by Mike Pavlichko
The NJSIAA had one order of business for it’s annual meeting held virtually today: to vote on eliminating language from its own constitution that says “no state championships, however, shall be declared in football.”
But the results of that vote won’t be known or released until next week’s Executive Committee meeting on Wednesday, January 13th.
With the meeting held virtually today, ballots normally marked and collected in person were mailed out previously, according to NJSIAA Counsel Steve Goodell.
Scroll down to the bottom of this story hear the key parts of today’s virtual meeting.
David Frazier, Rutherford Athletic Director, past NJSIAA President and current Sports Advisory Task Force Chair, says ballots will be faxed, emailed or physically mailed to the NJSIAA, and must be postmarked or time-stamped no later than Friday.
Many of the NJSIAA member schools already appear to have made up their mind. When prompted by Central Jersey Sports Radio, Executive Director Colleen Maguire said on today’s call that 280 ballots already have been received.
There are 435 NJSIAA member schools.
In addition, the meeting gave three opportunities to member schools to speak or ask questions. The first was for clarification questions on the proposal, and none were asked.
Those opposed to the measure to eliminate the language from the NJSIAA constitution were allowed to speak, and none did. The same happened when those in favor of the measure were allowed to speak; none did.
Now all that remains is to wait and see what the vote is when it’s announced next Wednesday.
If the proposal is approved, the language “no state championships, however, shall be declared in football” will be removed from the NJSIAA constitution, paving the way for group championships to be played among public schools in football for the first time ever in 2022.
Currently, New Jersey and New York are the only schools in the country that do not play all the way to group champions.
Listen below to the portion of the meeting where the proposal was outlined and considered. Portions containing long pauses in audio were omitted. No content of any consequence was omitted from this portion of the meeting.