The NJSIAA posted its 2024 football tournament regulations on its website Wednesday, and they reflect two big changes made to the playoff system back earlier this year.
The first has to do with multipliers. In a change that’s in line with what Central Jersey Sports Radio’s Mike Pavlichko has proposed since the multiplier was first introduced almost a decade ago, multipliers will vary from team-to-team in each category, and now are based on Strength Index value rather than a fixed amount. That means the numbers are based more on an actual team’s performance, rather than all teams in one category being equal, regardless of their record.
The second change has to do with power points. For decades it has had three components: quality points (6 for a win, 3 for a tie, none for a loss), group points (based on an opponent’s group classification, 5 for a win over a Group 5 school, 4 for a Group 4, etc.) and residuals (3 points for every win by an opponent you beat, 1 for every win by an opponent you lost to).
But now, group points are out of the equation, the reasoning being that group size has taken on less importance over the years as it related to the quality of teams. And the change is being made across all sports
The NJSIAA says it still values power points, but in reality, group points were the only real difference between power points and OSI.
Both reward teams for winning. A victory gets you six quality points in the power point formula and the full value of an opponent’s Strength Index value. A loss garners no quality points and half an opponent’s SI.
Both reward teams for strength of schedule. Power point residuals earn a team 3 points for every win by a team they beat (up to their seventh game), and one for every win by a team they lost to, while strength of schedule is inherent in the OSI system, as SI values determine a team’s strength based on the scores of games, more than wins or losses.
In fact, the SI system is likely more accurate, since not all wins are created equal. If Teams A and B both have 5 wins, and you beat both teams, you get 5 points each, even if Team A beat all the top teams on its schedule and Team B beat all the weakest teams.
The NJSIAA’s football regulations for 2024 can be downloaded from their site by clicking here.
Bye-bye consolation games…
Though traditional consolation games also have been tweaked in recent years, with the NJSIAA calling it an “invitational tournament” last year, the state athletic association decided earlier this year to do away with it entirely.
Over the years, there had been controversies with matchups, and many teams had to travel long distances to play otherwise meaningless games. So, this year, the NJSIAA has dropped consolation games entirely, and will leave it up to schools that missed the playoffs to schedule their own games.
Those games must fall within the NJSIAA’s scheduling framework, with a maximum 14 games allowed through December 1. Games also are not allowed to be played on Fridays, which is when the vast majority of state tournament games are played, in order to make playoff games a priority for getting the best officials.
Other changes…
The NJSIAA also modified its running clock rule, which previously went into effect automatically once the score differential reached 33 points or more during the second half in a game. The running clock would go back to normal once the margin got closer than 25 points.
But the NJSIAA says there have been concerns about unsportsmanlike behavior during the running clock period, and the Executive Committee approved a rule to keep the running clock in place no matter how close the game gets. So once the margin is at least 33 points in the second half, the running clock stays in place for good.
Another change adopted in February allows football players to participate in more than one scheduled game within 24 hours. A two-year pilot program changes the limit to no more than five quarters in the same time period. That would allow a student-athlete to play, for example, two quarters of a JV game Thursday, and three in a varsity game Friday.
In its proposal to the Executive Committee, the NJSIAA wrote: “This recommendation has been reviewed and endorsed by the NJSIAA Sports Medical Advisory Committee (SMAC). However, NJSIAA SMAC recommends that this rule be approved under a two-year pilot program to solicit feedback and data before supporting full adoption.”
The idea is to allow greater flexibility to programs that may have low participation to field multiple levels of teams, as opposed to, say, having to drop a freshman team.
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