Football Committee Votes to Support Regional Playoffs

By Sheldon Shealer

Jan. 10

As expected, the Maryland high school football committee voted Friday to support a proposal of a regional playoff format to the Board of Control, extending the season by one week and doubling the number of playoff teams.

The football committee had the option of supporting or not supporting either the regional plan or another plan that would have created additional divisions within the current classification system.

"We worked hard on this for a year and a half, trying to deal with [the needs of those involved] and create the best situation, and this is it based on the feedback," football chairman Jon Cox said of the regional format.

The proposed format will allow four teams from each region to advance to postseason play. The first two rounds will be against regional opponents. From that, the four region champs advance to the state semifinals. The proposal has its supporters who see expanding the number of teams involved and extending the season by a week as positives. The only drawback to such a plan is the obvious inequity in ability of teams from different regions. Now, teams from the same county could advance to the state final. Providing no county is split among regions, that will be impossible in the near future. While that turns off several who have become accustomed to seeing all-Montgomery County or all-PG finals (or even semifinal matchups), this option is in keeping with how other sports playoffs are contested. The most significant outcome of this proposal, if accepted, will be the state adding a 14th Week for football and allowing 16 teams into the postseason. Once adding a 14th Week, it could be possible to alter the playoff format in the future (such as reducing the number of regional guarantees to two, then adding wild cards, OR having a 1 vs. 16, 2 vs. 15, 3 vs. 14 format, etc.)

The Board of Control meeting is April 26 in Ocean City. If the playoff expansion is accepted, it will move to the Superintendents meeting, which is held every month. It needs to pass these last two hurdles to become a reality for the fall. According to Cox, this is the furthest a postive playoff expansion proposal has gone since the expansion of 1985. In the mid-1990s, a playoff expansion was put before the Board of Control, but the football committee had voted not to support that attempt, and it died at the Board of Control meeting.

Two other issues for the football committee Friday resulted in no decisions. First, with the new classifications, the football committee had the task of altering Class 1A for football purposes since not all 1A schools offer football. That issue stalled because there is talk about splits and mergers all around the state. One thing on the table is the possible split of Lake Clifton into three 1A schools. Because there's nothing solid on that front, the committee could not settle the final 1A classifications.

Another issue still in limbo is the site and dates of next year's state finals, and that is tied into the playoff proposal. The football committee cannot decide on a location and/or dates until it knows whether or not the season will extend to a 14th week.