LEGISLATIVE PROPOSAL FOR CHANGE IN NSAA RULES AND REGULATIONS
Title:

Class B District XC Assignments

Author:Scott Jorgensen/Joel Hope
School:Northwest
NSAA District:4
 
Proposal for:Activities Manual
 
Classes Affected:Class B
Activities Affected:Boys Cross-Country
Girls Cross-Country
This proposal:WILL NOT increase costs to the school
WILL NOT increase costs to the NSAA
WILL NOT increase travel for participating schools
WILL NOT decrease a student's or coach's instruction time
Implementation date:2027-08-01
Sections affected in Activities Manual:Page
8-9
Article

Section

Summary:This proposal is to address the method for conducting district cross country races and qualifying teams and individuals for the state meet. Create four districts based geographically using the Class B teams. Qualify the top three teams in each district for the state meet for 12 total schools. In addition, runners placing in the top 15 of their district will qualify as individuals.
Rationale:The initial method of seeding teams for the district races came as a way to help the “best” teams make it to the state meet. We, Class B teams, adopted a method used by Class A, which doesn’t apply as well to Class B. Since Class B teams are spread out all across the state, the courses we run vary greatly in degree of difficulty. Thus, submitting team times to seed the districts is not an accurate way to determine who the “best” teams are that deserve higher seeds. Teams from Scottsbluff, Beatrice, and Elkhorn will all run in Class B, but rarely if ever run on the same course throughout the season to compare which team should be a higher seed or not. Courses are not given a “rating” like in golf to allow for the difficulty to factor into the seeding. Seeding works in Class A because of the high concentration of teams in the Lincoln and Omaha area all running the same courses, and comparing “apples to apples”.
Pros:Inaccurate and unnecessary seeding of teams is eliminated. Less travel for schools on the perimeter of the state. More schools get the opportunity to host a district meet. District opponents will be more familiar with one another from their regular season meets.
Cons:Coaches and fans get to see less teams in each district.