The football committee met on Tuesday at the CHSAA office. (Ryan Casey/CHSAANow.com)
AURORA — The football committee on Tuesday recommended lowering the number of quarters a player is allowed to play over the course of a season.
Currently, a player is allowed to play 56 combined quarters during the regular season at all levels. That number does not distinguish between the number of games a team schedules.
It is also fairly high compared the stats within the region and around the country.
“Colorado is on the high end nationwide in terms of the number of quarters we allow kids to play,” said Mike Krueger, the district athletic director of Aurora Public Schools who chairs the football committee.
As a result, the committee hammered out the following recommendations:
| Games scheduled | Quarters allowed |
| 8 | 42 |
| 9 | 48 |
| 10 | 52 |
As with the current rule, these season-long limits only apply to regular season games.
Additionally, under the recommendation, no player would be allowed to play in more than six quarters during a seven-day week. The week would be defined as starting on Thursday.
The six-quarter limit would allow exemptions when dealing with postponements.
However, this recommendation is just that — a recommendation — at this point. Because the current quarter limit is a bylaw, the committee cannot change it by itself. As such, a league will need to bring a proposal to the CHSAA’s Legislative Council meeting in January. That appears likely.
Notables
- The committee defined who is allowed inside a team’s coaching box as only the personnel of that team. Team videographers can be considered part of a team’s personnel. No one else will be allowed inside a 5-yard radius of the coaching box. Others on the sideline will be allowed from the 20-yard-lines and toward the goal-lines.
- The current heat acclimatization recommendation, as well as number of allowed contact practices, will be discussed at the committee meeting in April 2015.
- The committee lowered each of the defeat points awarded through the Wild Card points formula by 5 points.
- The group will meet again in mid-February to work ahead on 2016-18 alignment.
- 3A changed its seeding criteria so that a league champion will no longer be guaranteed a top-6 seed for the playoffs. However, they will still get a top-8 seed and host in the first round. Additionally, 3A added league finish and overall record to the criteria it will use to seed the bracket.
- 6-man made a change to its Wild Card points where a team that forfeits a game will receive 0 defeat points. A team receiving a forfeit will still be awarded the usual victory points.