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Week 8 football: what's at stake in 29 top-16 matchups
Unbeaten showdowns, cutoff ties and the full 29-game Week 8 slate of top-16 matchups, by NSAA wildcard average.
LINCOLN, Neb. — Twenty-nine Week 8 games on Thursday, Oct. 15, and Friday, Oct. 16, pair two teams ranked in the top 16 of their class by NSAA wildcard average, and 16 teams qualify for the playoffs in every class. In Class A, Millard South (7-0) is the leader (proj.), 1st of 36 by average (46.5714).
All ranks here come from NSAA's wildcard points pages as updated Oct. 15 at 7:49 a.m. CT. They are projections, not official seeds. "T-" marks a tie, and NSAA tiebreakers are not applied. The games come from NSAA's Week 8 schedule exports, and every kickoff is Time TBA.
Unbeaten collisions at the top
The headline game is in Class C2, where No. 2 Ord (7-0) visits No. 1 Grand Island Central Catholic (7-0) on Friday. GICC enters as the C2 leader (proj.), 1st of 33 by average (45.1429), so the game is a straight 1-vs.-2 with both teams unbeaten.
Class A has the deepest slate. T-2 Omaha Westside (7-0) goes to No. 4 Papillion-La Vista South (6-1). T-2 Bennington (7-0), the other half of that tie for second, plays at T-14 Lincoln Standing Bear (4-3). No. 10 Millard West (4-3) visits No. 5 Millard North (6-1), and No. 16 Creighton Prep (3-4), holding the last spot, plays at No. 6 Kearney (5-2).
Several class leaders also face top-16 opponents. In C1, the leader (proj.), Ashland-Greenwood (7-0), 1st of 30 by average (44.0000), hosts No. 12 Wahoo (5-2), while No. 2 Sidney (7-0) visits No. 15 Alliance (4-3). In Class B, Gretna (7-0), leader (proj.), 1st of 23 by average (44.8571), plays at No. 12 Norris (3-4), and No. 3 Scottsbluff (7-0) visits No. 13 McCook (4-3). Class B uses its district format for the playoffs, so its ranks show only the order by wildcard average.
The smaller classes have their own showdowns. In D6, the leader (proj.), Medicine Valley (6-0), 1st of 41 by average (44.5000), hosts No. 5 Southwest (4-2), and No. 6 Wallace (5-1) visits No. 3 Arthur County (5-1). In D1, No. 6 Crofton (6-1) visits No. 4 Hartington-Newcastle (7-0). In D2, No. 3 Loomis (7-0) plays at No. 16 South Loup (4-3).
Living on the cutoff
Two classes have exact ties at No. 16. In D3, Anselmo-Merna (5-2) and Southern Valley (5-3) are tied at 40.0000. Anselmo-Merna, tied (projected) at 16th, hosts T-5 Brady (7-0) on Friday. In D6, Cody-Kilgore, Mead and Sterling (all 3-3) are tied at 39.0000. Cody-Kilgore, also tied (projected) at 16th, opens the weekend Thursday at No. 15 Hay Springs (3-3), so both teams in that game are sitting right at the line (NSAA D3; NSAA D6, Oct. 15, 2026).
Other teams near the line face top-16 opponents too. In Class B, No. 16 Lincoln Pius X (2-5) hosts No. 6 Waverly (5-2), and No. 14 Elkhorn (2-5) hosts No. 9 Ralston (4-3) on Thursday. In Class A, No. 13 Elkhorn South (4-3) visits T-11 Lincoln Southwest (5-2) on Thursday.
Already decided on paper
NSAA's schedules already list five Week 8 games as 1-0. NSAA uses a 1-0 score for a result that was not played on the field, and it has not published a reason for these. They are Garden County over Banner County and Minatare over Sioux County in D6, Lawrence-Nelson over Weeping Water and Southern Valley over Overton in D3, and Meridian over Humboldt-Table Rock-Steinauer in D6 (NSAA D3 schedule; NSAA D6 schedule, retrieved Oct. 15, 2026). Those results are already in the points. Lawrence-Nelson (8-0) is the D3 leader (proj.), 1st of 41 by average (45.6250).
Elsewhere, Johnson-Brock (7-0) is the D1 leader (proj.), 1st of 40 by average (46.5714), and Shelby-Rising City (7-0) is the D2 leader (proj.), 1st of 36 by average (45.8571).
The full slate
| Day | Class | Away | Home |
|---|---|---|---|
| Thu. | A | No. 13 Elkhorn South (4-3) | T-11 Lincoln Southwest (5-2) |
| Fri. | A | T-11 Papillion-La Vista (5-2) | T-7 Elkhorn North (6-1) |
| Fri. | A | No. 16 Creighton Prep (3-4) | No. 6 Kearney (5-2) |
| Fri. | A | T-2 Bennington (7-0) | T-14 Lincoln Standing Bear (4-3) |
| Fri. | A | No. 10 Millard West (4-3) | No. 5 Millard North (6-1) |
| Fri. | A | T-2 Omaha Westside (7-0) | No. 4 Papillion-La Vista South (6-1) |
| Thu. | B | No. 9 Ralston (4-3) | No. 14 Elkhorn (2-5) |
| Fri. | B | No. 6 Waverly (5-2) | No. 16 Lincoln Pius X (2-5) |
| Fri. | B | No. 3 Scottsbluff (7-0) | No. 13 McCook (4-3) |
| Fri. | B | No. 1 Gretna (7-0) | No. 12 Norris (3-4) |
| Fri. | B | No. 8 Blair (6-1) | No. 10 Platteview (5-2) |
| Fri. | C1 | No. 2 Sidney (7-0) | No. 15 Alliance (4-3) |
| Fri. | C1 | No. 12 Wahoo (5-2) | No. 1 Ashland-Greenwood (7-0) |
| Fri. | C1 | No. 14 Auburn (4-3) | No. 9 Syracuse (5-2) |
| Fri. | C2 | No. 14 Omaha Brownell Talbot (4-3) | No. 4 Bergan Catholic (7-0) |
| Fri. | C2 | No. 2 Ord (7-0) | No. 1 Grand Island Central Catholic (7-0) |
| Fri. | D1 | No. 6 Crofton (6-1) | No. 4 Hartington-Newcastle (7-0) |
| Fri. | D2 | No. 12 Aquinas Catholic (5-2) | T-4 East Butler (6-1) |
| Fri. | D2 | No. 8 Hemingford (5-2) | T-9 Hitchcock County (5-2) |
| Fri. | D2 | No. 3 Loomis (7-0) | No. 16 South Loup (4-3) |
| Fri. | D2 | No. 11 Bertrand (5-2) | No. 14 Wilcox-Hildreth (4-3) |
| Fri. | D3 | T-5 Brady (7-0) | Anselmo-Merna (5-2; T-16, tied (projected)) |
| Fri. | D3 | T-5 Pleasanton (6-1) | T-7 Cambridge (6-1) |
| Fri. | D3 | No. 11 Falls City Sacred Heart (5-2) | No. 10 Deshler (5-2) |
| Fri. | D3 | No. 3 Archangels Catholic (6-1) | T-14 Leigh (6-1) |
| Thu. | D6 | Cody-Kilgore (3-3; T-16, tied (projected)) | No. 15 Hay Springs (3-3) |
| Fri. | D6 | No. 6 Wallace (5-1) | No. 3 Arthur County (5-1) |
| Fri. | D6 | No. 4 Lewiston (6-0) | T-9 Diller-Odell (5-1) |
| Fri. | D6 | No. 5 Southwest (4-2) | No. 1 Medicine Valley (6-0) |
All games: Time TBA (NSAA schedule exports, retrieved Oct. 15, 2026).
What comes next
The NSAA Class A bracket is still a blank template. The first round is Friday, Oct. 30, and the Class A final is Monday, Nov. 23, at 7:15 p.m. at Memorial Stadium in Lincoln, as shown on NSAA's Class A bracket page (retrieved Oct. 15, 2026, 6:16 a.m. CT).
Sources: NSAA wildcard points pages, updated Oct. 15, 2026, 7:49 a.m. CT: A, B, C1, C2, D1, D2, D3, D6.
