The Varsity Message Board

National Championship proposal heating up, ignore it

Talk of a high school football national championship series is gaining steam. Again.

The every-few-years storyline has grown new legs and is being reported as closer to happening than ever by Buddy Collings (follow on Twitter) of the Orlando Sentinel.

Don Bosco has been involved in three of the last six national championship chases, if its state does sanction this event will it be a legitimate title?

Don Bosco has been involved in three of the last six national championship chases, if its state does sanction this event will it be a legitimate title?

In his report (which you can read here) he cites Florida High School Athletic Association executive director Roger Dearing as saying that the state is close to approving a State Champions Bowl Series proposal.

“It looks very, very positive that this is going to move forward,” Dearing told Collings. “There are at least two other states that are highly interested in participating.”

The story also reports that financing from Paragon Marking Group — an entity that pairs and produces games for ESPN — is behind the movement.

Paragon has been long reported to be interested in expanding to a high school football national championship like it has set up with its basketball tournament that is already televised on ESPN.

The problem is that this discussion has been ongoing since 1934 and has never come to fruition.

There are three close encounters that those involved with the sport look to for hope that a deal gets done in the future.

In 1975, the National Federation of High School Associations (NHFS) had a similar goal to take polls to a final actualization and play out to a champion.

The governing association was set to vote on the proposal but a straw poll of members determined an official vote would result in a no and the actual tally was never taken.

The topic was bantered about through the 1990s as the coverage of high school football expanded with other proposals for how a title could be determined but again, state associations balked at the idea.

In the mid-2000s the NFHS again tried to broach the subject as it outlined a three-year plan to enact a championship series starting in 2008. It actually put the wheels in motion during 2009-10 but it again met with stiff resistance from the member associations and the idea died on the vine that season.

It was in the midst of the most heated debate atop the national rankings in recent memory that a final game was nearly agreed to in 2011.

Representatives for Don Bosco (Ramsey, NJ) and Louisville Trinity (KY) actually spoke about playing a crowning contest after the season was over. The game was again dismissed as both state associations in New Jersey and Kentucky as well as the national governing body told the teams that the contest would not be sanctioned.

The Orlando Sentinel story reports that two other, unnamed state associations have given support to the new plan.

Details of the proposal are taken directly from the Collings story:

The agreement stipulates that participating schools will have all travel and hotel expenses paid and receive either a $12,500 appearance fee; $25,000 in merchandise from an athletic shoe, apparel or sporting goods company; or a protated combination of cash and merchandise. The choice of rights fee payment will be made by Paragon.

The FHSAA is guaranteed $10,000 for its approval of the program and will get an additional $40,000 if one or more of its member schools is selected and participates.

Participation would not be mandatory for teams invited.

While there is no shortage of reasons why this would be a tremendous idea there is also a long list of reasons why it will not happen.

Namely, money and 50 state associations.

The money may be behind it enough this time around to push it forward but history suggests that this is something that will ultimately fall short.

Join the HSFB100 discussion: Get a free user name | Post on The Varsity Board

About Dallas Jackson

Dallas Jackson is the national high school football analyst for NationalHSFootball.com. He has been compiling the HSFB100 rankings since the 2007 season. His work has been featured in Sports Illustrated, American Football Monthly, among many others, and he was featured in the Frontline special, Football High.