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NJSIAA moves forward with big plans for changes in football playoffs

Sectional finals for public schools will be played at site of higher seed the weekend before Thanksgiving, with new "Bowl Games" as well as Non-Public finals all set for MetLife Stadium weekends of Nov. 23-24 and Nov. 30-Dec. 1.

Haddonfield football coach Frank DeLano celebrating the South Jersey Group 2 championship with his players last December at Rowan University. Starting in 2018, sectional title games will be played at site of higher seed.
Haddonfield football coach Frank DeLano celebrating the South Jersey Group 2 championship with his players last December at Rowan University. Starting in 2018, sectional title games will be played at site of higher seed.Read moreClem Murray/Staff Photographer

South Jersey-championship football games for public schools will be played at the site of the higher seeds instead of Rowan University under a playoff proposal that moved closer to implementation at the NJSIAA meeting Wednesday.

In addition, non-public state-championship games plus 10 new "Bowl Games" between public sectional champions will be played this season at MetLife Stadium, home of the NFL's Giants and Jets, on the weekends of Nov. 23-24 and Nov. 30-Dec. 1, under the terms of the proposal that was overwhelmingly approved by the NJSIAA's executive committee.

"It's uncharted territory," NJSIAA assistant director Jack DuBois, who oversees football, said of the massive changes to the sport's playoff format.

The executive committee will vote again on the proposal at its next meeting May 9. If approved again — which seems inevitable, since the vote Wednesday was 23-3 in favor with five abstentions — the changes will take effect for the 2018 football season.

Among other key changes:

  1. The NJSIAA has changed its power-point system to an NJ United Power Rank format to determine playoff participation and seeding. Under the new setup, the old power-point system will count for 40 percent of a team's ranking and the Born Power Index will count for 60 percent.

  2. In addition, every one of a team's games before the playoff cutoff after Week 8 will count toward a team's ranking. The ranking will be based on a team's overall number divided by the number of games played to account for the fact that teams are likely to have played seven, eight or nine games at the cutoff.

  3. A pilot committee will be formed to seed the Non-Public Group 4 and Group 3 playoff fields. The committee will use the teams' power ranking as a tool but not as the determining factor in the seeding of the 10-team field.

  4. A "multiplier" in power points will still be used for teams that play strong non-public programs. The non-public teams will be divided into four tiers for the purposes of determining the additional power points.

  5. Tier C includes South Jersey non-public schools St. Joseph of Hammonton, St. Augustine, Camden Catholic and Holy Spirit. Teams that play those schools will receive 42 points for a win and 28 points for a loss.

  6. Teams that play non-public teams that are in the top three tiers can receive multiplier power points for only one game.

  7. Teams will not earn multiplier power points for playing non-public teams in Tier D, which includes Paul VI, Gloucester Catholic, Bishop Eustace, Holy Cross and Notre Dame.

NJSIAA counsel Steve Goodell said the proposal presented to the executive committee Wednesday was the result of a "remarkable compromise" between backers of two new plans for playoff football.

Those plans, both of which were created in the spring of 2017, included the Coalition Plan that was proposed by officials from the West Jersey Football League and the Shore Conference, and the New Jersey Super Football Conference Plan.

"They reached an agreement I never thought was possible," Goodell said of the deal between officials from the southern and northern parts of the state.

The NJSIAA's executive committee votes Wednesday moved the state closer to the implementation of a new football format that was approved by the organization's general membership in December. In that meeting, the general membership approved changes that will include an eight-game regular season, with the playoffs starting in Week 9 (this year, that's Nov. 2-3).

Because of the earlier start of the opening round of the playoffs, the sectional finals for public schools will be held this year on the weekend of Nov. 16-17.

Those games have been held at neutral sites for several years, with most South Jersey finals being held at Rowan University since 2011. That championship weekend at Richard Wackar Stadium in Glassboro in early December, which often has featured three games on Saturday and three on Sunday, has drawn large crowds of both supporters of the participating teams and fans who were able to watch multiple games at one site.

Another new aspect of the playoff format will be the splitting of the state into Northern and Southern pools, with the top 16 teams in power ranking in each of the four public school groups in each section qualifying for the playoffs. Once those 16 teams are determined, northing numbers will be used to create the four sectionals, with the eight southern-most schools in the South section, the next eight southern-most schools in the Central section, and so on.

Other changes approved in December included an optional 10th game for teams that did not make the playoffs or are eliminated in the first round as well as the creation of the so-called "Bowl Games" that will match sectional champions in each of the four public groups.

Marlboro athletic director Dave Ryden, one of the creators of the Coalition Plan along with WJFL commissioner Bud Kowal, the athletic director at Ewing, said the Bowl Games would feature these matchups in the first two years of the new format: South champion vs. Central champion, and North 1 champion vs. North 2 champion.

If the format had been in place in 2017, the Bowl Game matchups involving South Jersey teams would have been Lenape vs. South Brunswick in Group 5, Shawnee vs. Long Branch in Group 4, Delsea vs. Somerville in Group 3, Haddonfield vs. Hillside in Group 2, and Paulsboro vs. Middlesex in Group 1.

Teams that participate in Bowl Games, or super-sectionals, likely will be playing their 13th game of the season.

Many observers believe the creation of the Bowl Games will lead to the creation of state-championship games for public schools by the 2020 season. Currently, the NJSIAA constitution prohibits state championships in football, although Goodell admits the organization bends its rules for non-public teams, which compete in state finals in three groups.

"We don't stand on ceremony," Goodell said, adding that the non-public state finals are a "function of the number of schools in non-public play."

Ryden said the new format was not created specifically with an eye toward leading to state-championship games for public schools.

"That's not what this is about," Ryden said. "This is about trying to come up with a system that works for everybody."