At a meeting Tuesday night of Metro Conference football coaches, Kirk Peterson of Millard West said he was kidding around with Omaha North's Larry Martin that he knew the new statewide football schedules would have their teams opening the season against each other.

“I was giving him a hard time. I had no idea, obviously,'' Peterson said. “And it comes out that way.''

The Nebraska School Activities Association this morning released the 2010 and 2011 schedules for all 11-man and eight-man teams in the state. Jim Tenopir, the NSAA's executive director, said his staff achieved its top priority by getting full schedules for all teams.

Not all schedules are equal, however. Just ask Bellevue West coach John Faiman, who has a four-week stretch early in the season against Omaha Creighton Prep, Lincoln Southeast, Kearney and Millard North. In the 2010 season, the Thunderbirds play Southeast and Kearney on the road.

“I don't know how you make our schedule any stronger,'' Faiman said. “There's not anything close to a breather.''

Schools submitted priority lists of opponents to the NSAA for their non-district games. Tenopir said the NSAA staff “was very successful getting at least one game off the priority list for every school and in most cases more than one.''

The rematch of the teams in last year's Class A state final, Millard South and Millard West, will be the second week of the season.

Metro Conference teams will play 15 games outside the league.

Those games are Bellevue East-Lincoln Northeast, Bellevue West-Lincoln Southeast, Bellevue West-Kearney, Millard West-Southeast, Prep-Southeast, Omaha Benson-Norfolk, Omaha Bryan-Grand Island, Omaha Central-Lincoln East, Omaha Northwest-Fremont, Northwest-Lincoln High, Omaha South-Lincoln High, Omaha Westside-Lincoln Southwest, Papillion-La Vista-North Platte, Papillion-La Vista-Fremont and Papillion-La Vista South-Southeast.

None of the three Millard schools will play outside of the Metro, however, nor will Omaha Burke and Omaha North.

Elkhorn picked up some of its Eastern Midlands Conference rivals in its return to Class B after two years in Class A. The Antlers start with games against Waverly, Blair and Plattsmouth and have Nebraska City and Gretna, the latter a district opponent, later in the season.

Elkhorn finishes the year with a district game against its new sister school, Elkhorn South. The Antlers will be the visiting team against the Storm.

Elkhorn South debuts against Bennington, which joins Boys Town as Omaha-area schools moving into Class B from Class C-1. Also on the Storm's schedule are Omaha Gross, Norris, Schuyler, Blair, Waverly, Gretna and Elkhorn Mount Michael.

Boys Town trades a schedule against the likes of Douglas County West and Fort Calhoun for one in which five of the Cowboys' nine opponents — Plattsmouth, Elkhorn, Lincoln Pius X, Omaha Gross and Omaha Skutt — were in the 2009 Class A or Class B playoffs.

Ogallala, a traditional Class B school dropping to C-1 for the first time, got three of its Southwest Conference rivals — Cozad to open the year, Broken Bow in Week 3 and district opponent Gothenburg in the final week.

Last year's champions in Eight Man-1 and Eight Man-2, Howells and Humphrey St. Francis respectively, are in the same Eight Man-2 district after Howells dropped into the smaller of the classes and they square off in Week 7 the next two years.

Tenopir said more games have been scheduled for the opening weekend of the season in Class C-1 and below in order to achieve full schedules. The NSAA will allow practice for all teams to start at the same time as for Classes A and B, which have nine-game schedules compared to eight in all other classes.

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