There won’t be any games played, but believe me when I tell you tomorrow is the biggest day of the New Jersey high school football season.
There will be a meeting in Robbinsville you see, and the future of New Jersey football is at hand.
Tuesday there will be a meeting of the Leagues and Conferences Committee down at the NJSIAA headquarters. Two representatives from every league and conference in the state will be there to discuss coming up with a plan on how to turn New Jersey into a state that plays it down to single group champions.
The Big North will be sending Denis Nelson (River Dell AD) and Ron Anello (Ramapo AD), the NJIC will be sending Art Mazzacca (Hawthorne AD) and Pat Tirico (Lodi).
Going into 2013, New Jersey is the last state in America that stops at sectional champions. California has a bit of a quirk, in that it has sectional champions and state champs, but in New Jersey, once we get to sectional champions, we stop.
The reasons are many fold and I won’t get into them all again. The short version is, some people don’t want to start too early, some people don’t want to end too late, some people are worried about playing more games leading to more injuries, some people are worried about messing with Thanksgiving Day games, and some people just think the system is fine just the way it is.
What you need to understand is that at the end of last spring, the NJSIAA voted to put changing the constitution and allowing group state champs on the full membership ballot in December.
(In other words, every school will get to vote on whether to play it down).
But New Jersey never had a plan before on just how to do it. River Dell AD Denis Nelson put out a plan which solves one of the biggest problems, the calendar. His plan called for starting a week early, dropping a regular season game (giving teams 8 total) and allowing them one or two consolation games. The season would basically still end the first week of December.
The idea going into Tuesday is that the members of the League and Conferences Committee will create a plan. Will it be like the Nelson plan? I don’t know.
If the vote passes in December, which I think it will, but it will be close. In January, whatever plan put forth by the Leagues and Conferences Committee is what will be adopted by the NJSIAA and implemented for the 2014 football season.
Now, the Big North Conference will have a lot of sway on just what is decided. Why? Because it is one of the biggest leagues in the state. It also has the top four programs in New Jersey in Bosco, Bergen, Joes and Paramus Catholic. Honestly though, this doesn’t that that much to do with the Holy Four.
Nelson, remember, one of the most powerful men in North Jersey athletics By the way, I can’t wait to do that list again in December has done his homework. He sent out an 11-question survey to all of the members of the Big North, essentially trying to create some consensus in what type of proposal the Big North would like.
Denis was nice enough to share the poll with me. The questions kind of reveal what is at stake here. I will paraphrase the questions.
1. How many groups should there be? (There are currently 5)
2. How many sections? (currently 4)
3. What day should practice start?
4. What day should games start?
5. When should the season end?
6. How many regular season games should there be?
7. Total number of games, including playoffs?
8. Number of teams that should qualify for the playoffs?
9. Number of consolation games?
10. Status of Thanksgiving games?
11. Number of scrimmages allowed?
I’m not sure what Denis’ survey has helped him find out. I called him and left a message, but whatever he found out is what I’m sure the Big North will put forth tomorrow.
So you see what I mean about Tuesday being important. It could change the course of New Jersey football for the foreseeable future.