Scheduling Controversy
November 14, 2017
A dozen years ago, I asked our counterpart organizations in other states if they scheduled their schools’ regular-season varsity football games. Very few did so.
More recently, I’ve realized that I didn’t ask enough questions. It turns out that few statewide high school associations tell schools who they play each week of the regular season. However, many more give schools the group of opponents they may schedule. They place schools in leagues and/or districts and/or regions and instruct schools to schedule from among those schools only or predominantly.
I have been waiting for the tipping point where a sufficient number of high schools in Michigan are sufficiently stressed over scheduling football games that they would turn to the MHSAA to solve the problem.
I’m anticipating this might occur first among schools playing 8-player football, and that success there will lead to our assistance for 11-player schools.
One approach – the simpler solution – would work like this:
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All 8-player schools within the enrollment limit for the 8-player tournament would be placed in two divisions on the basis of enrollment in early March. About 32 schools in each, based on current participation.
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At the same time, each division would be divided into four regions of about eight schools.
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In April, the schools of each region would convene to schedule seven regular season games for each school.
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Based on current numbers, schools would still have two open weeks to fill, if they wish, for games with schools in other regions or of the other division or in neighboring states.
A second option – the date-specific solution – would provide every school its weekly schedule for all nine dates, or weeks 1 through 8, or weeks 2 through 8, depending on local preferences. This would not be difficult in concept once there is agreement on what criteria would be used and what value each criterion would have.
For example, one important criterion would be similarity of enrollment; another of great value would be proximity. Perhaps league affiliation would be a factor with some value. Perhaps historic rivalries would be another factor with a value. Then the computer spits out schedules for each school for every week for two years, home and away.
I don’t campaign for this task because, frankly, it will produce complaints and controversy. But if this organization exists to serve, then this is a service that today’s chronic complaints tell us we should begin to provide soon.
I suggest we do this for 8-player football for the 2019 and 2020 seasons (with a paper trial run for 2018). If it proves successful, we could expand the service to 11-player schools as soon after as they are satisfied with our efforts for 8-player schools.
Century of School Sports: Fall to Finish with 50th Football Championships
By
Geoff Kimmerly
MHSAA.com senior editor
September 4, 2024
We’ve only just begun to celebrate the MHSAA’s 100th anniversary – a “Century of School Sports” dating back to our start Dec. 13, 1924.
This celebration just happens to coincide with another major milestone this fall – the 50th season of MHSAA Football Playoffs.
After decades of football champions being determined by media polls, the MHSAA offered its first postseason for football in 1975 – 16 teams qualified to compete across Class A, B, C and D. Livonia Franklin, Dearborn Divine Child, Ishpeming and Crystal Falls Forest Park, respectively, hoisted those first championship trophies.
The first year’s Finals were played at Central Michigan University and Western Michigan University, two games at each site, before moving to the Pontiac Silverdome the following season – the home for MHSAA football championships until their move to Ford Field in 2005.
Meanwhile, the playoff field grew to 32 teams – eight per class – in 1977, and again to 64 teams over four classes in 1985. Classes AA, BB, CC and DD were added in 1990, bringing the number of 11-player football championships to its current eight. The 11-player field and format expanded one more time in 1999, doubling to 256 teams total – 32 per division – with a fifth week of postseason games bringing the playoff schedule to its current five weeks.
As more small schools began to have difficulty sustaining their programs during the first decade of the 2000s, the 8-player format began to grow with the first playoffs for that division in 2011. The 8-player bracket was split into two divisions in 2017.
Football remains the most played sport in this state, and its playoffs the most attended MHSAA postseason tournament. As of this writing, an estimated 35,000 athletes representing 601 varsity teams are vying for championships this 2024 season. This year's Finals are Nov. 23 for 8-player and Nov. 29-30 for 11-player.
Now, for the fun facts:
- A total of 24 teams have qualified for the MHSAA Football Playoffs at least 30 of the first 49 seasons. Beal City and Crystal Falls Forest Park lead the way with 38 qualifying seasons, followed by Mendon with 37 and Fowler and Traverse City St. Francis with 36. Forest Park and Mendon’s totals include appearances in both the 11 and 8-player brackets. Farmington Hills Harrison remains tied for seventh on the list with 34 postseason appearances despite closing at the end of the 2018-19 school year. NOTE: The totals above do not include the 2020 season, when all schools were entered into the tournament as the regular season was shortened due to COVID-19.
- Rockford has the longest overall and active streaks of qualifying for the playoffs at 28 straight seasons, again not counting 2020 when all teams were added to the bracket. Forest Park at 26 seasons, Jackson Lumen Christi at 25 and Muskegon at 23 seasons are the next four on the overall and active streak lists (Muskegon is tied on the overall list with Felch North Dickinson’s run from 1991-2013).
- Farmington Hills Harrison still has the most appearances in 11-Player Finals, with 18, but with Detroit Catholic Central just one back and Lumen Christi with 16. Lumen Christi has won the last two Division 7 titles to move into a tie for the lead on the total 11-player championship list with 13, the same number won by Harrison during its mighty history.
- On the 8-player side, Powers North Central leads with five appearances in Finals and five championships having won all of them.
- The Jets also own the longest championship streak in 8-player, with three straight titles from 2020-22. Grand Rapids West Catholic from 2013-17, Harrison from 1997-2001 and East Grand Rapids from 2006-10 all have won five 11-player championships in a row, with eight more 11-player programs having won at least three consecutive titles.
This is but a glance at the playoffs’ past. MHSAA historian Ron Pesch has written several exceptional pieces on the MHSAA Football Playoffs for MHSAA.com, and these are a few of our favorites:
- “Culmination of Ideas, Cooperation Lead to Creation of MHSAA Football Playoffs”
- “Farwell Silverdome; Our Memories Live On”
- “Football Finals: Top 10 of the first 15 Years”
You also can check out a list of all-time playoff qualifiers and 11 and 8-Player Finals records by visiting the MHSAA Football Record Book.
Previous "Century of School Sports" Spotlights
Aug. 28: Let the Celebration Begin - Read
PHOTOS Clockwise from top left: (1) Oxford’s Carl Reaves (5) breaks a tackle during Oxford’s 20-13 overtime win over Grand Rapids Kenowa Hills in Class BB in 1992. (2) A Crystal Falls Forest Park ball carrier is wrapped up by a New Lothrop tackler during New Lothrop’s 34-13 win in Division 8 in 2006. (3) Muskegon and Detroit Martin Luther King players collide during the Crusaders’ 41-25 victory in Division 3 in 2018. (4) Schoolcraft’s Paul Garrison (75) applies the pressure during his team’s 42-7 win over Frankfort in Class D in 1988. (5) A Farmington Hills Harrison ball carrier pushes toward the end zone against Midland Dow in 1976; Dow would prevail 36-27.