It looks like we will have a prep football season after all. That is if the state of Louisiana has moved to Phase 3 by then. This past week the Louisiana High School Athletic Association (LHSAA) sent a memo to member schools by Executive Director Eddie Bonine outlining certain regulations and guidelines pertaining to football, volleyball, cross country and swimming.
Notable recommendations implemented for the sport of football now state that scrimmages and jamborees are no longer an option this fall. The association had previously mentioned the possibility of preseason contests taking place the week before an October 8th regular season start date.
Team boxes are now extended an additional ten yards to each team’s respective 15-yard line. Within the box only essential personnel is permitted and all must wear a mask and maintain a six foot distance at all times. Players, when not playing, must also wear a mask.
It has also been determined that instead of schools reworking schedules for a shortened season that the season would start with each school playing teams shown on the third week of the schedule . While some parameters have been set there is still discussion going on about how long the regular season will be and how many playoff teams would be considered.
Currently a six game regular season followed by the playoffs and the state championships to be played on the weekend of December 12th, which is the normal time that the state title games are played in the Superdome, seems to have the most leverage.
A longer regular season with shortened playoffs and moving the state championship venues to other locations are also being considered as well as re-combining “select” and “non-select” schools in the playoffs for a one year period. Also noted was that football teams could have the option of playing a bowl game as an “extra” contest should it not make its respective playoff field.
For olympic fall sports, similar guidelines were also established. You may read more about each sport’s guidelines by clicking HERE.