Discussion of reduced player football continues
During the month of April, the Michigan High School Athletic Association (MHSAA) will continue its discussion of a possible football playoff division in a format of fewer than 11 players, a concept Posen High School remains very much interested in.
At the annual March meeting of the Association’s governing body, the representative council, last Friday, a timetable was approved that begins Thursday today with a planning committee meeting which will use input gathered during the winter from a series of meetings conducted in both peninsulas to develop a plan for the Council to consider at its annual spring meeting, May 3-5.
Impetus for a football playoff division in a reduced player format has come from small schools with declining enrollments – especially in the Upper Peninsula and the Thumb of Michigan – which wish to preserve the fall Friday night tradition that is so important to their communities.
THE FORMAT may also make it possible for other schools to create football programs that have not existed at all or for many years. Some schools in cooperative 11-player football programs with other schools may test the feasibility of a stand-alone program in a reduced player format.
The work of the planning committee will involve determining commitments from a minimum number of schools to move forward with the development of a playoff format; the enrollment limits for such a division; the effects of a reduced-player format on existing league and conference alignments; the involvement of the MHSAA in developing regular season schedules and schedule formats; post-season tournament and game formats; field dimensions; and how to best educate coaches, officials and players on a new format.
THE COUNCIL directed the planning committee to develop its work around an eight-player game, which is the most widely-used reduced player format for which the National Federation of State High School Associations (NFHS) writes playing rules. Over 16,000 stude
A draft plan from the first planning committee meeting will be distributed to Class C and D schools next week, seeking responses by the following week for the committee’s next planning meeting on April 21.
From there, the committee’s work will be examined by the MHSAA executive committee and the Upper Peninsula Athletic Committee at their regularly-scheduled April meetings, as well as an annual meeting of representatives of member nonpublic schools.
Representative Council action in May would likely be required for the launch of a reduced-player playoff division in the fall of 2010. Information gathered from the winter informational meetings conducted pointed towards interest in a reduced-player format, with the eight-player game the preferred choice. At one meeting, a group of schools agreed on their own to play some reduced-player format games during the fall of 2009.