Penn State's Bid for the PIAA Football Championships Falls Short
Penn State coach James Franklin pitched Beaver Stadium as a host for the Pennsylvania high school football championships, citing the potential to be "great partners in the community." Penn State will have to wait at least another four years for the opportunity.
The Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic Association announced Wednesday that it has awarded the 2022-25 state football championships to Cumberland Valley High School. Bob Lombardi, executive director of the PIAA, said that Penn State was among four sites that bid for six-game state-championship series.
"The [bids] that were submitted by [Cumberland Valley] were very, very competitive and very attractive," Lombardi told reporters on a conference call. "There was quite a host of things there that were very attractive, along with their involvement with the [Cumberland Valley Visitors Bureau] and making a very nice financial package for us."
Representatives from Hersheypark Stadium, which hosted the state championships for the past 24 years, and Altoona's Mansion Park also submitted bids. The PIAA further awarded the state soccer, field hockey and girls volleyball state championships to Cumberland Valley, located in Mechanicsburg, about eight miles from PIAA headquarters.
In 2019, Penn State hosted the first Beaver Stadium Classic, a high school football game between State College High and Cumberland Valley. Franklin said before that game that he would "love" for Penn State to host the PIAA championships as well.
"I think there are a lot of reasons why that makes sense," Franklin said in 2019. "We’re in the center part of the state. I think it would be exciting for kids to have the opportunity to do that, and you see that in other states as well. So there’s some opportunities there, and we’re going to look at them."
Lombardi told reporters that the PIAA took Penn State's bid "very seriously" but questioned the feasibility of playing six games on Beaver Stadium's grass field. Attendance also was an issue, Lombardi said.
"With the number of people that we have been drawing in the last five years, I’m not sure that we could have paid the bill," Lombardi said.
Penn State hosted the inaugural PIAA Class 4A title game in 1998, its first and only high school championship game. Franklin said that hosting the PIAA championships would benefit Penn State and the state's high school football programs in a variety of ways.
"Obviously our No. 1 focus is on Penn State and our football program and our athletic department and our university, so we are not going to do anything that would cause challenges or issues there," Franklin said. "But when we can be great partners in our community, and when we can be great partners in our state, and provide a great experience in this community and for the state of Pennsylvania, and that’s going to promote athletics going to promote college football and high school football in our state, you know we want to try to do it.
"I don’t think it’s going to be something you see very often, but there’s going to be some times where it does make sense."
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