New playoff proposal may need tweaking

Several members of the MIAA Football Committee confirmed meeting with the Tournament Management Committee a week ago regarding the new statewide playoff proposal.

How much progress was made in swaying the TMC is a matter of opinion.

At Tuesday’s regularlyscheduled committee meeting, football chairman Jay Costa felt a three-hour meeting resulted in some healthy dialogue, though others felt it was going to be a long, uphill climb to convince the TMC that the new-look postseason format was going to succeed.

“I’m not sure it will fly right now,” Costa said. “There may have to be some tweaking involved.”

The architect of the new format is Milton football coach Steve Dembowski. While many feel the proposal has some good points, one of the biggest concerns stems around the fact that the season would extend into mid-December. Not surprisingly, many winter coaches have voiced their displeasure over their season possibly being compromised.

“All we are looking to do is provide an equitable experience for every team, not just the (best) programs,” Dembowski said. “I know some people don’t like cutting the number of playoff teams (from 16 to 8), but right now 33 percent of the teams making the playoffs have a losing record.”

In other news, despite the friction over having state championship games held during the week at Gillette Stadium last December, attendance was up for the eight title contests. MIAA associate executive director Richard Pearson said the games being spread out over three days allowed teams to remain on the field after the game for the championship ceremony. In past years when five to six championship games were held on a Saturday, teams were rushed off the field and had to climb through the stands for the postgame ceremony in a cramped portion of the stadium.

There was some discussion about teams being able to play nine games, this being a calendar year in which eight games can be played in a nine-week window. Since it could happen again next year, several committee members suggested looking into this further for the 2025 season.

The tournament will have a different look next year as Scott Paine will be stepping down from his duties as statewide tournament director. Pearson lauded the work Paine has done in making the postseason run smoothly. He said the MIAA will be looking to fill the vacancy as soon as possible.