High School Football Playoff Expansion Proposal To See Revisions

A proposal that would dramatically change the high school football playoff structure in New Jersey will undergo some revisions of its own before the NJSIAA votes on it later this year, nj.com reports.

The proposal calls for reducing the number of geographic sections used for the public schools in the state to two, with seven groups in each section, making for a total of 14 sections.

Currently, there are four geographic sections (North I, North II, Central and South) and five groups, making for a total of 20 sections.

However, the number of teams that make the playoffs in each section would be doubled, from eight to 16, according to the report. This means 224 teams would make the playoffs. Currently, 160 public schools compete in the postseason.

The three non-public school sections would remain untouched, but the number of playoff teams would increase from eight to 12 in each section. That means every team in groups 3 and 4 would make the playoffs.

The regular season would still be eight or nine games long, but teams would have to either play from Week 0 to Week 8, or start at Week 1 and use Thanksgiving Week.

The power points system would remain mostly the same, but with minor changes. Those changes were approved by the NJSIAA Football Committee this week on a trial basis, according to the report.

The goal is to make regular season scheduling more fair.

Patch file photo