2025 Minnesota High School Football Thread

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MaxyJR1 said:
Spring Lake Park is a 6 Sq. Mile city of 7,000 people. Located on 81st Ave. The district boundary however runs all the way north to 125th, Main in Blaine and includes the Lakes Area all around the National Sports Center. They are the largest 5A school below Apple Valley and Burnsville.

Fergus Falls has 14,000 people saw 12% growth over COVID years and is 83% White and only 30% free and reduced lunch. Statistical area for the School is 57,000 population.
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Some time ago I read that FF has almost non-existent unemployment its employers were drawing from a huge geographic area. It was only a matter of time before housing corrections resulted in growth. Combined with a very desirable lakes area and remote work, its not hard to imagine young families relocating to the area lakes outside of city limits.
 

Ranger692 said:
Its

Just the 4 coaches for the North or south for their respective bracket. You vote for the other 3 teams, you seed them 1-3 and then it’s averaged out after that. Seems to be some shinnanagans are going on in 5A and it could have been over ruled I would think
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I
Ranger692 said:
So i was just doing some thinking on the current playoff format...

If we seeded at the section championship level 1-16. People have always brought up the travel issue. Well that could be avoided to a large degree by keeping these neutral sights we are already using for the section championship games.

If teams like Mahnomen or Barnesville had to play Springfield or Jackson County, there are sights about half way for all corners of the state for the section championships already. I just hate the fact we aren't getting probably even 6 of the best teams to the quarter finials.
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would be pretty easy to play sections until 16

Then north 1-8 and south 1-8 at neutral sites.

Would add the length of one road trip for at most 48 teams in the entire state if you did it all classes 9 man through 5a

And it would create a better state tourney and be more fun.
 



I am sick of Star Tribune articles on Moorhead but how is a neutral site game against Centennial at Spring Lake Park fair? What is going on with the MSHSL? They are out of control!
 






Tigger said:
I am sick of Star Tribune articles on Moorhead but how is a neutral site game against Centennial at Spring Lake Park fair? What is going on with the MSHSL? They are out of control!
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Locations for 6A are determined before the bracket is set.

Maple Grove plays Lakeville South in Apple Valley
Moorhead plays Centennial at Spring Lake Park
STMA play Minnetonka at Farmington
Edina and Eden Prairie at Osseo

Farmington and Osseo are the two truly neutral sites, but I don't think the MSHSL is looking for neutral sites. They are simply looking for sites willing to host.

Last year Shakopee played Mounds View at Spring Lake Park
 

MaxyJR1 said:
Locations for 6A are determined before the bracket is set.

Maple Grove plays Lakeville South in Apple Valley
Moorhead plays Centennial at Spring Lake Park
STMA play Minnetonka at Farmington
Edina and Eden Prairie at Osseo

Farmington and Osseo are the two truly neutral sites, but I don't think the MSHSL is looking for neutral sites. They are simply looking for sites willing to host.

Last year Shakopee played Mounds View at Spring Lake Park
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Now that I no longer have a dog in the fight I will be interested to see if anyone can stop the Maple Grove/Minnetonka matchup from happening. Seems like the EP/Edina winner might be able to keep Tonka out but I don't see Maple Grove being stopped by either South or the Moorhead/Centennial winner.

Edina's schedule this year is pretty crazy. Started with Hopkins and Wayzata but final 6 games of the regular season were all against teams in the final 8.

Eden Prairie - L
Maple Grove - L
STMA - W
Lakeville South - W
Minnetonka - W
Moorehead - L
 

MaxyJR1 said:
Locations for 6A are determined before the bracket is set.

Maple Grove plays Lakeville South in Apple Valley
Moorhead plays Centennial at Spring Lake Park
STMA play Minnetonka at Farmington
Edina and Eden Prairie at Osseo

Farmington and Osseo are the two truly neutral sites, but I don't think the MSHSL is looking for neutral sites. They are simply looking for sites willing to host.

Last year Shakopee played Mounds View at Spring Lake Park
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This is just another thing that MSHSL does... Last year we had teams both making four hour drives for the quarter final games when there were teams in other classes within and hour of that location. You'd think after one season of looking at a couple things that would have been an easy fix.

Set the dates and times for the location, THEN SET THE TEAMS WHO PLAY THE CLOSEST GAMES TO THOSE LOCATOINS / or close to half way for both schools.

In a situation where Moorhead makes the quarter finals why is the game not in say the ST Cloud area, seems to simple... Its in almost every class where there is basically a home game vs a long road trip when there are locations about half way for both schools
 



Ranger692 said:
This is just another thing that MSHSL does... Last year we had teams both making four hour drives for the quarter final games when there were teams in other classes within and hour of that location. You'd think after one season of looking at a couple things that would have been an easy fix.

Set the dates and times for the location, THEN SET THE TEAMS WHO PLAY THE CLOSEST GAMES TO THOSE LOCATOINS / or close to half way for both schools.

In a situation where Moorhead makes the quarter finals why is the game not in say the ST Cloud area, seems to simple... Its in almost every class where there is basically a home game vs a long road trip when there are locations about half way for both schools
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Does seem foolish to lock in the locations before the teams are set. Not like pro or college where you are dealing with flights and hotels or what not.

They probably don't want to be accused of giving one team an advantage over another by setting the location after the teams are determined. Even though it makes all the sense in the world to pick the neutral site that is most convenient for the two teams playing at it.
 

MNVCGUY said:
Does seem foolish to lock in the locations before the teams are set. Not like pro or college where you are dealing with flights and hotels or what not.

They probably don't want to be accused of giving one team an advantage over another by setting the location after the teams are determined. Even though it makes all the sense in the world to pick the neutral site that is most convenient for the two teams playing at it.
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I would agree it would be optimal.

But host sites need to coordinate workers, concessions, logistics, and security, among other things for a state playoff game. Many schools cannot or will not be able to do that, especially on a week's notice-- when their school is not participating in the game.

(and if their school is playing their own game somewhere else-- even harder to do it).
 

SkiUMahLaw said:
I would agree it would be optimal.

But host sites need to coordinate workers, concessions, logistics, and security, among other things for a state playoff game. Many schools cannot or will not be able to do that, especially on a week's notice-- when their school is not participating in the game.

(and if their school is playing their own game somewhere else-- even harder to do it).
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The host sites can be determined ahead of time you just wait to assign the teams until after the games have been played so that the teams playing there make the most sense logistically to minimize the amount of travel for everyone involved.

But that is more complicated. Far easier to just assign the sites and whatever happens happens in terms of the teams involved.
 

GopherGrit said:
I didn't know Fergus was large enough to be 4A .. .but then again I may be overthinking what 4A even means, now with six classes.
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MSHSL AAAA Football Classification
Enrollment 564-1002 (Source link)

Enrollment Data for Classification purposes (Source link):
Benilde St. Margaret's 850
Fergus Falls 628
Hill Murray 721
Grand Rapids 935
Kasson-Mantorville 617
Marshall 735
Orono 922
Totino Grace 689
 

SkiUMahLaw said:
I would agree it would be optimal.

But host sites need to coordinate workers, concessions, logistics, and security, among other things for a state playoff game. Many schools cannot or will not be able to do that, especially on a week's notice-- when their school is not participating in the game.

(and if their school is playing their own game somewhere else-- even harder to do it).
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SO, Currently the host site is informed of the Date and times of the games, and the seeds who are playing in the games. THE ONLY THING WE NEED TO DO IS CHANGE THE NAMES OF THE TEAMS PLAYING. The rest of you argument is a mute point because its all set in stone months prior already, none of that would change. It actually even easier to make sure teams can host and play in the quarters... BECAUSE YOU CAN SCHEDULE AROUND IT, the way it is now set in stone in March your school may play and host a game at the same time on the same day
 
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MNVCGUY said:
The host sites can be determined ahead of time you just wait to assign the teams until after the games have been played so that the teams playing there make the most sense logistically to minimize the amount of travel for everyone involved.

But that is more complicated. Far easier to just assign the sites and whatever happens happens in terms of the teams involved.
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How is it easier? Team X doesn't know they are going to be the 1 or 3 seed, they have to make plans to travel to the sight after the section championship weather its in St Cloud or on the moon. The host site also has to have workers for the game at 7PM on Friday Nov 7 weather its Maple Grove v Lakeville South or The Green Bay Packers vs the LA SPARKS... The teams assigned to the locations don't change the fact their is a game scheduled for Friday Nov 7 at 7PM
 

Ranger692 said:
How is it easier? Team X doesn't know they are going to be the 1 or 3 seed, they have to make plans to travel to the sight after the section championship weather its in St Cloud or on the moon. The host site also has to have workers for the game at 7PM on Friday Nov 7 weather its Maple Grove v Lakeville South or The Green Bay Packers vs the LA SPARKS... The teams assigned to the locations don't change the fact their is a game scheduled for Friday Nov 7 at 7PM
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I understand where you are coming from, but not all of the available sites have the ability of hosting all classes. And even if they physically are able to, they may not want to commit to hosting a larger class of games.

Sure, SMSU in Marshall could host a 6A game. But should they? (Geography- NO). Could they find the people for to work it? Good question. Hosting a 6A state game is a different beast than a 9-player game. Facility needs are different, staffing and security and concessions are different. You cannot simply switch out which class is going where based on geography/distance-- those logistics take longer than a week to procure in most cases. And even then-- who gets priority? There are only six sites south of the metro for all classes-- Mayo, Jordan, Apple Valley, Hastings, Eastview and Farmington (and 5 of those 6 are still arguably metro!). So who gets to go where if there are multiple distance issues?

Unless we go back to a higher seed hosting, I don't know if we fix this problem. But then we deal with facilities that may not be well-suited to host state games simply because their team qualified and we would be complaining about unfair advantages that way too.

(Edit-- I probably quoted the wrong reply-- my apologies)
 

The incentive to host is your booster club is reimbursed for expenses and gets to make money off of concessions

An out state school hosting a 6a game is going to have a smaller crowd because of the travel which means it’s less profitable for the booster club
 

SkiUMahLaw said:
I understand where you are coming from, but not all of the available sites have the ability of hosting all classes. And even if they physically are able to, they may not want to commit to hosting a larger class of games.

Sure, SMSU in Marshall could host a 6A game. But should they? (Geography- NO). Could they find the people for to work it? Good question. Hosting a 6A state game is a different beast than a 9-player game. Facility needs are different, staffing and security and concessions are different. You cannot simply switch out which class is going where based on geography/distance-- those logistics take longer than a week to procure in most cases. And even then-- who gets priority? There are only six sites south of the metro for all classes-- Mayo, Jordan, Apple Valley, Hastings, Eastview and Farmington (and 5 of those 6 are still arguably metro!). So who gets to go where if there are multiple distance issues?

Unless we go back to a higher seed hosting, I don't know if we fix this problem. But then we deal with facilities that may not be well-suited to host state games simply because their team qualified and we would be complaining about unfair advantages that way too.

(Edit-- I probably quoted the wrong reply-- my apologies)
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Sure. But we are talking about changing the 4 or 5 games that have a ridiculous advantage or travel disadvantage again after everything has played out and then make the decisions play plays the games where they make sense. You are definitely over thinking it
 

SkiUMahLaw said:
Unless we go back to a higher seed hosting, I don't know if we fix this problem. But then we deal with facilities that may not be well-suited to host state games simply because their team qualified and we would be complaining about unfair advantages that way too.

(Edit-- I probably quoted the wrong reply-- my apologies)
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I'd rather see that for this round, the higher seed host.
 

disco said:
I'd rather see that for this round, the higher seed host.
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That's the way it used to be, but it will never happen. The state wants all those games on turf, and very few outstate teams have turf fields (or ever will).
 

MNVCGUY said:
Now that I no longer have a dog in the fight I will be interested to see if anyone can stop the Maple Grove/Minnetonka matchup from happening. Seems like the EP/Edina winner might be able to keep Tonka out but I don't see Maple Grove being stopped by either South or the Moorhead/Centennial winner.

Edina's schedule this year is pretty crazy. Started with Hopkins and Wayzata but final 6 games of the regular season were all against teams in the final 8.

Eden Prairie - L
Maple Grove - L
STMA - W
Lakeville South - W
Minnetonka - W
Moorehead - L
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Centennial has given Maple Grove all they can handle in recent years. Even during a very down year for them last year, the game was 21-14. If nothing else, I don't think Centennial will fear Maple Grove compared to some others, and for high school kids, confidence can be a difference maker.
 

Ranger692 said:
How is it easier? Team X doesn't know they are going to be the 1 or 3 seed, they have to make plans to travel to the sight after the section championship weather its in St Cloud or on the moon. The host site also has to have workers for the game at 7PM on Friday Nov 7 weather its Maple Grove v Lakeville South or The Green Bay Packers vs the LA SPARKS... The teams assigned to the locations don't change the fact their is a game scheduled for Friday Nov 7 at 7PM
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Easier from the standpoint of the high school league. If the sites are set on the bracket then they don't have to do anything, the bracket just plays out as planned.

If they sending the matchups to the site that makes the most logistical sense then someone with the high school league has to figure that out after the games are played and the matchups are determined. Not rocket science but still some effort involved and also introduces the element of people complaining that the other team was given an advantage based on the location picked.
 

Ranger692 said:
This is just another thing that MSHSL does... Last year we had teams both making four hour drives for the quarter final games when there were teams in other classes within and hour of that location. You'd think after one season of looking at a couple things that would have been an easy fix.

Set the dates and times for the location, THEN SET THE TEAMS WHO PLAY THE CLOSEST GAMES TO THOSE LOCATOINS / or close to half way for both schools.

In a situation where Moorhead makes the quarter finals why is the game not in say the ST Cloud area, seems to simple... Its in almost every class where there is basically a home game vs a long road trip when there are locations about half way for both schools
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Not a ton of schools want to host. It is what it is.
 

Not all host sites have the same capacity. Some can't hold the crowd that another might.
 

Word said:
Not a ton of schools want to host. It is what it is.
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Yes. I know. I'm not saying that after the section finals that you just call up a school and tell them they are hosting... We already know who the host schools are in the spring. I also understand not all schools are able to host each game and 9 player keeps getting bought up for some reason, and it shows none of you look at the brackets or know what schools are hosting. All 9 player games are in 5A facilities or bigger. Class A has 1 game at a 3A facility and every other game is hosted at a 5A or bigger facility so scheduling these games to have less travel for some of these teams is simple, not hard. Moorhead game could have been played at ST Cloud Apollo, has seating capacity of 4000 which Id imagine is plenty or Rocori which has 4500 capacity. Both of which are hosting games. I guess I could be wrong on that but what I am trying to say is one team should have a 3 hour drive and the other a 20 minute.
 

MaxyJR1 said:
Spring Lake Park is a 6 Sq. Mile city of 7,000 people. Located on 81st Ave. The district boundary however runs all the way north to 125th, Main in Blaine and includes the Lakes Area all around the National Sports Center. They are the largest 5A school below Apple Valley and Burnsville.

Fergus Falls has 14,000 people saw 12% growth over COVID years and is 83% White and only 30% free and reduced lunch. Statistical area for the School is 57,000 population.
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Curius where you got the numbers on Fergus Falls? I can only find that it has around 8.5% from 2010 to 2025. 2020 census shows 14,119.
 

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