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December 11, 2012

After an absence of decades, eight-player football has been reintroduced to Michigan high schools during recent years. When enough schools sponsored the program, the MHSAA responded with a four-week playoff in 2011.  The number of schools sponsoring the sport grew in 2012, and more growth is expected for the 2013 season.

Like almost everything that occurs in life, what has benefited some schools is not seen by others to be in their own best interests.

Advocates of the eight-player game include those schools whose declining enrollments couldn’t support the eleven-player game.  Football has returned to some communities and has been saved from the brink of elimination in others.

However, as two and soon three dozen Class D schools opt for the eight-player game, the remaining Class D schools that sponsor football find themselves in disrupted leagues and forced to travel further to complete eleven-player football schedules; and they must compete against larger teams in Division 8 of the eleven-player MHSAA Football Playoffs.

In fact, the growth of the eight-player game among our smallest schools has resulted in more Class D schools qualifying for the MHSAA Football Playoffs than ever before.  In 2012, an all-time high 44.0 percent of Class D schools that sponsor football qualified for either the single division eight-player tournament or Division 8 of the eleven-player tournament.  This compares to 42.2 percent of Class C schools, 44.9 percent of Class B schools and 41.6 percent of Class A schools that sponsor football and qualified for the 2012 playoffs.

Some see the eight-player game as the savior of the football experience in Class D schools.  Others see it differently.

Membership Renewal

May 23, 2017

Unlike classroom courses of our schools, the interscholastic athletic program requires opponents; and to help promote a level playing field for competition, the interscholastic athletic program requires some organization to provide a forum to assist in developing competitive standards and to help assure they are maintained. For many years, many schools have worked through the Michigan High School Athletic Association to establish a common set of rules, for the orderly administration of an interscholastic athletic program, which promotes academic integrity and competitive equity. 

According to Michigan Attorney General Opinion #4795 of 1977, any local board of education that desires to do so may voluntarily join the MHSAA by adopting the rules of the association and agreeing to enforce those rules with respect to its schools. Institutional control remains the key to this organization.

MHSAA membership is free of charge, and there is no entry fee to participate in MHSAA tournaments. But while MHSAA membership is free of costs, it’s not free of responsibilities. The expectations of member schools include:

  • Educating student-athletes, staff and other involved personnel about MHSAA rules and procedures.

  • Monitoring compliance year-around.

  • Investigating possible violations and reporting findings.

  • Administering penalties.      

Each school district that agrees to these responsibilities must say so by means of an annual board of education resolution. The resolutions have just been mailed to all superintendents for the 2017-18 school year.

Each school district that wishes one or more schools to participate in MHSAA tournaments and benefit from MHSAA services must schedule on its board of education agenda the adoption of the MHSAA Membership Resolution. The Resolution should be signed in sufficient time to prevent a lapse in membership (before August 1). A lapse in membership, even though for only a week, can create unnecessary problems should there be claims under the $1,000,000 accident medical insurance plan or the concussion care gap insurance or if eligibility rulings are to be made during that period.