I came out in favor of the PIAA changing to six classifications in football in this column from three months ago, but there are some YAIAA football coaches that are on the fence about the idea.
The move may or may not come to fruition. It has passed two logistical hurdles already, but will need the support of a two-thirds majority in May to become official. The resistance to the move from the western part of the state may be enough to keep it from passing. YAIAA football committee chairman Don Seidenstricker said it has about a 50-50 chance of approval.
Dallastown's Kevin Myers sees positives and negatives that could stem from the change.
"I go both ways," Myers said. "For Dallastown, we're going to be 6A. We're going to be playing with the bigger schools. I got kind of mixed emotions about it. The way it was explained to us was if we go to six classifications, we either take four schools in the districts and play 10 weeks or go to eight schools in the districts and play nine weeks. Do you give up that week in the regular season or continue to play 10?"
Like Dallastown in 6A, Dover would also be among the smallest schools in a new classification setup if the change is implemented, competing in 5A. Coach Bill Miller said that would be tough.
"I think football season ending the week before Christmas is ridiculous, let me just start off by saying that," Miller said. "With our present scenario, that's what we're looking at. I don't know if six classifications is the absolute answer. I know in terms of Dover, it's not the best scenario because we would be at the very low end of 5A.
"Maybe it's part of the solution, but the other part of the solution may be creating a system where the season begins the second Monday of August, so you're always starting the second week of August. If we started the second Monday of August this coming year, we wouldn't be playing the week before Christmas. But you know, district playoffs are a moneymaker. They are for schools. The more teams you have in, the more opportunities there are. It all depends on what your motivation is -- you're either motivated by getting to the district playoffs or you're motivated by a division championship. One or the other. Depending on which one is your true motivation, you would either buy into it or not."
Northeastern coach Brendan Brown said he doesn't like the idea of adding two classifications at all and has another change in mind.
"I don't understand why they would want to move to six," Brown said. "To me, the only problem in Pennsylvania is the private schools that can draw from anywhere in the state and they're able to play down in the single-A's and the double-A's. I think that if I was going to support any change in this state, it would be for the private schools and the Catholic schools to play in their own division for the playoffs. I know New Jersey does it.
"To me, if it ain't broke don't fix it. We've had a lot of smaller quad-A schools that have won state titles over the last couple of years and that's really the reason why this is being brought about. I really don't support it."
Of the four coaches I talked to, Seidenstricker was the only one who gave the change his outright support.
"As a football coach, most definitely it's the right move," the South Western coach said. "In the state of Pennsylvania, if you're going to have more than one state champion, I think they need to take a realistic look at the number of schools we have. When you say you're going to crown a state champion for every 120-something schools, I think that's an awful lot when you compare it to the average nationwide. I would love to see us get to six classifications for that reason. The other thing is I think it would help us get back to a 15-week season for football. There is a couple things that I think would be positives."
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