Minnesota’s high school football championships will be decided at TCF Bank Stadium on Friday and Saturday. This will be the first time the state titles have been decided outdoors since 1981.

The finals moved inside to the Metrodome in 1982 and took on the name “Prep Bowl.” You now read and hear references to Prep Bowl records, and they date only to 1982.

The football playoffs that took place outdoors in five classes from 1972 to 1981 almost have become a decade of competition lost to the ages.

There were no football playoffs in Minnesota until the coaches were able to push through a limited system with the Minnesota State High School League for 1972. Ron Raveling, then the coach at Columbia Heights, came up with a mathematical formula that was used to determine four playoff teams for each of five classes: AA, A, B, C and Nine-Man.

The class in which a team competed was based on the average enrollment of schools in the conference in which it played. Thus, a school such as Mound, with 500 students, was in Class AA because it played in the Lake Conference.

The first Class AA and A title games were played at Met Stadium in 1972. The crowds were modest, and those games were moved to Parade Stadium the next year. Other championship games were played at sites around the state.

There was a nine-game regular season in 1972, with numerous “bowl games” among conference champions in Week 10. The computer numbers were run after those Week 10 games and four teams in each class were sent into the playoffs.

The format remained until 1977, when the playoffs were expanded to eight teams in all but Class AA. By 1978, the eight highest-ranked conference champions in all classes advanced to the playoffs.

That formula remained through the first two years of the Prep Bowl. In 1984, sectional play started and most teams in the state advanced to the playoffs.

Welcome to championship round this weekend, lads. Know that you’re not the first to decide state football titles in Minnesota’s cool of November.

PATRICK REUSSE

When: Friday and Saturday

Where: TCF Bank Stadium

Tickets: $9 for students, $13 for adults. Seating will be limited to lower-level seats between the goal lines.

If you go: Fans are encouraged to use mass transit. Parking is limited in area lots and ramps. Enter through Gate E only.

If you watch: Ch. 45

Online: In-game updates, stories, pictures on the Star Tribune Football Hub at mnfootballhub.com.

GAMES FRIDAY

Nine-Man

Edgerton/Ellsworth (12-1) vs. Gr. Meadow (13-0), 10 am

Class 2A

BOLD (12-1) vs. Holdingford (10-3), 1 pm

Class 4A

Becker (11-1) vs. DeLaSalle (11-1), 4 pm

Class 6A

Eden Prairie (12-0) vs. Totino-Grace (11-1), 7 pm

GAMES SATURDAY

Class 1A

Dawson-Boyd (12-1) vs. Minneota (12-0), 10 am

Class 3A

New London-Spicer (11-1) vs. Roch. Lourdes (12-0), 1 pm

Class 5A

Mankato West (11-1) vs. Simley (10-3), 4 pm