FootballJoe Hofmann Notes Column: “Paper Champions” & the Origins of the State Playoff Formula By Joe Hofmann October 13, 2026 By the end of the 1974 New Jersey high school football regular season, Morris Knolls had swept through its season undefeated. The Golden Eagles were 9-0, ran through all their opponents, and allowed just 34 points. What a season!. They were dying to get to the next level and win a state championship. They were good and they knew it. And now it was time to prove it to the world. “I want someone to prove to us,” coach John Deibert said after hammering Morris Hills in their finale, 32-6, “that we are not the best team in the state.” That day never came. Before 1974, the NJSIAA used a computer system (won-loss records, strength of schedule, etc.) to figure out sectional champions. Paper champions, if you will. State playoffs would not come into play until 1974, and Deibert’s team was waiting on the NJSIAA to come up with the two playoff participants who’d fight it out for North Jersey Section 2, Group IV. That’s right, just two. Not four, not eight. And not Morris Knolls. There was a snag to the entire plan: Robbinsville said from the beginning that, in this particular year, there would be two teams chosen. In what amounted to a trial run, Morris Knolls would not be one of them. The state went with Morristown (9-0) vs. Bloomfield (8-1). The Colonials wound up beating Bloomfield at Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City. What about the undefeated Golden Eagles, NJSIAA? Stay home, fellas. That might as well have been Robbinsville’s response. For that matter, Barringer and Westfield – both 9-0 – were also left out in the cold in North 2, Group IV. Westfield being left out was positively stunning, as the Union County school had just one loss in its previous 60 games. When legendary Westfield coach Gary Kehler found his team was not going to the championship game, he told the Daily Record, “It amazed me. I don’t know how they arrived at this point system they have. It just isn’t fair. We deserved to go and were very disappointed that we won’t be there. The way everybody was talking about Westfield throughout the season, I thought we were a cinch. I guess not.” Westfield AD John Lay was shocked, too. “This point system they use to select teams is supposed to be accurate and very sophisticated, but I don’t care how sophisticated it is. We should have been selected. “Before anybody was chosen, I didn’t like the whole system. It doesn’t do what it was designed to do – and that is, solve problems. It creates them.” It was a scenario only Ripley would appreciate. Believe It or Not. Bloomfield AD Joe Bogusz was delighted his team was going, but said he felt “sorry” for Knolls. “John (Deibert) is trying to get his kids some recognition but it’s hard.” Then Bogusz added, “I say forget these state championships. The conference titles mean more to most coaches anyway.” The state football playoffs have become the highlight of the high school season (sorry Joe, the division races have taken a back seat – way in the back of the room, that is. Division races have almost become an afterthought compared to the playoffs). So, what was the exact playoff formula the NJSIAA used? Wins plus strength of schedule plus … what, exactly? Good question! No one knew then. No one knows now. Ssshhh! The state wouldn’t let on, almost Soviet-like. Indeed, the NJSIAA’s point system was mysterious. The state had a computer guru named Dick Parrish handling the numbers and feeding them into a computer. He was imported from Moscow (just kidding). In 1973, Morristown was 9-0 and Bloomfield was 8-0-1. But in the final state rankings (of teams with six wins or more), Bloomfield received 46 more power points than Morristown. How is that even possible? Believe it or not: That’s the way championships were determined back then. Schedules and final scores dictated the titles. Not gameplans, coaches or athletes. Just numbers … and no one knew exactly what numbers. Bizarre. Weird. And utterly amazing that people accepted it for so long. “It’s too secretive,” said West Essex coach Fred Keil, whose team won the 1974 title by computer. “Nobody knows exactly how it’s done. Just one guy with his formula. It’s bound to displease somebody.” Like Morris Knolls. Golden Eagles, please pick up the white courtesy phone!We have gotten so used to football teams vying for sectional titles on the field that any other way seems preposterous. If schools are pretty much locked into their respective league schedules and go undefeated in that league, how do we know who is the stronger team? How do we know what the strong leagues are? That year, Knolls allowed 34 points – total – in nine games. That’s pretty great in any league! Before the state announced who’d be invited (and who wouldn’t) in 1974, Deibert said, “Unless somebody beats us, we will continue to think we have the best team in the state.” Diebert said he showed films of other undefeated teams and the so-called “good teams” and “feel that they can beat them,” Deibert told the Daily Record. “Unless somebody beats us, we will continue to think that we have the best team in the state. He went on to say, “It’s a shame for the kids because they just haven’t gotten the recognition they deserve. They really are a great team.” And this was before Knolls was not invited. He added in that Daily Record article: “These playoffs haven’t solved anything. I’ve heard other coaches saying the same thing. It’s no different than before (before 1974). It should be that everybody who deserves to go should go, but it isn’t that way.” Another whacky detail surrounding all of this: The games ended a week or so earlier on Thanksgiving, so what, exactly, were the NJSIAA bureaucrats doing during all that time? Answer: They were sitting around on their rear ends while literally thousands of people were dying to know if their team qualified for the playoffs and, if so, who would they be playing? Couldn’t they have put the numbers into the computer a week earlier? Interestingly, Morris Hills coach Bill Galese’s team lost 49-13 to Morristown in 1974 and he believed that the Colonials might have had the edge over Knolls. But teams weren’t chosen on the basis of what other coaches thought. So the state had indeed come up with something great by initiating the postseason playoffs, the highlight of any season (as we have discussed in detail over the last five weeks in my five-part series on Big State). But they didn’t take it far enough – and boy, the teams that weren’t invited were mighty furious. As well as they should have been. Before the NJSIAA made its decision, the consensus was that Morristown and Westfield would go. There were other Morris-Sussex teams who were playoff worthy – so they thought – but weren’t invited to the big dance. Pope John finished 8-0-1 and Morris Catholic checked in at 8-0. The Lions had “the best defense in the state,” according to the late, great Newark Star-Ledger. But in the end, soon-to-be-legendary-coach Vic Paternostro was never invited. St. Joe’s-West New York (8-1) had a better schedule than Pope John, according to the NJSIAA, and were rewarded the state title in North Jersey Parochial B. Incredibly, no game was ever contested. Did that even cross the NJSIAA’s mind? One week earlier, the Lions crushed Mount Olive, 45-0, and Vic rested his starters in the second half, thinking he’d keep his kids healthy for the championship game that never came. Pope John outscored its opponents 258-7 but that wasn’t good enough. The Sparta school played DePaul to a 7-7 tie. I suppose they were penalized for that. Shame on you for tying DePaul, Pope John! A few days before the NJSIAA announced who’d be going where, Paternostro told the Daily Record that he didn’t have a preference between Morris Catholic or St. Joe’s. “God willing, if we make it to A.C., I’d be more than happy to go against either of them,” he said. Morris Catholic, meanwhile, hung its hat on the fact that it beat the same DePaul team that tied Pope John, 25-0. But neither school was awarded anything. Simply amazing. In North 2, Group II, New Providence was awarded the title over Madison. New Prov did beat the Dodgers in the regular season, so at least there was some logic there. But New Prov lost to Randolph (7-2), which was in this section back in those days … what about that? I guess the Robbinsville computer didn’t approve that result. New Providence overwhelmed Randolph in the final computer printout. I wonder what John Bauer Sr. thought when he heard. This indeed was a tangled web: The Rams, Whippany Park (7-2), and Butler (8-1) were also in the mix. If computers could talk, I’d love to hear the computer explain this. Mountain Lakes (8-1) beat out Lenape Valley (on paper, not the field) to win North 1, Group I. In North 2, Group II, Parsippany (7-2), Caldwell (7-2), and West Essex (7-2) were all in the mix, with Berkeley Heights (6-2-1) on the outside. Eventual champion West Essex beat Parsippany head-to-head, but Caldwell and Berkeley Heights had no common opponents. What was the rationale? Who knows? In North 1, Group II, Sparta, Hawthorne, and Elmwood Park were 8-1. Hawthorne beat Elmwood Park in the regular season and earned the title via computer, even though Elmwood Park somehow earned more power points at season’s end. The Star-Ledger story wasn’t clear about this, so it is my guess that head-to-head came into play. But if Sparta was locked into its Skyline schedule, why were the Spartans on the outside looking in? For whatever reason, the state computer ranking system literally favored Essex County schools and those schools automatically began the season with more power points than other counties. And if you happened to beat an Essex school, you automatically earned more points. So if a Morris or Sussex team found a way to get an Essex school on its schedule, that helped the final rating. I kid you not. Couldn’t any of these sections have been settled by … uh, by actually playing games? So the NJSIAA moved in the right direction by instilling playoffs in 1974 and then improved things by going to four-team sections a year later. It’s just amazing it took as long as it did to settle things on the field. Hopefully, they unplugged Comrade Parrish’s computer and his numbers and tossed them all in the nearest dumpster, never to be used again. Final thoughts In researching all of this, it was fascinating to see what the thoughts of the ADs and coaches were – and especially, the sports writers. One sports writer believed beating Group IV schools should automatically be granted more points (yes, like a virus, those who believe that have always been around … he’d annually put Columbia ahead of Mountain Lakes or Butler … sigh). But that writer’s thinking was flawed in his own column: Randolph had seven wins, all against Group II’s, and would finish with 14 power points, using his formula. New Prov, meanwhile, would have registered 19 power points with its seven wins (New Prov had some bigger schools on its schedule). But Randolph beat New Prov, so there goes his theory. Head to head should trump all, right? Another writer threw this bizarre opinion out there about the state football playoffs (Thank God he didn’t work for the NJSIAA, or in the seat next to me): “Maybe, just maybe, the kids don’t want to play so many football games.” He went on to say that Mountain Lakes … “is a small school, and many of the football players have had to go both ways. They’re tired. They’re injured. Should they have to play another game?” His column appeared on Dec. 1, 1974, one day before he found out that the Herd would win their section, but via computer, not the playing field. He went on to say about Mountain Lakes (this guy was whacky, hard to believe he covered sports for a living, should have been a theatre critic or food writer or something), “It’s easy to say that the school can just decline the invitation, but it’s not easily done (this column was insane). “It makes you wonder if the playoffs are even worth it. Certainly, they aren’t solving much this season.” This guy must have been a lot of fun at parties! It’s also interesting what winter sports coaches thought about all of this. Before the playoffs, Thanksgiving games ended the season. But now the season was ending – for the playoff finalists, anyway – the first Saturday in December (remember, schools mostly played on Saturdays back then). So if there were wrestlers or basketball players on a football team in a sectional final, they had to jump right out of football and right into the winter sport. One basketball coach said that football should end earlier, there should then be a break, and then basketball should begin later, around Dec. 21. That’s not a terrible idea (remember, his opinion was made when playoffs were just beginning). Adults get tired and may want a break after a fall season (I totally get that). But athletes are athletes and set apart. They love their sports. They love competing. When the fall season ends, believe me, they are fired up about winter.