For the first time in Section V Athletics history, a football schedule was created using a federation philosophy.  Federation scheduling is defined as like schools playing each other.  The schedule was created by classifications rather than by league play.  Sport Coordinator Scott Barker has worked with his committee this past year to implement this change in scheduling philosophy for football.  Federation schedule philosophy may be new within Section V Athletics, but is not new in the sport of football across New York State.  Federation scheduling allows teams that play a seven game regular season to play against like classification teams (based on enrollment size) as defined by the New York State Public High School Athletic Association (NYSPHSAA) outlined here. 

      The football committee made the recommendation to move to federation scheduling to align with other sections across the state and went to a referendum vote that passed 53-19 on Friday, December 14th, 2018 with 72 school districts responding.  Football is not like most sports because the number of games that can be played in regular season are only against seven opponents. In addition, they have a closed Sectional tournament where only the top eight teams of each classification go on to represent Section V Athletics in States.  Like classification opponents and power seeding will prepare all of the best eight teams representing each Section V Football classification for the NYSPHSAA tournament. 

    Please join the Section V Football committee in what will be a great 2019 season!  We encourage you to follow Section V Football on our social media platforms (Twitter, Facebook, Instagram: @SecVFootball) and our website!