In September 2020, I started a general survey of 1954. This was a great start and cataloged 1355 games. Additionally, this effort invited a change to the underlying score database. In additional column was added to the database, entryType. This column is used to record forfeits, open weeks, exhibitions, and scores with some type of incomplete information.
http://bcmoorerankings.com/2020/09/1954-iowa-high-school-football/
In this initial effort, I separated teams in two classes, generally large and small, with the large count of about 25.
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In 1954, the Iowa High School Athletic Association separated member schools into three categories: AA (largest), A (medium), and B (small). These classification were not sport specific.
Football classification began in about 1969 with the first discussions of football playoffs. Enrollments in 1970 were formally used in 1971 to name mythical 1971 state playoff qualifiers. Classes were: AAAA (700+ students), AAA (300 to 699 student), AA (175 to 299 students), and A (0 to 174 students).
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1954 IHSAA membership classifications:
AA – (400+ students)- 45 teams
A – (100 to 399 students) – 239 teams
B – (under 100 students) – 638 teams
Total – 922 teams
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High schools in 1954 played 3 different variations of football: 11-player, 8-player, and 6-player. Additionally, some high schools did not have a football team, noted as 0P.
class 11P 8P 6P 0P total AA - 45 0 0 0 45 A - 188 2 2 47 239 B - 60 11 38 529 638 total 293 13 40 576 922
And, so this links has the latest information and provides a great look into 1954 football.