By Staff
EAST LANSING – The Michigan High School Athletic Association will conduct a series of meetings this month to determine interest on the part of its smallest schools for a football format utilizing fewer than 11 players.
The meetings will take place at Escanaba High School on Jan. 12 at 1 p.m., in Indian River at the Cheboygan-Otsego-Presque Ile Educational Service District building on Jan. 13 at 10 a.m., and in East Lansing at the MHSAA office on Jan. 29 at 9:30 a.m.
The Representative Council authorized the meetings at its Dec. 5 meeting, following a review of a survey conducted of member schools in the fall.
Every Class D and C school in the MHSAA membership has been invited to attend.
The meetings will review the different formats used in other states for fewer than 11 players. Twenty-one state associations conduct post-season tournaments under three different formats. The nine-player game takes place in Maine, Minnesota and North Dakota; eight-player football exists in Arizona, California, Colorado, Idaho, Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, Oklahoma, Oregon, Washington and South Dakota; and the six-player version is played in Colorado, Montana, New Mexico and Texas.
Discussion will also take place at the meetings about rule differences between the 11 player and the reduced player formats, the impact of schools sponsoring reduced player teams on neighboring schools, and a potential MHSAA-sponsored football playoff for a reduced player format.
The feedback received will be shared with the MHSAA Football Committee and the Representative Council at upcoming meetings.
Back in the 1930s, upwards of 75 small schools sponsored six-player football in Michigan.
Sponsorship declined throughout the 1950s as smaller school districts consolidated, giving way to eight-player and eventually to eleven-player teams.