BOONE - Dealing with differing opinions from the eastern and western sides of the state on the recommended number of teams in Class 4A districts, the Iowa High School Athletic Association's Board of Control took control of the issue during its monthly meeting Tuesday.

The group approved a recommendation from the Football Advisory Committee that Iowa's largest class remain at eight districts for the 2016 and 2017 seasons with six teams in each district.

However, big changes were approved for the 3A, 2A, 1A and A classes, as the number of districts will drop from eight to seven. Each district will now be composed of eight teams instead of seven.

The vote means that Kennedy, Washington, Jefferson, Linn-Mar and Prairie will play five district games and four non-district games this fall, just as this past year. Meanwhile, Xavier and Marion in 3A will move to a district-heavy regular season schedule of seven contests and just two outside of districts.

While the 4A schools from the Cedar Rapids area were of the opinion that six districts was the best way to go, the Board of Control ultimately sided with those on the western part of the state who wanted to stick with eight districts.

"The big issue for 4A was the amount of travel on that side, particularly in Sioux City and Council Bluffs where they don't have as many opportunities as we do on the east for shorter trips," said Tom Keating, Chairman of the IHSAA Board of Control and Xavier High School principal.

"By not having so many district games, it gives them a little more flexibility to do some local 3A games and not have to travel quite so far. If we would have gone to districts of eight teams, there would have been a required travel for them.

"What it came down to was that we have to do what's best for everybody," said Keating. "When it comes down to travel, expense and distance versus playing a couple extra games that maybe are already set, we felt like the balance tipped in favor of that. Neither side could agree.

"The folks on the western side of the state were adamant that they really wanted districts of six and on the eastern side of the state they were adamant that they wanted districts of eight."

It became apparent last fall that the IHSAA board would need to step in to settle the dispute when no agreement could be reached by 4A schools across the state. Iowa Football Coaches Association and Athletic Director meetings provided no clear direction for the advisory committee to follow.

"The recommendation from the football advisory committee was to do a survey of the 4A schools to see if there was any consensus," said IHSAA Executive Director Alan Beste. "The board really felt that because we had all those meetings in October and early November and there was no consensus at all, that doing a survey wasn't going to gain us any more information.

"We felt we had the information that we needed and that there was a split east and west. When the board made a decision on going to eight districts of six, it was really because we needed to allow 4A schools as much flexibility as possible to get those non-district opponents before they got to those last games of the district where it really counted."

With the move from 32 to 16 playoff teams in 2016, each 4A district champion and runner-up will qualify for the playoffs. The changes in 3A mean each district champion and runner-up will qualify for the postseason, as well as two at-large teams.

Since the number of districts remains the same in 4A, Cedar Rapids schools won't notice a huge difference other than the fewer number of playoff teams.

Beste said he was happy with how the district assignments shook out in that area of the state.

"The thing that really changes Cedar Rapids in that Eastern Iowa look was Epworth-Western Dubuque being a 4A school for next year," he said. "Now you've got that third school in the Dubuque area that's going to be 4A. That plays a little bit into how you do the pairings.

"There are going to be some different looks across the state," said Beste. "There are some things we can't do in western Iowa because of the geographic area we're trying to cover. It can be a little bit more creative in Eastern Iowa whenever we put those districts together, especially in 4A.

"With those six schools within the district, we've really tried to look at what are the two very powerful schools, two schools in the middle and two schools building their program."

In addition to district realignment, the Board of Control also approved other FAC recommendations. The plus/minus 13-point tiebreaker for determining at-large qualifiers will now increase to 17, which the committee said will reduce the need for the alphabetical tiebreaker.

Given the move to a Friday opening-round playoff schedule instead of Wednesday, the board voted to eliminate the 125-mile limitation as next-day class schedules no longer were a concern. It will also help to eliminate district rematches between the No. 1 and No. 2 seeds in the first round.

Playoff matchups will no longer be determined after each round with the re-introduction of brackets for each class, allowing teams adequate time to scout potential opponents in future weeks.

Class 4A will have 48 teams in 2016 and 2017, as opposed to 46 teams the past two years. That means all eight of the districts will have six teams, instead of two of the districts having only five teams.