Bishop Gorman football coach suggests playoffs fix for CCSD/NIAA split

Bishop Gorman football coach Brent Browner is having an optimistic approach as the Gaels get ready to begin their postseason.

The seasons for 30 CCSD football programs have been over for weeks after the principals moved them to independent status, making them ineligible to play for an NIAA state title and creating the Superintendents Cup format.

Gorman (9-1) hosts Faith Lutheran (6-4) at 7 p.m. Friday in an Open Division state semifinal. As a result of CCSD’s independence, the NIAA went to a unique playoff format where the loser of the Gorman and Faith Lutheran game will not be eliminated from the playoffs.

Friday’s loser will play the 5A Northern Region champion for the 5A state title. The winner will play third-place Losee for the Open Division state title.

“You see what’s happened in the valley, we could have been done weeks ago and that would have been the rest of their season,” Browner said Thursday, who noted he has seen kids from other schools come and watch Gorman games. “That’s not a thing any kid really wants to do. Now that it’s happened, you found out it wasn’t that cool.

“For us to be able to play is just cool, being able to play football, it doesn’t matter who it is, doesn’t matter who it’s against. Being able to play football with all the training and all the work for this little bit of games. … Hopefully we get to 13 games, so we work hard for 13 total games.”

After Gorman’s 54-0 win over CIVICA Academy last week, Browner said, to ensure all sides would still be playing football right now, there should have been a solution for the public schools to play for their own championship and private and charter schools to play for their own championship — and the two champions to meet in the end.

“We’re in a spot where we shouldn’t be because we could have come together,” Browner said Thursday. “There could have maybe been a private (school champion) and a public (school champion). You break off, (public schools) do their playoffs, (private/charter schools) do your playoffs, you win public school state champion, whatever you want to call it, and then you have another game in the end at Allegiant where to play the winner of the two (champions).”

Browner pointed to the previous two seasons, where Arbor View finished as the top public school in the state and then played Gorman for the Open Division championship as an example of how it could have played out — for a crowned public school state champion to play Gorman, or the private/charter school champion, in an end-of-the-year type of bowl/championship game.

“We had proposed and we had made so many concessions to try and help everything out, which nobody really knows about,” Browner said. “Put us on our own, when everybody goes to playoffs, we’ll play something and then we’ll come together at the end and play one big game.

“We already had the whole thing set up. We play a couple games in the state, play the rest out-of-state. … (Public schools) win whatever championship that is and at the end you play for the Open, the best versus the best for the Open state championship.”

The NIAA realignment committee is set to meet early in 2027 where it will discuss alignment structures and playoff formats for all sports. It’s expected CCSD representatives will push for some sort of separation between public and private/charter schools, whether it be for the whole year or only for the playoffs, to determine if they will come back into the NIAA or stay independent.

Some states, such as Hawaii, have private and public school state champions and the champions come together for a tournament of champions or bowl game. Browner said if the CCSD schools stay independent, it could have ripple effects for high school football in Southern Nevada and added other schools, such as IMG Academy or California schools could scoop up the top talent.

Browner believes the CCSD players who aren’t able to play at this time of year have lost opportunities to have more film or impress college recruiters in person while playing against Gorman.

“If you’re a good kid in the valley right now and you’re not doing everything you can to get to Bishop Gorman, what are you doing,” Browner said. “I hate to say it like that. Before you could go to these other places and still be good and do all those things and get opportunities. If you are a parent, you should do whatever you can to get in here.

“Your job as a coach is to prepare them to go to college. And not playing anybody, not playing hard talent, not doing all that stuff does not prepare a kid for what he’s going to walk into at college.”

Contact Alex Wright at [email protected]. Follow @AlexWright1028 on X.