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Background[]

Rick Xander, a Facebook friend who posts to the Western PA Football Huddle, proposes that the PIAA borders need an overhaul.

Comments[]

Anyone who follows high school football knows the season in Pennsylvania is too long. The state championship is played later than in any other state. And a kid who plays every game for a team going to Hershey will play more games than a D-1 player who plays every game. This has a trickledown effect to the other sports with later starts and fewer games. This might create a furor around here, but I would submit that it's time to realign the PIAA into more equitable-sized districts which would shorten district playoffs, end the championships earlier and let the kids get on with the rest of the school year. As structured, the PIAA is an archaic organization. It was founded in 1913, long before the Turnpike or any interstate was built. The shape of the 12 districts reflect that. My suggestion would reduce the number of districts to 10 or 11 and reassign some counties to other districts to try to balance the number of schools in each district, and make travel sense. With 11 districts, an ideal number would be 52 schools per district Right now, Districts 1-3-7 are well beyond that and have the longest playoff seasons. Even at that I would dissolve the District 8 (City League) into District 7 (the WPIAL) for 129 football schools. That's way too many! I would reassign Fayette and Westmoreland counties into District 5 and Lawrence County into District 10, and Armstrong County into District 9. Without making this post even longer with detail, I would reassign parts of Districts 1 and 3 into District 11, send northernmost District 11 to District 2. Part of 10 and maybe part of 6 would be sent to 9. I'm trying to use some common sense with geography with this proposal. Unfortunately, common sense and the PIAA do not always agree.

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