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| Captains of the 2013 Mansfield football team celebrate their Super Bowl victory. |
Before we continue, I want it on the record that I am a traditionalist at heart where high school football is concerned.
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| The blogger writing a game story in 1969. |
I grew up in the era in which high school teams played just nine games from September to November, including Thanksgiving. And that's when the season ended, period. No playoffs. No Super Bowls. No ratings systems. The Boston papers, all of them (Globe, Record American, Herald-Traveler) picked the eastern Massachusetts champions subjectively, in maybe three enrollment-based classes (now called divisions), and everyone was happy.
Well, apparently not everyone. In 1972, the Massachusetts Secondary Schools Principals Association (predecessor to the Massachusetts Interscholastic Athletic Association) felt the need to assume responsibility for selecting divisional champions, and thus the Super Bowls were born. Two competing teams were chosen by way of a complicated mathematical formula, and they played nine days after Thanksgiving. And everyone was happy.
Well ... apparently not everyone. The football postseason has taken so many twists and turns since 1972, it would be impossible for me to list all of the playoff plans here. In a nutshell, the number of divisions were increased. Then it was deemed necessary to have more competitors in the postseason, so the mathematical formula was scrapped and league champions were made automatic qualifiers, four per division. First they crowned Division *A and Division *B champions, creating as many as 10-12 "Super Bowl champions" in just the eastern part of the state. Then it was deemed necessary for the those teams to play each other, so it was ordered that there would be a semifinal round played on the Tuesday after Thanksgiving (five days after the holiday) and the Super Bowls would be played on the following Saturday (four days later). And then they created six divisions and they all played at Gillette Stadium, and everyone was happy.
Well ... again, not everyone. Some didn't like the condensed playoff schedule, squeezing three football games into a 10-day period. Some said that six divisions weren't enough, and the smaller schools didn't have a fair chance. Some didn't like that the games were changed (shorter quarters, fewer timeouts) to squeeze all the Super Bowls into one day at Gillette Stadium. And the folks from Western and Central Massachusetts raised holy hell over the fact that only the Eastern Massachusetts teams played at Gillette Stadium, and they wanted in. And finally, younger coaches looked at the playoff systems of other states where the holiday did not play a role in high school football scheduling, and they envied the system that would create true state champions, so they offered plan after plan to the MIAA until they finally broke down the state association in 2013 by finding a way to maintain Thanksgiving football while at the same time creating a multi-round playoff schedule (teams qualifying through a mathematical formula) that still ended on the first week of December -- although now, with eight divisions, the MIAA needed to prevail upon the Kraft family for two consecutive days of access to Gillette Stadium.
And that's where we basically stand today, and everyone is happy. No, I'm just kidding.
The current playoff system does have its flaws. The regular season lasts only seven weeks, which many believe is far too short. League championships no longer play a role in qualification. Too many teams with losing records qualified in the sectional tournaments. And teams that don't qualify for the playoffs or are eliminated still need to fill a month's worth of football weekends, so "consolation" games were created out of a pool of the lost and forlorn, creating three weeks of games that lack excitement, energy or buzz.
So, some member coaches of the Massachusetts High School Football Coaches Association came up with yet another plan, proposed to start with the Fall 2021 season. And it's high school football's version of "Back to the Future."
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| Feehan's captains enjoyed their "media day" at Gillette. |
In this plan, the playoffs would not begin until after Thanksgiving, following a 10-game regular season. Eight teams would qualify in each division, and the first round of the playoffs would be on the Tuesday following Thanksgiving (five days later). Then the semifinal round would be played on the following Sunday (Want to watch the Patriots? Not if you're in the playoffs.), and the finals would be the Saturday after that -- which means that this year (for the purpose of explanation only), the football season would end on Dec. 12, forcing the adjustment of the entire high school sports calendar and pushing the winter sports back a week.
Well, the MIAA's Tournament Management Committee already has a plan for the future, part of the advent of statewide tournaments in all sports that was approved by MIAA member schools in February, and it does not include playing everything after Thanksgiving. So the MHSFCA's plan was not even discussed at recent meetings discussing alignments, and that has pissed off a few coaches who have taken to social media to claim that the state association "does not understand that football is unique."
Well, I have a solution. And those coaches are not going to like it.
In the statewide tournament -- which is a given, no matter what -- I propose a
10-game regular season starting on the last week of August and including one bye week if needed. The season will end on the first weekend of November, with
16 teams qualifying for the playoffs in each of the divisions by the use of a mathematical formula. The playoffs begin with eight games per division on the second week of November, four games on the third and two games on the fourth, followed by the
Super Bowls on the first weekend of December as always. The larger playoff field would reflect the larger pool of available teams, from North Adams to Nauset and everywhere in-between.
The 10th week of the season would be reserved as "rivals week," when teams would play their traditional rivals or at least try to find games with some sort of special appeal. And once the playoffs begin, there are no non-qualifying teams playing and no consolation games. Once your season is done, you are through. Ten games should be enough of a football season for teams that probably don't want to play on any further. The early start is a little problematic, but it could be adjusted as the calendar falls to the first week of September with possibly the elimination of the bye week.
And there would be no Thanksgiving high school football. The holiday will be for family dinners, rest and reflection, and the Dallas Cowboys, Detroit Lions and whomever NBC gets for the night game -- just as it is for most of the rest of the nation.
Why kill off a tradition that's practically unique to this corner of New England, you ask? Because it's dying already.
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| This time, the coaches are the ones fumbling the ball. |
I had a recent argument on Twitter with an unidentified coach about this very topic, and his retort every time I made note of the decline in high school crowds was that the athletic directors would never surrender the one game a year that makes them money. But how much are they really making these days? It's got to be a lot less than just 10-15 years ago.
I have been at a high school game on Thanksgiving every year since 1965 with just three exceptions, and I have covered Thanksgiving games for newspapers or in my new role as a broadcaster without interruption since 1977. I have covered most of the big games of long tenure in our area -- Attleboro-North Attleboro, Mansfield-Foxboro, Franklin-King Philip, Dighton-Rehoboth vs. Seekonk, and even a few games at Norton, Bishop Feehan and Tri-County thrown in for good measure. And I can say without fear of contradiction that the overflow crowds of my youth and even into the 1990s are things of the past.
I'll admit, the playoff system has had an effect. Thanksgiving games no longer count toward league titles or determine playoff berths, and in some cases, they've become glorified scrimmages -- although to their credit, our local coaches have approached the games with respect and competitiveness even if they risked their future in the playoffs with an all-out effort on the holiday.
But the games aren't what they used to be, and there are other reasons why. First, football is no longer the only game in town. Sports fans of multiple generations don't flock to the hometown fields as they used to because they weren't raised under the premise that no other sport mattered. And even if a lot of recent graduates show up, it's mostly to socialize and not to pay attention to the games.
Two years ago, I worked the North TV telecast at Attleboro High for the North vs. Attleboro game, spending four hours suspended 80 feet above field level in a coaching riser amid 10-degree temperatures to provide the color commentary. There were maybe 1,000 people in the stands at Tozier-Cassidy Field, if that many, because it was just too goddamned cold to bother. In days past, I thought, the game would have been such an event in the two rival communities that 5,000 or more would have braved the cold to cheer on their teams. That's just not the case any more.
Even last year, I was disappointed with the turnout of the Franklin-King Philip game at KP. Both teams came in at 7-3 and both had been eliminated from the playoffs, which may have contributed to the disinterest. The day started with a little rain but ended up being a nice, temperate day for late November, but there were still "plenty of good seats available" throughout KP's 14-0 win over the Panthers.
I'm sorry, I just don't see a super-condensed playoff schedule after the holiday as being much of a boost to the sport. It wasn't the first time they tried it, and an overriding concern was that it was asking too much of high school athletes to play three emotional and intense football games in the space of just 10 days.
What's more, in the midst of the argument when the coach claimed to me that money talked and that would guide the decision to restore Thanksgiving to past glories, I responded that it was a pretty lousy lesson to be giving the kids, that money is the only reason to put their bodies at risk. And I said that if money had been the guiding principle in 1972, the federal government would have never adopted Title IX of the Education Reform Acts, which mandated equality for women in athletics, because women's sports just don't rake in the cash.
The football coach got very upset, claiming it was "ridiculous" that I was making this a Title IX issue -- which I clearly was not, because I never suggested it. But later, when I had a chance to think about it, maybe it is after all. After all, Title IX mandates equal expenditures, equal access to facilities and equal equipment, and I guarantee you that there is no equivalent sport offered to female athletes that would involve the same financial investment as football.
Now, I know there will be those that will howl in protest over my suggestion that Thanksgiving games be eliminated. Most of them will be old farts like me. The "Males 60-80" demographic may be the last still-alive generation for whom Thanksgiving football was the biggest thing since sliced bread. But I suggest that with playoffs having been a part of the athletic psyche since 1972 and the current format having been in place since next year's seniors were in fifth grade, opinions and attitudes are changing.
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| Teams appreciate state championships more than holiday games. |
To be honest, I think the youngsters will be happy to play when and where the games are. And wasn't the whole idea of the switch to a playoff system, to be inclusive? To get more teams participating in playoffs? The coaches of 7-10 years ago were determined to get a playoff system that resembled those in other states and they got their wish, and I honestly think the kids of today love playing for championships as much as kids of a prior generation loved playing on Thanksgiving, but this system was doomed from the start because some coaches just can't let go of a waning past.
As I said, I'm a traditionalist. I loved Thanksgiving football. But I have come to enjoy these playoffs now. And I want to see them continue -- but without infringing upon the next season in line.
The coach with whom I argued seemed to believe that winter-season coaches would not mind having their seasons pushed back another week by football's largesse. Well, this guy clearly has not been talking to the coaches I know. Not a single one to whom I've spoken on the topic believe that football should impose its wishes upon another season by a single extra minute. To me, a football schedule that extends into the second week of December should be an absolute non-starter.
If you'd like to see a head-to-head comparison of the playoff formats being discussed,
follow this link to the state football coaches association's web page. There are a few opinions added that are skewed in the coaches' direction, as one might expect, but it's still an accurate representation of the two plans.
And before I close, a note to the football coaches of the commonwealth -- I'm not against you guys. I love your sport and have my whole life. One of its greatest joys has been my covering football at all levels, and my recent reincarnation as a play-by-play announcer doing the King Philip games on North TV's Plainville Channel has been the fulfillment of a lifelong dream to put the voice God gave me to good use calling sports on TV.
But I am sick and tired of this constant bickering over football playoff formats. Especially since the dawn of the 21st century, it seems that nobody can get on the same page about anything, and at the center of all the disputes is Thanksgiving football.
If the Turkey Day games were as popular and filled as tradition as they once were, I'd prop them up just like you are. But they aren't. For every rivalry that remains vital after 60 years or more, there are at least two or three that are of much more recent vintage and were created solely because enrollment shifts created untenable scheduling situations and forced belabored schools to seek more equitable competition.
No, maybe the time has come to shift the rivalries to earlier in the season, when it's warmer and excitement is building for the playoffs, and just let the holiday be the holiday. Some will regret this for obvious reasons, but the reality of today is that the list of vital, long-term rivalries has dwindled to a precious few -- and if the result of eliminating the holiday as a playoff date disappoints those, I can almost guarantee you that a better playoff system will benefit the sport as a whole a lot more going forward.
Until the next time that everyone is not happy, of course. It wouldn't be Massachusetts high school sports if someone wasn't complaining about something.
