BRAINERD, Minn. - High school football teams throughout Minnesota have missed games, incurred travel expenses to play opponents in other states, and sometimes changed conferences in the quest for more competitive games.
In hopes of resolving these complex challenges, Minnesota State High School League associate director Kevin Merkle outlined the concept of statewide football scheduling groups at Tuesday's board meeting in Brainerd.
Schools would be put in groups of 14 or 16, based primarily on geography but with some consideration for enrollment. Schools within those groups could schedule games based on competitive balance or long-standing rivalries.
That flexibility, Merkle said, gives the scheduling groups concept an advantage over section scheduling, a proposal the board voted down in 2011. The section scheduling idea locked in fewer schools by class, sometimes at the expense of geography and competitive balance.
"Right now I think it's better, but what I think isn't necessarily the best answer," Merkle said. "The idea was to come up with options for our board, so we make a decision shortly after the first of the year."
The next steps, including meeting with football coaches and soliciting feedback at high school league area meetings, are set for September.
In the five-team Lake Conference, football powers Eden Prairie, Minnetonka and Wayzata have traveled to other states in recent years to ensure full eight-game regular season schedules. This fall will be the second consecutive season Wayzata plays only seven games.
"We're still hopeful that somewhere along the line all of our schools will have all of their games scheduled," said Hopkins activities director Dan Johnson, who oversees the Lake's football scheduling. "But not everybody needs that. There are conferences who say, 'Leave us alone and let us do our own football scheduling.' Getting that acceptance is the big thing."
