Sports

Proposal to Expand High School Football Playoffs Voted Down

Two-thirds of NJSIAA voting membership keeps postseason structure capped at sectional title games.

An overwhelming majority of North Jersey Interscholastic Athletic Association (NJSIAA) members voted to keep the high school football playoff structure as is, rather than expanding the postseason out to group championships.

That vote, according to mycentraljersey.com, received 183 no votes to just 95 yes tallies, with three abstentions.

The vote was to eliminate a single sentence stating “No state championship, however, shall be declared in football,” the report said. In doing so, it would have allowed public schools to play beyond the sectional title game starting in 2014.

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This year’s sectional title games will be played between Dec. 6 and 8, crowning 24 champions across the state.

This was the third defeated vote on the expansion in the past six years, mycentraljersey.com reported, and was proposed by the Big North Conference in northern New Jersey.

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What do you think of the high school football playoff structure? Should it be expanded or kept as is? Was this the right decision by the NJSIAA membership?


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