The high school football season officially begins next week but several teams will get an early start with a game tonight. Bud Legg of the Iowa High School Athletic Association says more than two dozen games will be played. He says in order for teams to have a full nine game schedule, some needed to play early. Otherwise, he says some schools would only be able to play eight games.Among the changes this season, only class 4A will have at-large berths into the playoffs. The other classes will have only the district champion or district runnerup qualifying.Legg says this year games will not end once a team gains a margin of 50-points and games will be played to completion. Anytime in the second half when the margin gets to 35 points, the clock will run continuously. He says the clock will stop only for time outs and injuries and allow the games to be played to completion. Teams that were on B-G-M’s schedule are scrambling to find a ninth game after the school canceled its varsity season citing a lack of numbers. B-G-M coach Justin Liston says he is surprised by the lack of numbers though they will have enough to field a junior varsity team. He says they had a 4-5 record last year and looked to be improving as it was the best record they’ve had in about 12 years. Liston says they will play a complete j-v schedule this fall of nine games.
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