Thanksgiving high school football games in Connecticut are safe, at least for now. As odd as it sounds, earlier this week, the Connecticut legislature approved a bonding package that had a few paragraphs protecting traditional Turkey Day games.
For about six months, there’s been considerable conversation about expanding the state high school football playoffs, which would have put the Thanksgiving games in jeopardy. Last November, the Connecticut High School Football Alliance proposed a new playoff format that would result in the finals being played the weekend after Thanksgiving. Last year’s championship games were played December 9.
The 254-page bill protects the Thanksgiving games with a tiny section of language that prevents school boards from delegating the authority to schedule Thanksgiving football games to any non-profit organization. The Connecticut Interscholastic Athletic Conference, a non-profit, is the governing body for all high school sports, across the state. The CIAC doesn’t schedule games. That responsibility generally falls on the schools themselves and/or the leagues and conferences they play in.
CT Insider reports that Finance Committee Co-Chair Sen. John Fonfara, a Democrat from Hartford put the language into the bill when “the issue was brought to his attention by fans and others involved in high school football.”
