LINCOLN, Neb. - Often times, change is inevitable. But sometimes change can be accompanied by growth or expansion - such is the case for eight-Man football in Nebraska.

A third eight-man class will be debuted at the start of the 2026 high school football season. This means a ninth game in the regular season and a 16-team playoff which will include Friday night games. Corey Uldrich is principal for Hartington-Newcastle, and is one of the original co-authors for the proposal, and says his ultimate goal was changing the eight-man player number from 47 to 55, not necessarily a third class.

“That was my goal, that was the number one thing I wanted to see get accomplished,” Uldrich said. “What you find really quickly though, is when you want to make the top number bigger to get more teams in, the teams at the bottom aren’t in favor of that.”

And that number has been 47 for quite awhile, thus the third class was ultimately a compromise. D1 will have 32 teams and the remaining schools declaring to play eight-man, will be split evenly amongst the two remaining classes. Uldrich co-authored the proposal with Lee Schneider, principal of Clarkson-Leigh, and Isaac Frecks, Activities Director for Alma. Uldrich says they all thought it was the right time because high school sports is always changing.

“I think we’re in a spot where people are starting realize this is not the 70’s, 80’s or 90’s where every boy wants to play football,” Uldrich said. “I think we just realized, lets bump this number to get as many teams as possible who want to play eight-man, eligible as possible while still keeping some kind of balance between having too many boys and maybe playing up to eleven where you should be.

Andrew Kuta, Head Coach for the defending state champions of Sandy Creek says he's in favor of the new changes. 

“I’m really excited for all the changes,” Head Coach Andrew Kuta said. “It’ll balance the competition a bit more and be more inclusive in allowing more teams to play in the playoffs.”

Coach Kuta says one element he likes a lot is the ninth regular season game.

“I think adding that game gives teams an opportunity to have little bit more in who they’re playing,” Kuta said. “For us that benefits us immensely, being able to pick schools and communicate with them.”

And it's a similar story for Tri County in southeast Nebraska, as head coach Brett Scheiding says they like the change as it’ll provide consistency after jumping between eight and eleven man classes for several years.

“It’s a huge benefit for schools like us that have been bouncing back and fourth and we want to be consistent,” Scheiding said. “We’ve been staying right at or below that 55 mark, the new mark, and we were over a few kids, but that doesn’t mean you have them out.”

EMF Head Coach Kory Kahlandt says the smaller playoff field will put more pressure on teams during the regular season, despite an extra game on the schedule.

"It'll be even more important because that playoff line where you can get in and maybe make a run, it'll be tougher," Kahlandt said. "It'll be tough to let one of those 'could had' 'shoulda had' games slip."