One of the notable changes in the two-year football districts laid out by the Iowa High School Athletic Association is the amount of nondistrict games each school can have. The state cut down on the number of district opponents from seven to five, and instead added two additional nondistrict games a part of the nine-game regular season schedule.

The Adel-Desoto-Minburn Tigers football team had the Dallas Center-Grimes Mustangs and the Ballard Bombers as their nondistrict opponents the previous two years. ADM athletic director Reece Satre will use the next week to fill out a list of seven schools the Tigers would like to play with their open nondistrict games. Satre says a change in the way the postseason teams are determined will impact the way schools schedule their nondistrict opponents. “(The IHSSAA) has made some changes as far as how you qualify for the playoffs, especially now that there are nine districts and there are only 16 playoff spots,” Satre said, “There’s an RPI system in place and they no longer have that 17 point differential as part of their tie breaking system. With that new RPI, the way it was explained to us, is they are placing value on your win/loss record, how your opponents do, and even diving into how your opponents/opponents do.”

Satre adds multiple teams are contacting ADM and gauging their interest in playing a nondistrict game on the assumption that the Tiger’s RPI score will be high based on the quality of their district’s opponents. Satre wouldn’t reveal any teams the district’s interested in playing in the nondistrict schedule, but he does need the list of up to seven schools to the IHSSAA by midnight on Wednesday, February 7.