MIAA STATEMENT ON SUPER BOWL/SAT CONFLICT – 11/29/05

 Until the 1970s high school football in Massachusetts concluded with Thanksgiving Day games.  It was during this time that the State Association considered proposals for a football tournament.  Football may have been the only recognized high school sport for which the Association did not sponsor a tournament.

 Concerns related to sponsoring a football tournament included: the weather, given that the tournament could not be played until after the many traditional Thanksgiving Day games; the fact that such a tournament would be the only occasion where one sport season overlapped into another (i.e. the MIAA winter season begins the Monday after Thanksgiving); and conflict with the December SAT test date. The Educational Testing Service (ETS) was asked by MIAA to consider an alternative date in December.  The ETS response to that request demonstrated legitimate rationale for being unable to honor that request.   ETS did provide protocols whereby test sites may begin their test at an earlier hour; approval could be sought for an alternative test date (e.g. on Sunday, rather than Saturday).

Because this conflict is present annually, students have chosen to take their SATs on other than the December date.  Not only in Eastern Mass., but the Central and Western Mass. football tournaments have taken place for almost thirty years on the date that the December SATs administred.  The conflict was recognized when a football tournament was approved.  Educational leaders who made the decision thirty years ago, and those who serve on the MIAA Football Committee today, acknowledge that it would be perfect if the conflict did not exist for any young person, but the reality is that the Saturday nine days after Thanksgiving is the optimum day to conduct these football games.

 Sunday has never been the preferred day because there are school districts with policies against Sunday athletics, families object to Sunday school-sponsored activities in other communities, and Sunday is needed (given the unpredictability of the weather in this part of the Country) as the emergency postponement day.

 The number of sites available to the MIAA are impacted by the guidance of the MIAA Sports Medicine Committee that tournament games be played on so-called “soft turf”.   There are a limited number of such venues in Massachusetts and, even then, all of them are not available to us. The limited number of sites dictates the playing of two, and sometimes three, games at a site.  This need impacts the timing of the games.

 Over the years, MIAA member school leaders and their students have dealt with this conflict with very few problems.  The tournament format is reviewed annually by our Football Committee which includes high school principals and athletic directors as well as representatives of school superintendents, school committees and coaches’ association. Since the inception of the Super Bowl tournament 29 years ago, the educators who serve on our committees have felt the Super Bowl games are a valuable addition to activities sponsored by MIAA for student-athletes who participate in the sport of high school football.