NJSIAA moves all state finals to Thanksgiving weekend, but how many teams will it affect?

The NJSIAA loves MetLife Stadium.

Whether you do or not – and Giants and Jets fans have strong feelings one way or the other – clearly, it’s the state athletic association’s preference to have as many games as they can in the biggest venue they can.

And who can blame them, when you look at a kid taking a picture with his team on that big NFL logo?

But almost instantly came criticism from some corners of the state where Thanksgiving Day games are played. For the first four years of crowning state champions, Turkey Day-playing teams would get to play their final on a Wednesday, six days after thanksgiving, and following along the NJSIAA regulations that limit teams to no more than two games in a nine-day span.

That went out the window with Wednesday’s announcement by the NJSIAA, with Executive Director Colleen Maguire saying teams would have to figure out Thanksgiving on their own.

That could mean moving a Thursday Thanksgiving game to Wednesday, or cancelling altogether.

So, we decided to take a look back at the first four years of state finals, which began in 2021, to see how many teams that play on Thanksgiving actually went all the way.

In four seasons, there have been five public and two non-public championship games played each year. That’s seven total games a year, 14 berths in the finals.

There have been two Thanksgiving teams to make the finals every year but one, in 2023, when none of the finals teams played on Thanksgiving. With 14 berths a year in four years, that’s 52 finals berths, and six Turkey Day teams making it to the state finals, meaning 12 percent of the berths in state championship games were taken by Thanksgiving teams.

That’s small number overall, but not insignificant.

We didn’t really consider teams who made the state semifinals – there were two in each of the four years who fell into that category – because the short turnaround for Thanksgiving has always been part of high school football since the playoffs expanded to four teams in each section in 1975: the opening round came the week before Thanksgiving, and the finals were in early December, at the end of the week after Thanksgiving.

Even when the NJSIAA expanded to eight-team playoff sections, the semis were still held the Friday and Saturday before Thanksgiving, and the finals at the end of the week after the holiday.

Here’s the breakdown of which Thanksgiving Day teams made the state finals in each of the last four seasons:

• 2025: Camden and Shabazz both made the Group 2 final, with the Panthers winning 27- after beating Camden Eastside on Thanksgiving, 41-0. The Bulldogs beat Weequahic in the “Soul Bowl” on Thanksgiving, 20-6.
• 2024: Shabazz made the Group 2 final, and Phillipsburg made the Group 4 title game. The Bulldogs lost, 19-14, to Weequahic on Turkey Day, then lost to Rumson-Fair Haven in the Group 2 title tilt, 26-24. The Stateliners took a double hit, losing 17-14 to Easton (PA) on Thanksgiving, then were blanked, 35-0, in the Group 4 final by Winslow.
• 2023: None
• 2022: Woodbury finished the season 12-2 after a 31-7 win over Mountain Lakes in the state Group 1 final, ten days after beating Thanksgiving rival Gateway, 6-0. Millville won the Group 4 title to also cap a 12-2 season, taking down Northern Highlands 18-14 after beating Turkey Day foe Vineland on the road, 35-16, the Thursday prior.