Road to a Football Championship Gets Longer

If the New Canaan High School Rams football wants a fifth straight state championship, they'll have to win three post-season games in their division, instead of just two. A consolidation of divisions by the Connecticut Interscholastic Atheltic Conference (CIAC) has added an additional game to the road to a title.

The six divisions to which the 143 Connecticut high school football teams belonged in 2009 have been pared to four for the upcoming season. A committee of current coaches and retired CIAC coaches has done away with New Canaan's former divisions—Class MM—and Class SS. Instead, Connecticut high school football teams will be evenly divided into Classes LL, L, M and S—as in extra large, large, medium and small, depending on the enrollment of boys in each school. The Rams will now be in class L.

New Canaan High School Athletic Director, Jay Egan said the addition of more teams also means more quality teams.

"This re-alignment is an interesting idea in that each division will be more competitive and the team that wins the championship, after playing an additional game, will have a tougher row to hoe."

Egan said the changes are aimed at giving more teams a chance in the playoffs as the Connecticut football talent pool gets deeper.

All four division championship games will be played at the University of Connecticut's Rentschler Field in East Hartford. The same-site schedule, Egan said, "should increase revenues."

The Rams' regular 10-game regular season remains untouched by the change. The season kicks off with a Thursday night game at Bassick Sept. 16 and ends with the annual Turkey Bowl game at Darien on Nov. 25.  In between they'll play their other regular FCIAC opponents plus one out of conference game against Seymour, a Class S team.

Changes in Sum:

• Total Divisions—4 (LL, L, M, S) , previously 6 (LL, L, MM, M, SS, S)
• Rams' Division: Class L, previously Class MM
• Teams in Rams' Division—36 in Class L, previously 23 in MM
• State Post-Season Games—3, previously 2
• Championship Game—to be played at Rentschler Field, one title game scheduled for Friday Dec. 9, three for  Saturday Dec. 10.