NHIAA makes changes - one little, one big - to football for 2017
With the start of the football regular season just over a week away, the NHIAA announced two changes Thursday at the annual media day for 2017.
With the start of the football regular season just over a week away, the NHIAA announced two changes Thursday at the annual media day for 2017.
One was a change that was in the works since the end of last season, while the other was a last-minute move necessitated by Trinity High School's decision to not have a varsity team this season.
The first change was to the Division III playoff format, which will now be the same as Division II. For the last three seasons, the D3 postseason matched teams from opposite conferences for the quarterfinals, with the top seed from one side playing the No. 4 team from the other.
That setup meant a team that finished fifth on one side, but had a better rating than the fourth place team on the other side, would miss the playoffs. That scenario happened in 2016, with Kearsarge (5-3, 9.5 rating) coming in fifth in the North Conference, but missing out while Winnisquam (5-3, 9.25) and Somersworth (4-4, 7.0) both made the postseason out of the South.
This year, both Division II and III will be seeded the same. The top two teams from each conference will get the No. 1 and 2 seeds, and then next six best teams - based on rating - will also advance.
The playoff format for Division I remained the same, as the top four teams from each cluster will advance to the playoffs. This year's clusters are North and East, while the South and West play each other.
Trinity's decision to not play a varsity schedule meant there were several teams in Division II that would be playing an eight-game schedule, while the rest of the division played nine games.
Instead of having that unbalanced schedule, the coaches and athletic directors from each school decided every team would drop one game. Pelham, ConVal, Windham, Milford, Hollis Brookline, Laconia, Souhegan, St. Thomas and Hillsboro-Deering/Hopkinton were all scheduled to play Trinity and will have that game replaced by a bye week.
Other games that were dropped include: Kennett at Gilford-Belmont (Sept. 2), Lebanon at Pembroke (Sept. 9), Kingswood at Bow (Sept. 29); Hanover at Sanborn (Oct. 7), John Stark at Plymouth (Oct. 14), Windham at Manchester West (Oct. 19) and Merrimack Valley at Gilford-Belmont (Oct. 21).
In addition, Hanover and Sanborn will not play a crossover game this year, while Windham and Gilford-Belmont had a crossover game added to their schedule. Those two will play Oct. 21.
