SC high school football championship schedule format gets new look. Here’s why
There will be a Thursday night state football championship game in South Carolina for the 2021-22 season.
The S.C. High School League executive committee passed a proposal Wednesday that will change the state championship format from two to three days — and be held at one site.
It will be a reverse rotation in the future to determine which classifications play on which days. This year, Class 4A will be held on Thursday at 7 p.m. The other days and times for championship games will be Class 2A (2 p.m.) and Class 3A (7 p.m.) on Friday. Saturday’s games will be Class A at noon and Class 5A at 5 p.m.
The location still will be determined, but it will likely have to be at a college venue because a high school is unlikely to want to hold a game on Friday afternoon with school in session.
This past year during COVID-19, Spring Valley High School and Benedict College hosted the championships over a two-day period. Benedict has historically hosted Class A and 2A on a Friday and Williams-Brice Stadium hosted three games on a Saturday.
But it was pointed out by S.C. High School League commissioner Jerome Singleton and assistant commissioner Charlie Wentzky that the crowded nature of having three games on the same day impacts locker room usage and warm-up times. Other states across the Southeast also hold football championships over more than two days, including Georgia and Alabama.
Other proposals passed on Wednesday:
▪ A proposal for Upper/Lower state basketball championships to go back to two sites — with one site for state championships — passed with the flexibility to adjust upper/lower state games to neutral sites if needed. Those games were held at neutral sites this year but in Greenville and Florence previous years.
▪ There will be two scrimmages and one jamboree for all teams in all sports for the 2021-22 school year. In previous years, there were four scrimmages and one jamboree. But that changed in the 2020-21 because of COVID-19.
▪ A proposal to give baseball, softball and track & field an extra week in the regular season passed. There will be eight weeks in the regular season, not seven, beginning in 2021-22. The proposal allows the state track meet to be moved back a week so it wouldn’t interfere with tennis and soccer championships.
▪ The amount of track and cross country qualifiers increased from 12 to 16, and each classification can determine if they want to use a one site or an Upper/Lower state format to determine their qualifiers.
▪ A proposal for volleyball teams being able to remain on the same side/benches during the match passed. This was in place last year because of COVID-19 and will be made permanent.
▪ A proposal that spectators must have a separate ticket for each championship game in each classification passed. In previous years, fans could pay for one ticket for state basketball championship games and watch each game that day.
This story was originally published April 21, 2021 at 12:01 PM.
