Just a down year? Or are “multipliers” not worth it anymore in high school football? (Or maybe every non-public should be one?)

It was just over a decade ago – for the 2015 high school football season – that the NJSIAA adopted the “multiplier.”

This was back when life was simple, and the playoff system was “simply” power points. (We put the word simply in quotes because it was complicated, but much easier compared to the jumble of systems we have now, but that’s a story we’ve written before and can write more about at some other time.)

Multipliers were a way to reward public schools for playing the North Jersey parochial powers like Bergen Catholic, Don Bosco Prep and Paramus Catholic, who were struggling to find New Jersey teams that would play them. Starting in 2015, opponents got massive boosts, with power points calculated as if they had won the game, double the points for playing the United Red and one-and-a-half for playing the United White Divisions of the Super Football Conference.

Only three schools took advantage in 2016, the multiplier’s first year, and there was even a proposal to the NJSIAA Executive Committee that October – in the middle of the season – to scrap it, but it was rejected overwhelmingly, and stayed in place.

Over the years it has expanded beyond the Super Football Conference, and a few years ago, the formula was changed. With the advent of the NJ UPR system and the OSI (Opponent Strength index), the bonus was moved to OSI, only rewarded teams that lost to multipliers – not if they beat them – and instead of a fixed value, the multiplier was a percentage.

Teams in the A category would give any non-multiplier schools – public or non-public – 80 percent of their value if they lost, those in B would give 75 percent, and those in C or D would give 70. And if A, B or C teams suffered a loss, they’d drop to the D category, then drop entirely if they took a second loss. Category D teams would lose multiplier status with just one loss.

This season, there were 16 multipliers at the start of the season, but among the Category A teams, neither Bergen Catholic, nor DePaul, Don Bosco, St. Joseph-Montvale or St. Peter’s Prep had a single public school from New Jersey on their schedule. Nor did Delbarton or Paramus Catholic in the B category.

So much for incentive.

As for the rest of the teams that do play NJSIAA member public schools, that leaves us with nine, and five of them have already lost their status, with three others demoted to the D category.

Here’s a quick look at the nine other multipliers who play other non-multipliers:

• Category B
  • Red Bank Catholic: Beat Manalapan, Holmdel, and Rumson-Fair Haven, lost to Winslow, dropped from B to D; plays Wall on Cutoff Weekend
  • St. Joseph-Metuchen: Beat Bridgewater-Raritan and Westfield, lost to Elizabeth, Phillipsburg and Piscataway, no longer a multiplier
  • Pope John: Lost to Washington Twp. and Immaculata, no longer a multiplier
  • St. Augustine: Beat Atlantic City, Winslow, Burlington Twp., and Shawnee, lost to Millville, dropped from C to D; plays Kingsway this week, Washington Twp. on Cutoff Weekend
  • Seton Hall Prep: Only non-multiplier opponent is Cutoff Weekend (Saturday) against Irvington
  • Donovan Catholic: Undefeated, beat Brick Memorial, Jackson Twp., Southern, Rumson-Fair Haven and Pt. Pleasant Boro; has Toms River North on Cutoff Weekend
  • Holy Spirit: Beat Mainland and Pleasantville, lost to Camden and Glassboro, no longer a multiplier
  • St. John Vianney: Beat Wall, lost to Holmdel, Middletown North and Manalapan, no longer a multiplier; still has Brick Twp. this week and Rumson-Fair Haven on Cutoff Weekend
  • St. Thomas Aquinas: Beat Westfield, Franklin and North Brunswick, lost to Old Bridge, Sayreville and Somerville, no longer a multiplier; plays Edison this week

Of the five that have dropped out of the multiplier, three of those schools have three losses each to non-multipliers, and two have lost to two.

Of the four remaining, Red Bank Catholic likely remains, as they would be a favorite over Wall. St. Augustine should beat winless Kingsway (0-7) but a loss to unbeaten Washington Twp. (7-0) is a distinct possibility. Seton Hall Prep would still be a multiplier if they lose to Irvington in two weeks, and since they start as a C, would still be the same value. Donovan Catholic? Well, they’ve been smoking everyone, so we think they hand on.

So the likely scenario is this: Out of 16 multipliers, seven schools – the ones the rule was originally created for – don’t play any non-multipliers.

And out of the remaining nine, five already have lost their status, and a sixth is possible.

That means out of 17 multipliers to start the season, only three of four will wind up affecting any public schools. That is to say, no one will benefit from a Bergen Catholic being a multiplier because no non-multipliers play them.

So how many will?

Let’s assume St. Augustine and Red Bank Catholic don’t drop; that leaves them, Seton Hall Prep and Donovan Catholic as the remaining multipliers.

The only teams that will benefit are:

• Manalapan
• Holmdel
• Rumson-Fair Haven (has two multipliers: Red Bank Catholic and Donovan Catholic)
• Wall (if they lose to Red Bank Catholic)
• Atlantic City
• Winslow
• Burlington Twp.
• Shawnee
• Kingsway (if they lose to St. Augustine)
• Washington Twp. (if they lose to St. Augustine)
• Irvington (if they lose to Seton Hall Prep)
• Brick Memorial
• Jackson Twp.
• Southern
• Pt. Pleasant Boro
• Toms River North (if they lose to Donovan Catholic)

That’s a total of 16 teams benefitting. And if Washington Twp. beats St. Augustine, then we’ll have Atlantic City, Winslow, Burlington Twp., Shawnee and Kingsway (assuming the lose to St. Augustine) also losing out on the bonus, leaving us with just eleven teams in the entire state benefitting from the multiplier.

Maybe it’s just a down year. Maybe those teams will be back in next year and turn it around and sweep through their schedules.

We like the idea that a loss my a multiplier drops them into a lower category, or out entirely. Camden Catholic was deemed a multiplier for 2018 – coming off a 10-2 campaign in 2017 – but their coach later got fired (it was a national story with racial overtones), players transferred out, and they went winless – but there was no mechanism to drop them for losses, so they remained a multiplier, despite going 0-10 and losing by an average of 40 points per game.

And we understand the evolving reason for multipliers, that non-public schools can draw from larger – and unbounded – geographical areas than public schools can.

One final thing to note: the mutliplier designation does nothing to help the non-public schools as far as power points, Stength Index, OSI or playoff calculation. It’s simply a way to reward non-multipliers who play them.

But with so few teams benefitting, is it even worth it anymore? Is it just one more additional complication to the playoff formula and a bygone vestige of a former era, albeit only a decade ago?

Or, there’s a third possibility: since you never know from one year to the next who will be down, suffer injuries, or who will go undefeated, maybe every non-public should be a multiplier – now that their wins and losses will determine if they keep that status – and let the chips fall where they may?