Those expecting any concrete action by the MIAA’s Tournament Management Committee regarding the latest MIAA Football Committee postseason proposal will be disappointed.
One day after the MIAA Football Committee proposed a new postseason format ahead of the 2025 season, the Tournament Management Committee on Thursday elected to table any vote on the matter until its March 19 meeting. There was clear sentiment that little support exists for the plan.
A resounding ‘no’ vote at the TMC’s next meeting would be of little surprise. On Oct. 24, the TMC voted down a submission from the football committee for a new playoff format with a 15-1 vote against. This latest proposal, spearheaded by Milton head coach Steve Dembowski and approved by a 6-5 vote by the football committee, provides little tweaks to one already rejected by the TMC.
“I can’t give anyone here an idea of why the football committee decided to pretty much send the same format again,” TMC chair and Burlington athletic director Shaun Hart said. “We’ve done a lot of things with the football committee’s Jay Costa to keep the wheels turning. I’d certainly like to follow up about other possibilities.”
Wellesley athletic director and TMC member John Brown said the current proposal is not feasible, but asked for another ‘co-committee’ meeting between members of the TMC and the football committee meeting prior to March.
“This was voted down the first time in a big fashion after very little discussion,” Brown said. “I don’t want to see that happen again. This proposal does not seem feasible. But the football committee is trying to improve their sport. We need to help them.”
Hart and Brown said they plan to reach out to Costa, Shrewsbury’s athletic director and football committee chair, to discuss possible amendments to the plan. Under the current submission to the TMC, the football regular season would last through Thanksgiving before an eight-team postseason that carries over two weeks into the winter season. A football tournament format for the fall 2025 season will need to be approved over the next eight weeks.
The TMC approved the spring 2025 formats for all sports. Formats for the fall and winter of 2025-26 were approved for soccer, basketball, and wrestling.
Discussion arose over a trio of hot-button topics within sports committees – divisional alignments, the return of the Division 1A ‘Super Eight’ Tournament, and margin of victory. Hart said at the TMC’s next meeting in March, a grid will be provided that showcases how many divisions per sport were recommended when the statewide tournament format was voted on in February 2020 compared to the breakdown today.
“Sizes of sports have changed since 2020 and we have to acknowledge that,” Hart said. “We want to make sure we are making divisional alignments in coordination with the sport committees.”
Blackstone Valley Tech athletic director Mike Denise said there is an interest from the baseball committee to bring back the Division 1A Tournament. Scituate athletic director Scott Paine said the support for boys and girls ice hockey to have a 1A Tournament is strong, while Dedham principal James Forrest said lacrosse wants to explore it further. No action was taken on any Division 1A Super Eight matters.
Plymouth South principal Patty Fry voiced concern over the current power rankings system’s reliance on margin of victory. Fry said she has twice seen the need to win, or keep the game within, 10 points, impact basketball games in their waning moments. Hart said data provided by MIAA assistant director Jim Clark shows scoring margins in basketball games has not been impacted since the MIAA adopted its margin of victory reliant formula.
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