CIAC’s plan to expand football playoffs falls short

The decision to expand the high school playoffs as it was approved by the CIAC Board of Control on Tuesday had 88% survey backing of the state coaches and more than 90% by the member schools.

“Very strong agreement,” CIAC associate executive director Gregg Simon said.

In a sport and a state where it is difficult to gain a large majority on any matter, those numbers stand as close to unanimous as you can get.

The coaches, the ADs, the principals are the people closest to the sport and to the school resources. If nine out of every 10 of them believe in expanding from four divisions and 32 playoff teams to six divisions and 48 teams, their postseason convictions should and will be done.

I would have voted against the proposal.

Without addressing the problems involving the technical schools or the three leagues refusing to play outside their conference and in CT Football Alliance games, the decision essentially stands as dilution of talent to include 12 more schools in the playoffs.

Cynics from big football states will look at tiny Connecticut and mock six champions and 48 playoff teams from 138 total programs.

Let them mock. They mock Connecticut football anyway.

Traditionalists within the state will cry for fewer playoff teams and not more. Two teams, leather helmets, no divisions and no forward passes would be mandatory satisfy some of those folks. And that’s only after they walk 5 miles uphill both ways in the snow to the games.

Look, it is not a shock the football coaches would like to see more teams in the postseason. Right now, most have got to win at least 80% of their 10 games to get there. A few will squeak in with 70%. In other CIAC sports it is 40% or even less. Football is the one sport in some Connecticut towns where a .500 record will get you forced out by parents and alums.

Forty-eight teams are fine, if they are the correct 48 in the correct divisions and qualify with equitable scheduling standards. That has not happened with this adopted proposal.

“The four coaches that are lead members of the (Connecticut High School Coaches Association) for football, we met and coming out of COVID addressed what were the things we could do to grow the sport,” said Hamden AD-coach Tom Dyer, who

also serves as the CHSCA rep to the CIAC football committee. Participation numbers were shrinking.

“One thing we thought was important was trying to expand the playoffs. We put a proposal together and this is something that has been done before. It’s not like we can come up with something revolutionary. Frankly, we felt the proposal is good for kids. It gives more of them access to the playoffs. We think it will allow teams to be more competitive and will help programs.”

As Dyer pointed out, there is precedent. A sixdivision format was used from 2002 to 2009 before the current four-division format and additional quarterfinal round was implemented in 2010. In response to medical recommendations over contact, a stretched-out schedule led to a 1-year model of eight divisions in 2014.

Dyer said the coaches were hopeful to implement the proposal this year, but by the time they had everything together last spring for a proposal it was a little too late to be vetted by various CIAC committees.

“Really, it was a matter of the CHSA and the coaches in the state wanting it to happen,” Simon said. “That was the impetus.”

If the coaches are correct and keeping kids more invested after, say, an 0-2 start leads to more postseason experiences and attracts more overall participation, that’s a good thing for the sport.

Simon said its medical committee cleared the proposal with minor tweaks.

With 14 more playoff games, a couple of minutes of contact each week will be reduced. So that part is negligible.

CIAC executive director Glenn Lungarini said the Thanksgiving schedule was not part of the conversation. That’s not negligible.

“If there’s any interest or thoughts by coaches or members schools, they’re welcome to present a proposal to the CIAC,” Lungarini said. “Thanksgiving was never part of the proposal.”

Without moving off regular-season Thanksgiving dates, it’s impossible to have four divisions with 12 playoffs teams (four byes) or even 16 teams and not run into Christmas. Traditionalists and those schools that use big Thanksgiving gates to fuel athletic programs have won out for the foreseeable future. With some CIAC approvals, there’s a 1-year cap and revaluation. Not in this case.

“Speaking for the coaches association again,” Dyer said, “we have member schools and coaches and communities that believe hard that the Thanksgiving Day game is an important tradition in their programs. We looked for scenarios: how do we keep that and grow? That’s how we settled on this proposal.

“Being a coach for a while, I don’t know if anything ever voted from football coaches had that strong (88 percent) support.”

Lungarini and Simon said the proposal was to change the number of divisions, yet still base them on enrollment and the tournament success factor in potentially moving schools of choice.

“No discussions of any other types of divisions,” Simon said. “There never has been a discussion on the football committee about the technical schools. They’re members of the CIAC in good standing, play for tournaments, work really, really hard and deserve a right to play in our championships.”

“The tech schools are members of our association just like public schools, magnet schools and private schools,” Dyer said. “We felt from the beginning any team that was having a successful year has the right to make the playoffs. I know a lot of people are concerned about it, but right now those teams have won their games. Hopefully, good things will happen for them in the future.”

There is no way Cheney Tech and Thames River belong in the Class L playoffs. It is a disservice to the superior teams they could replace. It is a disservice to them to have to play St. Joe’s, Windsor or Maloney. In 27 tries, no tech or techincluded co-op has won a playoff game. The scores mostly are terribly lopsided.

There must be a fair and equitable way to match them with some of the co-op teams in a division. The techs play with smaller rosters, kids are engaged in work-based learning, they don’t have big coaching staffs. When it comes to using enrollment figures, one St. Joe’s football player does not equal one tech player.

And since the Connecticut Technical Conference, Naugatuck Valley League and Pequot have yet to join the alliance, there is no way to judge them against other conference teams in their

CIAC classification. A statistical guessing-game formula is used.

“I think ultimately in any proposal we were looking for what was best for all our membership and the kids,” Dyer said. “Any proposal separating anybody in another type of way wasn’t part of the proposal or even discussed.

“When we built this we tried to look at it universally. If you try to look at it through just one lens there is always somebody who will have a problem with this. As the alliance grows and things grow, I think ultimately you’re seeing positive changes.”

There currently are 34 Class LL, 35 Class L, 35 Class M and 34 Class S schools. A six-division format, on paper, would average 23.

Numbers vary year to year, but the second division (Class L) could have Darien, Fairfield Prep, New Canaan, Maloney, Shelton, Cheshire, Xavier and, whatever, is decided on by St. Joe’s. Wow.

“Before it looks at the names of the schools, the football committee sets the divisions,” Simon said. “It’s done blindly. In some sports, especially basketball, S will have a lot more schools to make sure there are enough that reach the 40 percent (win) threshold, or 30 percent now for girls. With only eight per division in football, those divisions pretty much tend to be the same size.

“That’ll be one of the first questions with the football committee when we meet again in the springtime.”