MIAA: 8 Super Bowls head back to Gillette

FRANKLIN — Gillette Stadium will once again host all eight high school Super Bowls later this fall, the Massachusetts Interscholastic Athletic Association announced at its football committee meeting yesterday.

MIAA associate executive director Richard Pearson revealed to the committee that along with the six Super Bowls scheduled for Saturday, Dec. 1, there will be two championship games at the Foxboro facility on Friday, Nov. 30.

“How fortunate we are that the Kraft organization and Bob Kraft himself really wants all the Super Bowls to be at Gillette Stadium,” Pearson said.

“It’s huge. … There’s no other venue like it. So in New England, if you don’t take on that one, you don’t got it. Everyone’s really pumped.”

Last year, the MIAA moved to a similar format after having the Divisions 1 and 8 state title games played away from Gillette in 2016 — the stadium can’t fit in eight games in one day.

It has yet to be determined what divisions will play on Friday night.

“We’re going to look at that as we get closer because it’s a Friday night and there’s two games on the Friday, which one will be in the 5 o’clock ballpark and one is going to be in the 7:30 ballpark. We got to find out logistically what can we make happen,” Pearson said.

The football committee also upheld the playoff format for the Divs. 1 and 2 sectional finals, which are de facto state semifinal matchups, and will appeal to the tournament management committee to allow the higher seed to continue hosting instead of switching to a predetermined site.

A plan was also formalized to address the challenge of switching from NCAA to National Federation of High Schools rules starting next season.

Another highlight from the meeting was the news that the Patriots will honor the coach and three players from the eight 2017 state championship teams at halftime of next Thursday’s game against the Indianapolis Colts.