Nearly finishing a season with their first wins in three years, Benson High School faced Millard South, the number four ranked football team in Nebraska, in their final game. This game came with controversy, anxiety and most importantly, discussion. This game created debate over the fairness of class A and high school sports as we know it.
Benson, a school with over 1400 students, is considered a Class A school. Class division in Nebraska first began in the early 1900s to make competition fairer. Yet, more people than ever are acknowledging the disparities between schools’ ability to perform.
“I feel like it (the class system) should be reformed because schools like Benson, Northwest, and other schools have been struggling a bit,” senior football captain Cristobal Delgado-Hernandez said. “I feel like we should get scheduled against them to make it fairer.”
Support also varies within different Class A schools. For example, Millard South recruited athletes from out of state that have received scholarships to support their athletic career. Currently Millard South’s roster consists of 64 players, with 12 players being Division one recruits.
This is a discrepancy compared to Benson, with a roster of 38 and no players planning to pursue a collegiate career. Last year, Benson canceled their season early due to lack of player turn out. Opportunities, funding and support are all factors that have made the discrepancy within the Class A system more apparent.
“I feel like we really don’t receive support,” Delgado-Hernandez said. “Schools are more populated and bring in more revenue, other schools don’t really get that.”
This led to a negotiation by Benson’s Athletic Director Deondre Jones to ensure a safe and controlled game against Millard South.
“With the 35 point rule the clock would be running from the start of the second half,” Jones said. “With the way their season has been going, that game was going to get out of hand (without guidelines). “
A lot of controversy has erupted from Millard South’s recruitment tactics.
Although recruitments from inner city Omaha to suburban schools have maintained popularity for decades, Millard South has recruited athletes from Kansas City and middle Nebraska, with 22 of their players living outside of Millard South’s attendance zone.
“No, (I don’t think player recruitment is fair) especially if some players from Texas are coming up here to Nebraska,” football player Elija Payne said. “Of course, we’re going to lose to that player because they play in Texas, it’s ruthless down there.”
Though this was a challenging game, confidence remained high with the football players.
“My expectations coming into this game was really to just focus on what we need to be doing, going in the right way, calling the right places, all that stuff,” Delgado-Hernandez said.
Due to widespread conversation regarding competition, NSAA board directors have voted 8-0 to implement new restrictions for the 2026-2027 football season. Districts will be eliminated, rather, teams will be put into tiers based off their last two seasons’ wild card points.
This display sparks the question of the integrity and competitiveness of the class system in high school football in Nebraska.
