MIAA Officially Approves Super 8 Tournament Rule For Massachusetts High School Football

On Wednesday, the Massachusetts Interscholastic Athletic Association voted 12-2 in favor of the "Super 8" rule that will change Massachusetts high school football for many years to come.

The rule will restructure the Massachusetts high school football playoffs format. Advisors and board members believed there was an imbalance and many issues with the current format of the MIAA playoffs, and this new rule will maximize the relevance of the regular season.

The rule change has already passed multiple rounds of voting and restructuring.

Super 8 Core Objectives

One of the biggest goals this rule was set to achieve was to align each division evenly, forcing each one to have a minimum of 30 teams. This change will cut the number of playoff teams from Division 3 to Division 8 roughly in half.

The MIAA was also looking to find a way to reduce the frequency of uneven games, particularly from seeds 9-16, which have a lower winning percentage, historically. The total number of wins for seeds 9-16 has been 52, with seeds 12-16 making up just nine of those. The total number of wins for seeds 1-8 has been 546.

The MIAA also intended to address the frequency with which teams appear in the Division 1 and 2 finals, with hopes to make it more diverse. Xaverian Brothers have won the last three Division 1 state championships.

They were also looking to reduce the number of consolation games and the number of teams opting out when they no longer could qualify for the main bracket.

Proposed Changes

While this rule was meant to have a change in the playoffs, it will drastically impact the regular season as well. Now, every regular-season game will contribute to a team's power ranking. Power rankings are now the primary metric that are used for formulating the postseason matchups. The regular season will now feature nine games instead of eight.

That also means that the previous requirement for a certain number of wins to qualify will no longer be implemented. For example, that means a team that goes 7-2 may not qualify for the tournament because of the strength of their schedule.

Bracket Structure

Division 1A will be introduced in the 2027 season, which will be considered a top-tier bracket featuring Division 1 and 2 teams. This will include the top eight teams in these divisions, which will be identified by power rankings after Week 9.

For Divisions 1 through 8, the top eight teams in each division, including the 1A teams, will qualify for the postseason. This will make up the standardized playoff field.

All in all, that will be a total of 72 teams. Eight from each division 1-8, then the eight teams from Division 1A.

New Look Calendar

With the regular season now stretching to nine weeks, Week 10 is planned to be the first round of the playoffs and consolation games. Week 11 will be the final four, which is still known as Round 2. Week 12 will be dedicated to each team's Thanksgiving game. The MIAA believes these games are relevant and important to most communities and decided to keep them despite the schedule changes. Finally, Week 13 will be the state finals, which will feature nine total games.

That means 18 of 269 teams will participate in the state finals. The MIAA believes that more teams participating and having a path to the finals is an improvement.

Add us as a preferred source on Google