Last week’s football notes column described how the Super Football Conference treated some schools like they were a deck of playing cards.
They shuffled them.
The SFC rearranged a few schools here and tinkered with a few leagues there – many to the detriment of several Morris County schools.
Several rivalries were nuked, others were shaken.
Is it the end of humanity as we know it? No.
Is it silly and unnecessary? Absolutely!
Put it this way: The SFC shaking things up the way it did is not unlike moving the Giants out of the NFC East. Or separating the Yankees and the Red Sox. Why would that be done? What sense would that make? Answer: None at all.
No official reasons were given as to why some old Morris County rivalries were separated in next season’s divisional realignment. Why are Randolph and Morris Knolls no longer in the same division for the first time in forever? What’s up with Roxbury no longer in the same division as West Morris?
Well, the SFC moved teams because they moved them, that’s why. Suck it up!
At least, that’s how it appears.
So I’m here to help. Where should the Morris-Sussex schools end up? I’m glad you asked. If you take the teams involving Morris-Sussex (and three SFC Warren) schools, here is the Hofmann Plan.
Note: Delbarton and Pope John stay in the United White with DePaul and Seton Hall; Morristown-Beard can continue on in the Metropolitan Independent Football League (thought they’d be more than welcome in a Morris County Group I division), and Butler remains in the NJIC-Meadowlands (although I’d much prefer the Bulldogs back here where they belong!).
Division 1 (6 teams)-Sparta, Vernon, West Milford, Warren Hills, Lakeland, High Point. Wayne Hills and Wayne Valley would be a great fit here, but that would mean taking apart the SFC’s Bergen-Passaic divisions. You can do worse than combining two five-team divisions, fellas.
Division 2 (10 teams)-Randolph, Morristown, Morris Knolls, West Morris, Mount Olive, Roxbury, Chatham, Montville, Mendham, Jefferson.
Division 3 (10 teams)-Whippany Park, Boonton, Pequannock, Morris Catholic, Hanover Park, Madison, Parsippany Hills, Morris Hills, Mountain Lakes, Parsippany.
Division 4 (10 teams)-Dover, Kinnelon, Wallkill Valley, Hackettstown, Lenape Valley, Hopatcong, North Warren, Sussex Tech, Newton, Kittatinny.
A few points:
- If crossovers were needed, they’d be dictated by the schools, not the SFC bureaucrats. That is a huge sticking point with the coaches I have spoken with. “One time, we agreed with another school to put each other on the form and neither of us got what we wanted,” one Morris coach said.
- Some coaches have been so distraught over the years that they were willing to start a movement to leave the SFC and create their own league.
- My plan doesn’t group schools entirely according to Group size but logic, tradition, history, and geography. A Group 2 playing a Group I or a Group III won’t bring about the end of civilization as we know it, would it?
- For the most part, the current five- or six-team divisions are mostly done away with but are impossible to completely nullify. Selecting all-division teams out of a six-team league completely waters down the entire process. Nine or 10-team divisions is the best way to go – and then leave them that way!
- While we are on the subject of creating new divisions, why are the 30 New Jersey Non-Publics divided this way (8 Non-Public A, 22 Non-Public B)? Why not:
Non-Public Division 1 (8 teams): Delbarton, St. Joe’s-Montvale, Bergen Catholic, Don Bosco, St. Augustine, St. Joe-Metuchen, Seton Hall, St. Peter’s.
Non-Public Division 2 (10 teams): Red Bank Catholic, DePaul, Donovan Catholic, Paramus Catholic, Holy Spirit, Paul VI, Immaculata, St. Joe-Hammonton, St. John Vianney, Pingry
Non-Public Division 3 (11 teams): St. Thomas Aquinas, St. Mary-Rutherford, Notre Dame, Pope John, Bishop Eustace, Holy Cross, Morris Catholic, MKA, Camden Catholic, Morristown-Beard, Gloucester Catholic.
Is it me, or does it seem awfully silly to have eight teams in one group and 22 in the other, the way it is now? A third division would create something for the smaller schools to shoot for.
LOCAL COACHES SEEK CHANGES
The 2025 local high school football season is in the books, but local coaches believe changes should be made in time for the 2026 season.
There are several tangled webs.
1. Group I and Group II teams from the Super Football Conference are at a total disadvantage compared to North Jersey Interscholastic Conference schools and something needs to be done to address it.
The NJIC has a system that helps increase strength index numbers of its best teams with their playoff seeding by playing a schedule filled with nothing but winning teams (genius move by the NJIC originators, by the way). Good teams also play crossover games with teams with a record of .500 or better. Such schedules benefit those teams. Teams from the SFC, who have their schedules locked in for the year, lose out on power points and drop in the playoff seeding.
The scheduling of the NJIC teams helps a team that is making a playoff push by eliminating teams with a poor record on their schedule. Many times, SFC teams with a good record actually lose strength index numbers by facing a school that is winless or has only one win late in the year.
So when you combine that in the SFC with the NJIC scheduling, that is why NJIC schools often are seeded higher and get home field over SFC teams in the state playoffs.
Morris and Sussex coaches have sent the SFC powers-that-be requests to look into a similar scheduling scenario for SFC schools but they have fallen on deaf ears – and SFC teams have been penalized.
This year, Kittatinny beat winless Dover at the end of the season and that actually dropped Kittatinny from a No. 4 to a No. 7 spot.
Said one SFC Group I coach, “The SFC goes around saying they are the best conference in the world, so how do they let this happen? Multiple coaches come to you and ask you to look into it and you don’t do anything? It’s so unfair.”
More and more coaches have brought this to the attention of the SFC, but their complaints have fallen on deaf ears. And now they are afraid to speak their minds because one coach believes he was penalized when the SFC “awarded” him with a brutal crossover game. Hmmm. Coincidence? Perhaps, but now local coaches are intimidated.
Said one coach, “The SFC not doing anything to help us getting murdered in power points to NJIC teams is a major concern. Their conference playoff and crossover games are murdering us in power points and some of us missed the playoffs.”
For what it is worth, the SFC Group I schools were 8-3 against the NJIC Group 1s in 2025.
If the SFC chose to go the NJIC route (and Butler was a member of the SFC), here is an example of what it could look like.
A B C D
1. Boonton 1. Hopatcong 1. Whippany Park 1. Wallkill Valley
2. Butler 2. Kittatinny 2. Hanover Park 2. Hackettstown
3. Kinnelon 3. Lenape Valley 3. Madison 3. Newton
4. Morris Catholic 4. North Warren 4. Pequannock 4. High Point
5. Mountain Lakes 5. Sussex Tech 5. Parsippany 5. Warren Hills
Let’s say, the 1’s were all the division champions. They would comprise the semifinal teams in the playoffs. The second- and third-place teams, all of whom would presumably be in the state playoff race, would face each other and benefit from facing winning teams. Teams 4 and 5 could finish out their seasons facing similar opponents with a better chance of winning than facing a winning team.
So it is a win-win for everyone.
Some more points:
2. Some coaches are growing tired of the season starting in the third week of August and many seasons ending by Halloween. One of the most vocal is Morris Catholic coach Dave Albano.
“They talk about low numbers in a lot of these schools and yet you start the season in the middle of August,” he said. “You have more heat stroke and heat injuries and you’re starting in August. Those early games … it’s all about who does not cramp out and which kids can finish the game. There is no cramping in October or November. Start the season later and play later. We are done before Halloween. We used to play until Thanksgiving and knew when the season ended. Now, we really don’t.”
Many years ago, New Jersey high school football began the third week of September and was literally the last state in the entire country to begin high school football. Many schools played on Thanksgiving. But shifts took place. Schools began abandoning Thanksgiving football. Playoffs expanded from four teams to eight (adding one week to the season). Then NJSIAA added one, and then two layers of playoffs in order to crown a single Group champion. But while this is all happening, dozens and dozens of high school football seasons have ended.
So here are some ideas for the NJSIAA to ponder:
- Begin the high school football season the weekend after Labor Day. Football games shouldn’t be played before high school students have even been in class yet. The buildup of a weekend’s game with classmates is part of the high school experience for many.
- Abandon the idea of playing to a single Group champion. It was a nice idea in theory, but how much football is enough? New Jersey is not Texas. Only a handful of people were clamoring for a single Group champion. The interest is negligible. Attendance at these games is mediocre. When you get right down to it, football seasons for everyone are beginning in the summer (before school is even in session) solely so that two teams can play down to one Group champion? That seems a bit much. Ninety-nine percent of the football teams in New Jersey have absolutely no shot of playing in that game, and yet their lives are affected unnecessarily.
- Proof that the one state champion playoff is not catching on: Butler and Kinnelon played a sectional final in front of almost 4,000 fans at Butler. I know it was a unique game with neighboring towns in a sectional final, but it seems as though Butler winning the section concluded the season for many fans. One week later, Cedar Grove came to Butler in a state Group I semifinal with a state championship berth at stake … and about 1,000 fans attended. Yawn. More proof that playing to a sectional final is more than enough.
- I never thought I’d be saying this, but bring back Thanksgiving games. I saw an NJ.com story last week where traditional Thanksgiving games are evaporating before our eyes, the latest being Roselle-Roselle Park, who have been playing on Thanksgiving for 106 years. Why? I believe because most teams are done playing by Halloween, so they may as well pack things in if Thanksgiving is almost a month away. Why practice for an entire month for a single game?
But if the season were to start later (Labor Day weekend or the weekend after), then seasons would come to a close mid-November and eliminating Thanksgiving games would not be necessary. The amount of Thanksgiving games has dwindled from 73 (2014) to 62 (2017) to 35 (2019) to 16 last week.
Other Thanksgiving games that would be cancelled, if this trend continues, are downright historic: Millville-Vineland (which started in 1893), East Orange-Barringer (1897), Haddonfield-Haddon Heights (1902) and Easton-Phillipsburg (1905).
To me, messing with traditions like these, just so a few schools in the state can play down to a single champion, almost seems blasphemous.
I wouldn’t want to be the one to say to Millville-Vineland, “Ok guys, you’re done!”
“Games after Halloween were always the meat and potatoes of the season,” Albano said. “And for what? So that few teams can play down to a single champion?”
Said another coach, who didn’t want to be named, “Our season ended, and I went to THREE of our town’s midget games – and that is BEFORE their playoffs. We were done that much sooner than they were, and that’s not right.”
Lastly, and let’s be real honest here, many of the teams in the running over the last few weeks, well they … ahem, attract their athletes in advantageous ways compared to most schools, by the way. This feeds into playing down to a single state champion. Crazy adults get involved, hell-bent on winning it all, and all kinds of recruiting is the end result.
2. The Northing system for the state playoffs to lessen travel for only a few South-Central schools made it completely unfair for some schools in the North.
Mountain Lakes and Cedar Grove were the two best teams in North 2, Group I but played in a sectional semifinal because of Northing.
River Dell was the 12 seed in North 1, Group III but had to play at top-seeded Ramapo in the very first round because of Northing.
A few years ago, the NJSIAA removing the sections the way they had been for many years was a stroke of genius. For many years, North 1, Group III was a minefield of good teams and cracking the Top 8 to qualify for the playoffs was a difficult task. But North 2, Group III sometimes couldn’t even fill out an eight-team bracket. So the state decided to seed the teams from North Group III 1-through-16 in North 1 and North 2. Great move.
Having the 1 seed vs. 16, 2 vs. 15 with the top two seeds getting home field throughout and snaking it was the best way to go, and that is the way it was done the last few years.
This year, because some South-Central schools complained about excess travel, the state decided to keep the top two seeds at home but then used the Northing system to ease the travel.
But it’s the state playoffs and a little more travel for one game is to be expected. The NJSIAA chose to ease the time on the buses but in doing so ended the seasons of some good teams prematurely. I’m sure there are more examples than Mountain Lakes and River Dell.
3. Some schools attract athletes in different ways and there should be a remedy to fix that. There are some Bergen public schools (Ramapo, Old Tappan, Northern Highlands) who get their kids in different ways than Morris County schools (West Morris, Roxbury, Randolph, etc.). Two years ago, the state stepped in when Shabazz and Weequahic had a racket going (both were in Group I despite gathering their athletes from all of Newark, the biggest city in New Jersey). Kudos to the state for fixing that by moving them up to Group II and Group III, respectively.
It’s time for the NJSIAA to step in and rectify the situation with schools who get their football players in different fashions. Not saying they are cheating (they are playing by the rules), but they do have a decided advantage.
4. And while we’re on the subject of schools getting their kids in different ways, why, oh why, is a Passaic Tech (which attracts kids from all over Passaic County) in the same section as a Morristown, which gets its kids from … Morristown. The state should include some of these schools elsewhere (perhaps Non-Public B?).
Here and there
1.The local coaches voiced their grievances and here are some of mine: Whatever happened to newspaper all-county teams? The Morris County Coaches Association has its team and it gets published, and that is all well and good. But the coaches don’t truly pick the very best kids, they pick one kid from every team.
The SFC has all-division teams (totally watered down because there are many six-team divisions) and newspapers run those. Fine.
What I’m talking about is newspapers selecting an all-county team chosen position by position with a headshot of each kid and a little bio. The writers at the Daily Record who cover football are talented, know their stuff, and love the game. Same with the NJ.com staff. The Bergen Record still puts an all-county and an all-area team, so kudos to them.
The Gannett and NJ.com editors who have decided to put the kibbosh on All-Morris have have fumbled away the end of football season in a massive way. What exactly is keeping them from picking a team for each county?
All it takes is emailing the coaches, gathering info, and piecing things together. Picking a team is not easy, but it is most certainly necessary. Not having a final All-County or All-Area team leaves a gaping hole in the coverage.
It’s like getting a bill at the restaurant … but no dessert? I just don’t get it.
Perhaps the biggest selling newspaper of the year in my 25 years of covering high school football for the Daily Record was the All-County/All-Area football edition. I got tons of feedback (good and bad). The readers follow the coverage all season and then want to see who the football beat writer picked for first team, second team, Coach of the Year, Player of the Year, etc. To end the season with … nothing … well, that’s just wrong.
2. Another gripe with the newspapers (NJ.com too) is the statewide poll that includes both Parochial and Public schools together. Some Parochial schools get their kids from all over creation, so why on earth are they combined with Public schools in a ranking? So if West Morris makes it up to No. 15, they are being overshadowed. The Bergen Parochial schools and the rest of the Catholic schools get their kids from all over and West Morris gets its players from a couple of towns … so why are they even mentioned in the same breath? How about a Top 10 of Catholic schools, and a Top 10 for the Publics? That’s always been a pet peeve of mine.
