The FCIAC will have a new format for its football season beginning with the 2015-16 school year.
Several changes have been made following the departures of Harding and Bassick High Schools from the league, the biggest change is to the league’s final.
Under the new schedule, the FCIAC football championship game will be held on Thanksgiving Day at Stamford’s Boyle Stadium.
The conference final, which will be in its 50th year, had been held on Thanksgiving until 1993, when it was moved to the weekend before the holiday.
That shift was made with the addition of Bridgeport schools to the conference and allowed for the playing of league rivalry games on Thanksgiving morning.
Rivalry games will now be held the weekend before Thanksgiving.
The schedule will include nine games. The FCIAC title game would be the 10th game for the two finalists and is thus compliant with the CIAC’s 10-game regular season maximum.
The new football schedule was approved by the FCIAC’s Board of Directors on Tuesday night and will be in effect for the 2015-16 and 206-17 school years.
Here is the full statement from the FCIAC’s Executive Secretary, John Kuczo.
The FCIAC Board of Directors has approved a new football schedule for the 2015-2016 and 2016-2017 school years.
The new schedule will provide all 17 member schools with nine regular season games and break the league into two divisions.
The winner of each division will play for the FCIAC Championship on Thanksgiving Day, with the traditional rivalries being played the weekend before Thanksgiving.
The winner of each division will be determined by overall record.
If two teams in a division have the same record, the tie will be broken by head to head competition.
If head-to-head record cannot break the tie, CIAC power points will then be used.
If power points still do not reveal a division winner, the tie will be broken by determining which team beat the highest-ranked team.