Is 8-man football coming to high schools in Western Pennsylvania?


… may be better than schools joining together


While I have not been following the high school seasons in Cambria County very closely any more, I have realized that some schools have dropped football, others have joined together because they do not have enough players, and others are forfeiting games during the season. 


What Western Pa. has not been doing is looking to another alternative: Eight-man football. 


When schools have just 20 or fewer players on their teams, that makes fielding a team very difficult with the likelihood of injuries. So, by using three fewer players, that means that teams with 20 players could field a competitive team. 


The situation is challenging in a number of ways, but the good part of this is that the school continue the football tradition rather than joining with another school after dropping their team. 


District 6


In the Cambria County area, I noted that Penn Cambria had to forfeit a game to Richland last night, but that was Covid-related. 


Portage took a forfeit, Saltsburg forfeited a game to Ligonier, and Bishop Carroll dropped football before the season started. Others have joined together. Ferndale is one, Shade is another, Williamsburg has joined with another school. I have not followed this closely enough to keep track of who is doing that. 


Glendale reportedly has just 18 players, and others have fewer than 20. 


When faced with this years ago, Nebraska, Oklahoma, and Kansas decided to go with 8-man football. 


Would this work in Pa.?


Using Wiki, but here are some numbers


I tell students to never use Wikipedia for academic writing, but for sports, I constantly use it. This is one of those cases,


Eight-man football is a form of gridiron football, generally played by high schools with smaller enrollments. Eight-man football differs from the traditional 11-man game with the reduction of three players on each side of the ball and a field width that can be reduced to 40 yards, 13 1/3 yards narrower than the 53 1/3-yard 11-man field. 


Most states continue to play on a 100-yard length field, whereas a few states opt for 80-yard lengths. Reduced-player football, which consists of eight-man, six-man, and nine-man football has gained popularity across the United States. As of 2015, 1,561 schools in 30 states sponsor reduced-player football, with 1,161 of those teams participating in eight-man leagues, whereas 284 teams play six-man football and 116 teams play nine-man football.


“Eight-man football,” Wikipedia


Some currently in Pa. 


Schools in the area of Wisconsin where I am are playing eight-man. They seem to do well for the small schools, though they have to travel. 


The problem for Pennsylvania is that just 21 schools in the state play eight-man. Without more, it is simply not feasible. 


Some states like Nebraska have more than a hundred — 123. 


Without that, this would be impossible. 

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