Important questions remain as WPIAL football realignment process continues

By: Chris Harlan
Friday, January 17, 2020 | 7:08 PM

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The WPIAL has already requested a weekend at Heinz Field for the football finals, but it’s too early to say which classifications will play their championships at the North Shore stadium.

That’s because this is a realignment year for the PIAA, a resorting of teams that occurs across the state every two years, and there are more questions than answers at this point in the process.

Here are five questions that will be answered within the next few weeks:

1. Which football teams will share a conference?

The WPIAL football committee met Thursday to set the realignment, but the updated conferences won’t be revealed until the WPIAL board approves them Monday. However, the WPIAL showed coaches and school administrators a tentative version Jan. 8, and the final realignment probably won’t change too much from that example.

The tentative alignment included some smaller conferences than in recent years, making them more geographically friendly.

2. When will football teams see their schedules?

Coaches will have to wait a few more weeks to start studying film of their opponents. Football schedules won’t be released until early February, WPIAL executive director Tim O’Malley said.

The WPIAL is revamping the way it creates schedules, so there will be some notable differences. Nonconference opponents will be handpicked by the WPIAL rather than assigned randomly as they were in past seasons. Ideally, that will allow for more regional rivalries, fewer lopsided scores and less travel. Also, most teams will have their nonconference games grouped at the start of the schedule rather than scattered throughout.

The WPIAL revealed tentative schedules earlier this month, but those are likely to change before they’re official.

3. How many teams will qualify for the WPIAL playoffs?

That won’t be decided until sometime later, but it seems certain to change.

The number of teams in every classification has shifted a little, so the WPIAL will revisit whether each deserves a six-, eight- or 16-team playoff bracket. The WPIAL will have eight teams in Class 6A next season, 18 in Class 5A, 22 in Class 4A, 20 in Class 3A, 27 in Class 2A and 24 in Class A.

A year ago, Class 5A and 2A were the only WPIAL classifications that had full 16-team brackets. But now, Class 5A has fewer teams than Class 4A and 3A, so that seems unlikely to continue.

4. Which classifications will play at Heinz Field?

The WPIAL asked Heinz Field to pencil them in for the third weekend in November, O’Malley said, but the WPIAL can’t make any other concrete plans until the PIAA finalizes the state playoff brackets. The WPIAL wants to know when its champions enter the state playoffs.

The WPIAL played Class 6A, 4A, 3A and A at Heinz Field last season. The two others, Class 5A and 2A, were held at Norwin.

5. How much will the PIAA change the state brackets?

Maybe a lot. Maybe a little.

The PIAA will reveal the first draft of updated state football brackets at next week’s meeting in Mechanicsburg. For the past two seasons, the WPIAL Class 6A and 5A champions were forced to play a Philadelphia Catholic League team in the state semifinals, but that might change.

“The board likes to rotate that so people don’t hit up against the same districts,” PIAA executive director Bob Lombardi said, “and I know people have talked about travel (between Pittsburgh and Philadelphia). But you want both sides of the bracket to be similar in number (of schools represented).”

One change that seems certain is that the PIAA will take steps to eliminate the byes that WPIAL Class 3A and A champions enjoyed in the state quarterfinals last season. The PIAA football steering committee discussed the issue at its January meeting, Lombardi said.

Chris Harlan is a TribLive reporter covering sports. He joined the Trib in 2009 after seven years as a reporter at the Beaver County Times. He can be reached at charlan@triblive.com.