.

This area stays away from Sunday & Wednesdays as much as possible bc of church activities. Interesting to see the differences throughout the state.

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