CIAC Glory Days
The CIAC Glory Days podcast immerses listeners into the world of high school athletics. Explore the purpose and impact of interscholastic athletics on student-athletes as administrators, coaches, players, officials, parents, and State Athletic Association staff take listeners on a journey from tryouts to championships.
CIAC Glory Days
Glory Days Podcast S3:E3 – Inside the CT High School Football Alliance 🏈
On this episode of the CIAC Glory Days Podcast, host Jada Mirabelle sits down with Al Carbone and James Buonocore to dive into the world of the Connecticut High School Football Alliance. They discuss how the Alliance got started, how matchups are set, its goals, the responses to critics, and the impact it’s having on high school football across Connecticut. A must-listen for fans, players, and anyone curious about the CT high school football!
Welcome to the CIC Glory Days podcast. I'm your host, jada Maribel, and today I'm joined by Al Carbone, the SEC Commissioner, and Jim Bunicor, the Assistant Principal and Athletic Director at Ledger High School, and they're both a part of the leadership team of the Connecticut High School Football Alliance. Thank you both for joining me today.
Speaker 2:Thanks for having us. Jada, very excited, of course.
Speaker 1:So to start off, for those who are watching, who may not know what exactly is the Connecticut High School Football Alliance, for those who are, watching who may not know what exactly is the Connecticut High School Football Alliance.
Speaker 3:The Alliance is a football league in the state of Connecticut made up of seven conferences as well as four independents. Two of those independents are from the state of Connecticut and two independents are from the state of Rhode Island. The goal of our alliance is to assist those conferences in scheduling high school football games. To date, we've scheduled over 600 plus games since our inception and just already in 2025, in week one, we scheduled 61 high school football games.
Speaker 1:Wow. So when was the alliance officially formed and what was that motivation behind creating it, besides having all the leagues work together?
Speaker 2:So back in 2016, the Southwest Conference, the Southern Connecticut Conference and the Eastern Connecticut Conference our commissioners kind of got together and said wouldn't it be great to have some kind of a scheduling alliance? Because high school football scheduling is hard right and so there's always challenges. You have odd numbers of teams, you have bad matchups in your league. So we got together and we ended up scheduling about 32 games in that first year in 2017. And it's just built from each year going forward and getting more leagues involved and, as Jim just talked about the schedule, over 100 games now in the 2025 season. So high school football gets a lot of attention, so scheduling is one of the things that everyone focused to. You only play 10 games, and so the alliance was really formed to address all those challenges that we have as leagues.
Speaker 1:Yeah, because with those 10 matchups, you have to be very conscious of what you're scheduling to make sure your team is benefiting from everything. So who else is a part of the alliance? Because I know you both are a part of the leadership team, but how does it work?
Speaker 3:So the seven conferences that are part of the alliance, besides the SEC and the ECC, we include the FCEAC, the Southwest Conference, the NVL Naugatuck Valley League, the CTC, the Connecticut Technical League, and the four independents, which include NANAWAG. It's a cooperative program, a new program this year in our state, amistad, which is a first-year varsity football program, and the two schools from Rhode Island are Bishop Hendrickson, which is a perennial powerhouse in the state of Rhode Island, and Westerly High.
Speaker 2:School. He did forget the Central Connecticut Conference, the CCC.
Speaker 3:Yes, and the Southwest Conference, yeah.
Speaker 2:So the largest league in the state. That being said, there are teams that are independent and not part of leagues. They've gotten rejected from a league or they were a co-op, a newly formed co-op or such, and so Nonawag and Amistad had reached out to us and said can you help us with scheduling? So, like in reality is, the alliance is like a scheduler broker, so we are able to give them a full schedule, which, as you said before, 10 games. I think that each of them got nine or 10 for the year. So every week you're seeing these teams get schedules playing the teams from those aforementioned leagues. So, really, what we've really evolved into is really in a scheduling alliance, but one that's also promoting high school football and getting these competitive matchups I see.
Speaker 3:Yeah, when this all began, you know, initially it was, you know, designated weeks where we were setting aside for alliance games. It has now morphed into we have an alliance game scheduled at a minimum one game all the way through week 11, because we've maxed out non-awog schedule for them at their request, amistad schedule for them at their request. But then also, as you look through the season, because of leagues and the inequity in those leagues, you know, we have alliance games kind of dotted in throughout the year. For example, in week nine we'll have a Fitch-West Haven matchup, you know, an SEC-ECC matchup. In week five or six we have a Killingly-Massic matchup, you know an.
Speaker 3:SWC-ECC matchup Because, again, you know, as the main scheduler in the Eastern Connecticut Conference, you know there are times where I have issues coming up with games that are sensible for student-athletes, sensible for student athletes, sensible for those school communities, and the Alliance has helped solve some of those issues.
Speaker 2:And just talking from the SEC's perspective is you know, we used to do back about 10, 15 years ago we did actually a scheduling partnership with the FCA where we had like a challenge and then the SWC and the NBL did a challenge.
Speaker 2:A couple of years later that kind of morphed into the Alliance of making sure that you have these other leagues who have openings in their schedules to look in and, as Jim said, make it in the benefit of the student athletes to play a competitive football game as opposed to just force feeding a bad matchup in your league. And let's be honest, our leagues are diverse and we have challenges, odd numbers of teams, openings, all this stuff, and so why so? Why, you know, force feed a matchup just because it's a league matchup, when you can go to another league and say, hey, I, this is a you know the type of team I have. Do you have a comparable team that would like to play in this? You know we call it off week, off alliance week, but in any of the weeks. So you're following that schedule to get them 10 games, because no team wants to play less than 10 games. That's what you're. You know they put the effort in Around the year, 365 days to prepare.
Speaker 1:You should get those 10 games. So essentially, the Alliance is a resource for schools to orchestrate different matchups throughout their season. That's really what it comes down to.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think that's a good explanation of it and a description of it. And you know, but I think that's a good explanation of it and a description of it. But then, as Jim said, there's also those designated weeks, like week one, where we objectively matched up teams based on playoff power points and that where you have those matchups designated home or away. But that leads to the further conversations with the leagues to work together to say, hey, do you have an opening here? I need another game for this team.
Speaker 1:So are there any other states that have an alliance program like this, or is this more of a pilot program in Connecticut?
Speaker 3:I think other states at this point do start off their seasons with non-conference, or in some states they're called non-district games, and usually that can range from week one to week four before they get into what they call, you know, divisional play. So states vary, you know. In regards to, you know, scheduling, in regards to, like an alliance, where it's now interstate, I don't think there's much like us.
Speaker 3:You know, when you look around the country it's pretty unique in terms of what we're doing. So you know it's a process for us too. We really don't have other states to look at to get feedback hey, how are you doing this? You know our state is different also in that it's not a big state. You know it's not like we're Texas and there's a. You know a six to eight hour drive to get through. You know you can get from point A to point B. You know Stonington to Greenwich in about a two hour time frame. So it does allow us some flexibility and, you know, ability to meet the needs of all of our alliance member schools.
Speaker 2:And I like to say this from the promotion part yeah, we're the first ones in the country to do something and promote it as such, which is unique and exciting for us, but it's also, too, is we're as Jim said, we're a resource, and the schools from you know teams from other states who are reaching out to us because they're taking notice of it, so it's getting a lot of attention we're, we're getting good feedback, we work together and so when schools from other states are want to be part of it, because I think in the past, football scheduling was this thing that you know people did behind you know, maybe closed doors and like you know you had friends and you know you, behind you know, maybe closed doors and like you know you had friends and you know you, you try to align with them.
Speaker 2:Now it's more more open. I like to say transparent, in the sense of, hey, we have these options for you and the more options that we can provide you know our, you know member schools of the alliance, the better it's going to be, because we're always and we can adjust if we have last minuteminute changes or obstacles. We had lost a team in the springtime and we were able to quickly get those nine schools a football game, a good football game, comparable football, because we had access to all the schools and the schedules.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I mean you'd rather have it be a transparent process. That's a good sign that other states are reaching on wanting to model an alliance after the work that you're doing. So how are these matchups picked? Is there a specific formula, or do rankings or any specific criteria go behind making these matchups?
Speaker 3:It's a little bit of both. This year, for the first time, for week one we scheduled purely objectively off of the previous year's final CIAC state playoff rankings. We had never done that before. That was at the request of one of our conference affiliates that came into the alliance this past year and we felt that it was extremely transparent because at the conclusion of Thanksgiving Day games everybody knew who they were going to play for the most part leading into the 2025 season.
Speaker 3:There was a couple of adjustments we had to make to that, you know, in terms of like pulling Killingly out of the mix because we knew we wanted to give them, you know, one of our independents coming from the state of Rhode Island. And then just some adjustments due to one conference in our state that's not a member. They fill the majority of the class S and double S rankings. That's the Pequot League. So them not being a member of the alliance caused a little bit of issues because it gave us an unbalance of number of teams. So after we made those adjustments and ranked, everybody had their matchup set.
Speaker 3:And you saw some outstanding matchups this past week, highlighted, I believe, by that killingly Bishop Hendrickson game, which certainly, I think, with over 3,000 people in attendance and the type of back and forth game it was speaks volumes about. Those are the types of games we're trying to create, you know, on a weekly basis and on a consistent basis. So that was the first time we did an objective schedule straight off of your ranking, subjective schedule straight off of your ranking. As we move throughout the rest of the season now it becomes a little bit more subjective and a little bit more dialogue between the representatives from each league sitting at the table right here at the CIAC offices. When we schedule, we talk about program strength, we talk about returning players, we talk about returning players, we talk about past success and you know, do those matchups make sense? Do they fit within the league structure of scheduling, you know, for those teams?
Speaker 2:So there's a lot of back and forth and it's not just one meeting, it's multiple meetings and just an added comment you know when this alliance was formed and Dave Johnson, who was the commissioner of the Southwest Conference and the former AD at Bunnell, was really one of the. You know the founders, founders and he says we want to create excitement and interest into high school football and high school football gets a lot of attention. We saw this in week one. Jimmy talked about the killing Lee Bishop-Henrick game. You had Daniel Hand and St Joe's two that played in the semifinals last year go to a last-second game, last-second play for a game. You had Ansonia play Bloomfield that played in the class-ass finals, first game for the Ansonia coach who replaced Tom Brockett who was there for a couple decades. So you're adding excitement. But it's also about the other games.
Speaker 2:So everyone focuses on the good matchups of the good teams. I look at all the teams. I look at Wilbercross, bridgeport Central, who probably have been struggling as programs, and they look to week one and says this is a competitive football game and it was 21-8. And Bridgeport Central won for the first time in about six years. You had Wilby from the Naugatuck Valley League who won for the first time in about six years. You had Wilby from the Naugatuck Valley League who won for the first time since 2022.
Speaker 2:These matchups, especially the objective ones in week one, creates so much really enthusiasm and interest into that week one.
Speaker 2:But also a realistic one because you know, as Jim said, sometimes as leagues we force feed matchups because you're in a league and you have to do that. We've taken that variable out of it because of the alliance and so in those off weeks, if we can schedule these good games and look at and say this is a really good matchup, that creates interest. And you know, and I know that for a fact of like, when people you want to have home games early in september to get you know fans to come and students to come, you want to. You know the weather's warm and all the stuff and it builds up throughout the season. So if you can generate that much interest in week one, as we did with the objective kind of version of of that schedule piece, and then add those games throughout the season, it just adds a lot more interest into the sport and there's a lot of stuff going on. But it's really been a a really benefit for everybody who's been involved.
Speaker 3:Yeah, the feedback's been extremely positive from this first week. Granted, there'll be a few you know naysayers out there and you know I've received an email or two. Not everybody can win. We scheduled 61 games. You know there's going to be 61 teams that are not on the winning side, but you know when you can talk about some of those programs that have not been as successful over the course of the past four to five years. And we had a team down our end of the state that won a game 13 to 10 in overtime To start the season off, to start your school year off that way. That's exciting, that's helping. I feel like our alliance, our organization, is helping programs that need to rebuild, get a chance to breathe get a chance to get themselves on solid footing and hopefully create some success for the year.
Speaker 1:Yeah, these matchups definitely do give teams a new sense of competition that they normally wouldn't have encountered in prior seasons. So do coaches or athletic directors have any say in the matchups? Because I know you had just mentioned that you all sit around a table, you know all the league commissioners and come together for the matchups, but do coaches or ADs have any input?
Speaker 3:ADs absolutely have 100% input because at our table there's an AD from every conference representing, you know, their particular school or schools, so they get an opportunity to dialogue. They get an opportunity to talk about that particular team or teams that are in discussion for games. They really need to come prepared to tell us about, you know, roster sizes, returning players, is there going to be a coaching change? Those are all things that go into consideration when scheduling games. For the most part, the ADs are the expert from their league representing their schools, from coaches. Al and I will certainly talk to coaches throughout the year. We'll get feedback. I speak to the coaches in my league and I know he speaks to the coaches in his league, but also we try to reach out to coaches in other leagues to get some feedback. Talk about teams, talk about players and talk about things that they want to see from the Alliance and how we go about our scheduling.
Speaker 2:So we try to make it as transparent as possible and I think that's, and just to add two quick points to that about coaches and ADs is that you know and the league commissioners I'm not associated with one school, I represent a league, but we have to have representing our league walk into the room with information about all of our schools. So you have to talk about. You know here's where our league ranks and these teams and who's coming back in in talk about you know here's where our league ranks and these teams and who's coming back in that aforementioned stuff that you know. Jimmy talked about the information. The second part of this is we also have an obligation to make sure that you know we're doing the best for our leagues but we're doing the best for the sport Because, as Jimmy said, there's a lot of variables that have gone into the sport of football and you know and we'll talk about'll talk about the naysayers and the challenges of travel, sub-varsity, all that stuff. So we're just not scheduling games, we're also getting together as a group and saying what can we do? What's best next for it? And I would say is based on the feedback that I've gotten from, like, coaches and athletic directors from all of the leagues.
Speaker 2:We were able to propose something to the CIC football committee about playoff points. So when you play an Alliance game, that's a you get all the points as a league game. But we also get. The point is, if you lose that game and Jimmy talked about, you know, week one you lose that game and that team that you play goes on and gets eight or nine wins, you get five points, bonus points plus up to. So we propose that as the alliance, a group of leagues, to say is we want you to play these games and here's the process, but also this is what's making positive. So you play those competitive games and you're going to be rewarded for that, for playing those you know tougher games or those comparable games that you should be playing, as opposed to maybe playing a game that's just not in the best interest of everybody involved.
Speaker 3:Yeah, for a very long time if you didn't win your game it was zero points going towards your, you know, playoff participation possibility.
Speaker 3:So one of the things as we started scheduling more competitive games, you know some of the schools were like, well, it's not to our advantage.
Speaker 3:So the Alliance proposed to the CIAC Football Committee a formula where you will be rewarded for that strength of schedule. So, 61 teams that did not win in week one, if they played a team that goes on and wins seven, eight, nine games, they're still going to accumulate 40, 45, possibly 50 points towards qualifying for the state playoffs. So now, with the expanded playoffs, six divisions, eight teams qualifying, playing an alliance game, playing a competitive game, that is going to prepare you, you know, for the postseason, I think is more enticing, you know, for those types of schools that understand, you know what the big picture is, you know where they want to be in December versus, you know where they are right now. But also, to the point already made, it's also not just about those schools. It's about those schools that you know need a little bit of assistance, need a little bit of help to get themselves back on solid ground. So we think we're benefiting, you know everybody, from one end of the spectrum to the other.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I'm glad you both touched on that new formula because that can be an incentive for schools, especially when it comes down to the end of the season, when it gets to playoffs, like those, few extra points can make a big difference.
Speaker 2:Make a big difference, but also prepare you in the sense of you know you get to the playoffs and you may be. You know, we've had schools, you know, in all of our leagues that have made the playoffs for the first time. That's exciting, like don't get me wrong, like everyone gets exciting and they, you know they get to it. But then it says, hey, we played this team or we had, you know, we had, we played this team from that league earlier in the year and we saw them. So there's always preparation that goes into it. But it's the reward of playing. We played that quality opponent and we know that we can compete and earn those playoff spots. And we've seen that in not just football, we've seen it in a lot of sports. Now the CIAC is changing the way they rank teams to go to the playoffs so that the most qualified teams are earning that spot. And so I think in football six divisions, eight teams you're seeing the teams qualify. But you're also seeing the teams that have played a rigorous, you know, non-conference and a conference schedule get to the state championships and be successful.
Speaker 2:And I like to say you know, here's the Alliance plug, but you know the top 16 teams in the final state polls the last two years were all Alliance teams. You know they played alliance games. Some played multiple games and I love to use the example. You know newtown, um, back five, six years ago. You know plays in the swc. They have, you know, teams that are smaller than them and and they would go to the playoffs and they would lose in the quarterfinals. And you know, and the swc leadership and dave's no, they're going to play. They need to play some competitive games. They played three SEC teams, won them all in 2019, and then end up winning a state championship over Darien and probably one of the most exciting finishes ever. But that prepared them and you hear the feedback from coaches saying these are good games and so we're going to continue to do that.
Speaker 1:So, at the core of the Alliance, it's really comes down to competition, exposure for athletes and playoff preparation. Are those the main goals behind all of these matchups?
Speaker 2:I think, yeah, you hit it. Those are all things. I think those are outcomes, those are outcomes Our goal my goal and.
Speaker 3:I can't speak for Al, but my goal is to make sure that from weeks one through 10, we are providing sensible football games for kids Like these guys and I was a head football coach for 17 years the amount of time that you prepare for 10 football games, it's outrageous. When you compare it back to 48 minutes 10 times a year, and that's again I'm not talking about just the in-season preparation um from a sunday through a thursday, but from that january 1 through mid-august. So again, we owe it to these kids um, to these student athletes, to the coaches, to give them an opportunity to compete fully 10 times for 48 minutes. I think more competitive playoffs and the right teams getting into the playoffs, more exposure those are all kind of byproducts to what we do. I think what we do, our main focus, is just making sure that during those 10 weeks we do the best we can to make sure that each week matters.
Speaker 3:And if that means, you know, out of my 14 football playing schools in the ECC, seven of them are able to play eight or nine ECC schools, but four or five only get to play five and they have to go out to get the other five games. That's what I'm going to do if it makes sense for their program. And I think that's kind of the mindset we're all in right now, including the SWC, the FCAC, the CCC, the NVL and even the CTC, who I think sometimes does not get looked at as an athletic conference because of their academic focus from a technical standpoint. They've jumped in and they're taking on two games a year because they want to promote football in their conference and I think it's been great for those schools and it's allowed us to schedule some really competitive games where those technical high schools are located or dotted throughout the state. We've been able to give them some games that make a tremendous amount of sense geographically and have created a little bit of rivalry for some technical high schools where typically they're separated from a pretty good distance.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that would be very beneficial to them because they're in diverse locations all throughout the state. They're not in one small area.
Speaker 2:And I think that goes to the point and what Jimmy said is completely right and he can speak for me. But I'll just say I just love working with all of the six other leagues because the commissioners, the football chair people and each of those they're all dealing with the same issues and challenges and so working together. When it started with Dave Johnson, gary McIlwicky was with the ECC and Jimmy getting to know their leagues and their challenges. That allowed us to agree on a lot of things and to make proposals to the CIAC and for the CIAC football committee to ask. You know Dave Johnson was on the football committee so he would give an alliance report.
Speaker 2:I've been lucky to go on to meetings with Jim, with the football community, to give them updates of what's going on, so to be able to communicate to audiences that maybe don't think about all these things and work together as leagues. I thoroughly enjoy going there because when I can go back to the SEC and says well, you know we're talking to these other conferences and it's also benefited other sports into having arrangements with for other sports and scheduling things. So we've worked to really focus on that communication but really the collegiality between the leagues.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it seems like a great level of collaboration between everyone involved. So week one gave us a full slate of Alliance games. I know we had mentioned some of those that stood out, but for the rest of the calendar throughout the season, which ones do you guys have circled that you think are going to be a great level of competition?
Speaker 2:I'm going to answer this question every week because to have games in every week like Bassick and Bridgeport Central in week two they play in the same stadium. They've multiple times they've been close games. They're rivals. The kids are excited about this. Bridgeport Central is 1-0 for the first time and I don't know they can go 2-0 for the first. I don't even know how long Bassick's been, you know getting better their coach. They have some really good you know players. So like I'm excited about that.
Speaker 2:But I'm excited that we have Daniel Han and Brookfield, you know, and I think it's week three. We have sunnington, st joseph's. We have killingly playing masik in week five, um, but now in new canaan. But now in new canaan in week 11 we have hill house playing wilton because wilton doesn't have a thanksgiving day opponent, so they have to play in week 11 and we've been able to get them games in that. You know week 11 thanksgiving day week. So it's not, I just think, to have games just gets it.
Speaker 2:But like in week nine, as Jim said, fitch versus West Haven. Like there's these matchups that you look at each week and you say, wow, I didn't realize that there was Alliance games, because every league schedule is different and they create these open matchups. So to do that allows us to promote it from an Alliance perspective, but also to say that you know whether it's the media, the fans hey, I'm going to go check out this football game that I, you know I don't get to see West Haven come down to, you know Groton too much, and so I think that's where Maloney Fairfield prep, you know, again, perennial playoff teams, which will be week six, but even, like Plainfield, which is now the Valley Panthers going down to play Wilbercross in a competitive game. So not to say that we're excited about it, but I think every matchup means something in Alliance and we like to promote it in saying this is an Alliance matchup.
Speaker 3:Another byproduct of what we do is the officiating Officials from all of the various boards are now also being exposed to teams from other parts of the state, teams that they're actually going to end up working their contests when we get to the state playoffs.
Speaker 3:So you know, we talked about byproducts of you know, seating and teams being prepared and selected for playoffs, but the officials, I think, benefit from this as well. Matter of fact, to the point where officials are now working in split crews, for example, I'm hosting a game tomorrow night at my place in Ledger and I have a split crew not only from the Eastern board, but I have officials coming from the Colonial and Fairfield County board and they're going to be working together, which is pretty unique. But they've kind of taken, I guess, a cue from the alliance in terms of the collaboration and working together and again just trying to improve their craft in what they do. But I know the officials have certainly been open to this. The officials have certainly been open to this and they like to see new teams come in. I know our board loves it when quality teams from the other end of the state are coming down and playing some of our teams and they get to work those games.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's a great perspective for officials as well, because that's also a new level of competition that they have to oversee. So what would you say to critics who raise concerns about things like travel time involved or breaking away from traditional rivalries, or even the idea that sometimes the competition may seem evenly matched but when it comes to game time it might not be?
Speaker 3:Yeah, the travel time is certainly something we're cognizant of and we've discussed at length and we've made adjustments due to over our time together since we formed the alliance in 2017. And that piece led to the elimination of sub-varsity scheduling. So we do not schedule sub-varsity games from an alliance standpoint. We tell our membership, which are those seven conferences and those four independents sub-varsity scheduling is on your own. You need to rely upon your conference. Make sure that those games are as local as possible Because, again, sub varsity is about development of the student athlete. If I have to schedule a game multiple times, for example, if Ledger needs to play Fitch three times in sub varsity football, we will. You know, score doesn't matter. It's about repetition for those kids and getting them game experience. So we removed that sub-varsity piece where travel could become an issue. Now, when we go back to varsity, I go back to my prior answer about again and not to keep beating a dead horse here but they only get 10 shots. The game is only 48 minutes long. The amount of time these kids prepare it's it's. It's a whole heck of a lot more than they get to play. So if I have to go on a bus for 90 minutes in comparison to maybe a 20 minute trip. But that bus trip 90 minutes in comparison to maybe a 20-minute trip but that bus trip 90 minutes is going to provide me a competitive game, a game that's meaningful, a game that I know is going to go a full 48 minutes and all my varsity kids are going to be able to play the entire time, instead of maybe traveling 20 minutes where the game's over at halftime or we're running the clock for the third and fourth quarter quarter. I have to play my sub varsity kids. I then have to cancel my sub varsity game the next morning. I am going to sign up for that 90 minute bus ride every day of the week and I think every student, athlete and coach will as well, because, again, we want it to be meaningful.
Speaker 3:You don't get many opportunities. We've always said football is different and it is because you play once a week and you only get to get after it 10 times. Other sports get to play multiple times a week. In some cases they get 16 to 20 games a season. We need to take all of that into consideration. So for those that are like, wow, you know that's a long trip, ask the kids if it was worth it. I bet the most of them will say it was. My school went down to Milford last week in week one. No one flinched about the ride. No parent guardian flinched. The student athletes and coaches didn't flinch. We had a great, competitive football game, certainly much better than one I could have provided them within our league at that point.
Speaker 2:So here's like the soundbite Would you rather drive 90 minutes and play a full football game or go five minutes down the road and get buried and have running time and not have a sub-varsity experience because you can't because of the rules of which quarters and things like that. But I would say something about like tradition. So, jimmy, I think the points are great, but tradition is you have nine other games on your schedule, right, leagues are now organized and you, yeah, we, there's those. There are rivalries, I get it and I've also found, as 22 years as a commissioner, is we have 29 different sports. You know, I may be a rival in this sport or not a rival in this sport, or we play in this sport and it's, you know, it's, it's things.
Speaker 2:So high school sports educational based athletics has evolved over this, you know, couple decades, and so we got to make it worth it for these kids to get those experiences. And so you know, tradition is great and tradition is going to be there. That's a factor. But we also need to, you know, make sure that. You know we're providing that opportunity, because the sub varsity piece is a bit, is a good one, because leagues are now challenged.
Speaker 2:I know I go to every meeting. It's like, well, I don't have a sub varsity, we have a Frostmore team, all this stuff, so it's always changing. So if you can know, you varsity, we have a froshmore team, all this stuff, so it's always changing. So if you can know, you can just go, you know, five minutes down the road or 10 minutes down and have a sub varsity game. You're providing those kids a development tool to get better so that they can go to the varsity and play in those games. So it all. You know it's a great soundbite and it's a great excuse and the critics will be critics, but we look at the bigger picture and and say this is what high school football should be about. We've made good changes and we're collaborating doing so.
Speaker 3:Yeah, and outside of it, every league needs to protect what's important to them. That's the league's responsibility From an alliance standpoint. Outside of the two independents from our state who we're providing full schedules for, the rest of our conference members, you know we're scheduling anywhere from one to four games, so we are in no way infringing upon what's important to them, what their traditional you know rivalry games are within their conference. That's their responsibility to make sure that they continue to do that. You know it's my responsibility to make sure. You know Fitch and Ledger are still playing. New London and NFA are still playing. You know NFA and Fitch are still playing.
Speaker 3:Like, those are my responsibilities as the league scheduler and I would say that for every league throughout the state. So I don't think we've taken away from any traditional rivalries and of course, contrary to what Many folks believe, we are also proponents of Thanksgiving Day and those rivalries that have continued for years and years. But what the Alliance has done is we've actually maybe created a few resurgences of games that have been off the radar. For example, this past year East Haven played North Haven, two neighboring schools that I don't think have played in years Over a decade and so the alliance was able to create that matchup, which I think was great for both communities and probably very exciting for the student-athletes.
Speaker 2:And just a point about like week one with the objective matchups. There were nine instances where teams from one league played each other because it's objective. So east haven, north haven, lined up because of their and they got to play. You know, I know jonathan law played lyman hall, cheshire played xavier in the sec, in the ccc there were a couple. East line played woodstock academy, so like that was a positive because that may help open up another competitive game because you're playing that game.
Speaker 2:So it all has it's has, it's a big picture type of focus. And you know, again, if we're promoting high school football and giving teams you know a chance to be competitive and play those you know 10 games and then maybe have a chance at the playoffs. I always look at it from a league perspective. The SEC is, if our SEC teams we have 21 teams, two-thirds of our teams going into week eight, week nine, are in the playoff conversation, that has benefits. I know it's not all about the playoffs, it's about getting better.
Speaker 2:But we always hear one criticism is oh well, if we lose our first three games, kids are going to quit. Well, kids are going to quit regardless of all the stuff. It's the coach's responsibility, the administrator's responsibility to build that culture. As Jim said, the preparation that goes in, those are going to happen, but it's not going to be because they got beat five straight times because they were forced into a bad schedule. So I think the point is the balance is that the Alliance has created some enthusiasm for kids to get better and they want to go play football and have an uptick and get that opportunity to be competing for a playoff spot. So as week nine, 10, 11 come, we're still in the mix here. That gives you a little bit of hoop. That's what playing sports is about.
Speaker 1:Yeah, those are all very strong points, especially regarding that traditional rivalries are still on the table, teams can still be a part of that, and sometimes you might have to travel for a little bit more competition.
Speaker 2:I will say this as the person in this state who gets characterized as the Thanksgiving Day hater. You can use this for the outtakes, but it's actually helped our league refine Thanksgiving Day matchups because we had teams that didn't have Thanksgiving Day matchups, as I kind of mentioned before. It's actually helped our league schedule because now we've been able to manipulate not manipulate but change some of the matchups between teams that should be playing for the betterment of our league and that everyone, because that always created some challenges to go find games. And so I would say that you know that is now a part of the schedule week 12, thanksgiving Day week and it's allowed our league to be able to get to a league schedule and still be able to, you know, compete in the Alliance. So that's just a public service nonsense. To all the SEC folks that get mad at me when I talk about that, you know, aforementioned holiday. I'm glad we cleared that up for them. Dartboard ready, right, that's why you're in the middle.
Speaker 1:All right. So, as we wrap up, how do you see the alliance expanding throughout the seasons? What are the goals as the years go on?
Speaker 3:Yeah, our goals are to increase membership, you know, a continue to keep the current membership, but with that increased membership, you know, I think we'd love to get every conference in the state of Connecticut participating. We still have one out there and we'd love to get the Pequot League in. We think they'd bring a ton of value, you know, to what we do. We are, as I stated earlier in the show, looking to expand outside our state borders. The feedback I'm getting from the state of Rhode Island has been overwhelming. So I certainly feel like from that end of the state it's going to come, but we're reaching out to the other end, into New York and Pennsylvania and Long Island, to see if we can bring in some schools from that end that are looking to pick up a game or two throughout the season. Regarding how we schedule matchups, I think the objective model that was used in week one was very successful. I do think we need to tweak it a little bit Again. Al and I would bring that back to our full leadership team, but I would love to see us kind of create a larger pool of teams available to rank and schedule. We did it this past year with all six divisions and, as I alluded to, the S and double S was kind of gave us a little bit lower number of schools just because of not having the Pequot League in. So, a if we can bring them in or if we start combining the divisions together, we don't usually get the new divisions until May or June in some cases, so we always work off the year prior. So that provides a little bit of dilemma and sometimes people out there will wonder well, why is this team playing? Why is team A playing team B when they're in M and they're in L? Well, they are this year, but last year they were in double M together, and so that's how we're operating.
Speaker 3:Just because the divisions aren't aren't being released, um, until typically May or June afterwards, so our schedules are done at that point, um, so what we're talking about this year and looking at doing is maybe combining the divisions, uh, bringing S and double S together, m and double M together and L and double L together, m and double M together and L and double L together, or possibly leaving them separate, just to kind of create a larger pool of teams to rank.
Speaker 3:We also want to continue to look at the technical schools, the cooperative schools also, and see where they fit. A lot of times they're placed in double M or, in some cases, cases L, because of the collaboration of schools, but it might not be appropriate, you know, to find them a game in that particular classification. So another thing we're going to talk about is maybe moving them into the S double S category to provide a more appropriate game. So we're going to continue to work, we're going to continue to evolve, make adjustments, no-transcript, adjust what we do, and I think those are two things we're looking at right now. In doing that, we think will help.
Speaker 1:That's good that you see that for next season yeah.
Speaker 2:And I would just say this, jimmy's, you know we love promoting the sport of high school football. There's a lot of people that are interested in it, there's a lot of stakeholders. We just love, you know, using that Alliance umbrella to work together to come up with these tweaks and improvements and having the conversations. I think it's one and we just love promoting it. You know, all hail right and so we have fun doing it. You, you know.
Speaker 2:But the fact that we have this, I would say, collegiality to work on and discuss these issues, it's not being done in some little closet, you know it's. It's being done around the table, looking each other in the eye and saying what you're doing. And so I think we've we've come so far in eight years and we're just going to keep getting better and it helps the sport of football and we are dialed into all of those stakeholders who have provided us input along the way, and I think we're open to it. And I think that's one thing that's always I would say is admirable is that we're not perfect. We acknowledge that, but we keep getting better, to discuss about the ways that we can get better.
Speaker 1:Yeah, year by year, you'll continue to evolve and see what works and what doesn't work.
Speaker 2:Absolutely.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so I'm excited to see the rest of the Alliance smash-ups throughout the season, and thank you to both Al and Jim for joining me on the CIC Glory Days podcast. I think it was a great conversation for viewers to hear more about the work that goes behind the Alliance. So thank you both.
Speaker 3:Yeah, we appreciate the opportunity. I think, you know, it's a great opportunity for us to be able to come talk about what we do, why we do it, how we do it, because I believe for the casual fan out there who takes a vested interest in Connecticut high school football, they don't really see everything that goes, you know, at high school football they don't really see everything that goes on behind closed doors and there's a lot to it. And again, our goal is probably no different than theirs and that's to see and provide competitive opportunities for our student athletes across the state.
Speaker 1:All hail.
Speaker 2:All hail.
Speaker 1:Okay, thank you.