Nevada high school football will have a different look in 2025. The Nevada Interscholastic Activities Association has created an Open Division for the next three seasons, starting with the ’25 season.
The Open Division will be the top four Southern Region teams using a rating system called the RHM rubric, which is the combination of three metrics — the NIAA’s own rubric (R), Harbin points (H) and the MaxPreps ratings (M).
Originally, on Tuesday, the NIAA voted to allow the Open Division championship to include all teams from across the state. However, Wednesday, the NIAA voted 8-3 to eliminated Northern Region teams from the Open Division playoffs.
Class 5A and 4A playoffs will be split between the north and south with the region champs playing for the overall state championship.
After the top four Southern Region teams are placed into the Open Division, the next eight highest-ranked teams, under the RHM rubric, will compete for the 5A Southern Region title. The eight highest-ranked 4A Southern Region teams will compete for the southern title.
In the North, the top four 5A and 4A teams in the regular-season standings will qualify for the region playoffs.
Under the new alignment, the number of state championship games has been reduced from seven to six.
