I think a reasonable compromise would be to switch 4A from 32 playoff teams (four per district) to 24 (three per district) and give the eight district winners a bye for the Wednesday games. Have #3's play #2's on Wednesday and the winners of those go up against #1's on the following Monday.
This makes tons of sense. The state only loses out on 16 games, the district winners get the benefit of a bye week, and only about half of 4A makes the playoffs.
The IHSAA has a major stick up their butts about byes, though. They claim that's too much of an unfair advantage, and therefore will never do it.
For 2014, interestingly enough, this plan would not have kept 2-7 Kennedy out of the playoffs. They finished third in their district, ahead of 4-5 Cedar Rapids Jefferson. So it wouldn't totally clean things up. The other 2014 4A qualifiers out under this setup are Des Moines East (4-4), Sioux City East (6-3), Des Moines Lincoln (3-6), Indianola (5-4), Cedar Rapids Prairie (4-5), Davenport Central (4-5), and Clinton (2-7). So two teams with winning records are out of the playoffs, while Kennedy and 4-5 Council Bluffs Abe Lincoln still would be in.
Worst records to make this year's playoffs in other classes:
3A - Dubuque Wahlert (3-6)
2A - Six teams in at 4-5
1A - Two teams at 3-6
A - Three teams in at 4-5
8-player - Stanton (3-6)