State championship football games in New Jersey. Public school state championship football games in New Jersey. It could happen in 2014.
Today was the NJSIAA Leagues and Conferences Committee meeting that I wrote about yesterday. Basically, the members of the committee were given a directive: Come up with a play for state champion football, or else.
They did. Now, it’s not a certainty that this will pass, but a road map…Lodi Coach Pat Tirico called it a “concept†is now out there.
Let’s examine it, and I think again, I will rely on the tried and true tactic of doing this question and answer style. If you have questions, fire away, or find me on Twitter.
What did the Committee come up with?
The Committee agreed to keep most things the same. Remember, this is all public school football we are talking about, there is some non-public impact, but we will talk about that later.
The Committee agreed to keept it as 5 groups (I still think down the road there will be more) with 8 teams per section make the playoffs, so 32 in eaach of the 5 groups total, Thanksgiving Day games are sacred and untouched. There will also be 9 regular season games.
So what is different?
The dates. The dates are different. By a quirk in the calendar and because of a NJSIAA waiver, the Holy Four plus a few other teams started football this weekend, the first after Labor Day. Most teams start this weekend. But in 2014 and 2015, the football season will start the first Friday in September, regardless of where Labor Day is. This is important because in 2014, games will be after Labor Day. In 2015, games will be (sorry to shout) BEFORE Labor Day. This is a big deal, because a lot of coaches and ADs dont want to do that. The way Denis Nelson explained to to me though (Denis is the River Dell AD/Big North Boss) just about every team is scrimmaging then any way, might as well play games. Practice will start approximately 3 weeks before the start of the season.
Then, since Thanksgiving is saved, and you are starting a week earlier but adding 2 rounds of playoffs, you have to extend the season a week. This means the state Group finals would be the 2nd weekend of December, the 12th/13th in 2014. The 11th/12th in 2015.
Wont it be cold?
The answer is yes. I even looked up the average temperature for East Rutherford (MetLife Stadium) that day, and the high is 44. But Denis said that wasn’t that big of a consideration. He said there was more talk about the impact on winter sports (read: kids missing basketball and wrestling practices) but since there would only be 10 schools playing in 5 state finals, the impact is minimal.
So how many games is the maximum?
14 games. Starting in 2014, an undefeated state championship team would be 14-0. That’s a lot of games. That’s also something that a lot of little school coaches and ADs are leery of. I’ve talked to a few very worried about concussions and injuries etc. This is one thing in this concept that people won’t like. I kind of thought the Nelson idea to play 8 regular season games was how this would shake out, but I guess not.
What about consolation games?
After a team has played its nine regular season games, and it doesn’t make the playoffs, Nelson said it would get 1 consolation game (Denis’ original play had called for two, but that was shot down). The team would have the option of playing that game in Week 10 or Week 11. Because a team that has a Thanksgiving Day game (let’s just say Dumont) may see its regular season end on Oct. 31, 2014 then choose to skip a week, then play its consolation game, say on the 14th (technically week 11), then play Tenafly on Thanksgiving the 27th. Instead of having a long lag time between games.
What about the non-public schools?
Honestly, I’m not sure they are going to like this concept, but they really have very few options. Right now, the way the concept would work is that the non-public schools would play 9 regular season games, and in 2014, start the playoffs on Nov. 7. They only need 3 rounds, which means they would end on Nov. 21 – the same day as what would be called the public school sectional champions. The max number of games they would get is 12. And there is something a little odd about a system where Ramsey HS can play 14 games (but would probably prefer to play less) and Bosco can play 12 (but would probably prefer more).
What could they do?
I asked Denis if those schools could schedule independent games after the season is technically over. He said no. But I bet if they wanted to file for a waiver, it could happen.
Another option would be to merge Groups 1/2 and Groups 3/4, that at least gets the non-public schools to 13 games. Or maybe they want to play Thanksgiving, Bosco-Joes sure would be a cool Thanksgiving Day game if they both won state titles the week before. But a Bergen/PC game on Thanksgiving after the two teams have just played in the state finals really isn’t.
I’ll be interested to see this going forward, because I could see this turning into a thing where, let’s say Bergen wins the Non-Public Group 4 state title in 2014 (that is my early pick by the way). They are No. 2 in the nation, and are done with their season on Nov. 20. So, they call up, I don’t know, the state champion from Michigan or Ohio or Pennsylvania and decide to play Dec. 4th. Could they do that? I don’t know, there are probably a lot of things I’m not thinking about, but I could see it happening.
So is this concept a done deal?
Oh, no. No, no. No.
Remember this is New Jersey and there are still layers and layers of red tape. In fact, this concept has several big hurdles to clear. It could be tweaked at any time. The big thing is in December, there will be a full membership vote of the NJSIAA (every school is allowed to vote, a lot don’t even come) to change the constitution and even allow public school state champs.
Wait, isn’t the vote in December on this concept?
No. The idea was, let everyone see what a plan could/would look like before they voted. If it passes in December, this concept would probably be the one implemented, maybe not in this way exactly, but most of it.
So, is the vote going to pass?
That is the biggest question of all. I kind of think it will. I think this concept gives enough people what they want, mainly, it saves Thanksgiving, which is still a huge deal in South Jersey (not so much by us). I think starting earlier is something people won’t like, but really, it was inevitable, and it’s what a lot of other states do. Personally, I don’t like ending so late….if only we had a domed stadium….but it is the only way. I think the Group 1s may not like it because of the length of the season if you make the playoffs, but some Group 1s want it because they want to find out who is the true state champ. I think most of your Group 3s, 4s and 5s will vote for this without question, since they don’t have the same worries about depth and kids playing multiple sports.