BILLINGS — The discussion of a single location for Montana high school football championship games has long been a point of interest.
After the Montana High School Association held its Annual Meeting last week in Helena, we might be closer to finding out if it's a worthwhile endeavor.
In an interview with MTN Sports last Thursday, MHSA executive director Brian Michelotti discussed the possibility of conjoining the state's football championship games — and the interest it is gaining from its member institutions.
"I would say we're absolutely in the discussion phase of it," Michelotti said. "From our standpoint, we left the meeting with this: AA is not interested. Class A? Yeah, there's interest. Class B, significant interest. Class C (8- and 6-player), if it works, will come along.
"We are working on a lot of different things behind the scenes that if it were to happen to make it worthwhile for schools cost wise, fan-base wise, to entice them that this would be a good option going forward."
The sense Michelotti has after the Annual Meeting is that the appetite for such an event — or at least for advancing initial conversations about a central championship location where all games are contested in one place over the course of one day or weekend — is genuine. But he also said that the earliest it could be implemented would be in the fall of 2027.
As it stands, Class AA's title game site is determined by regular-season standings and which team has the higher seed. In Class A, B and 8- and 6-Man it is decided on a rotational system for like seeds.
Class AA has long played its title game on Friday night. Class A moved to Friday this past fall. Class B, 8-Man and 6-Man play theirs on Saturday afternoon. A championship event, Michelotti said, has the potential to take the high school football postseason to the next level.
He pointed to the all-class state wrestling tournament, held each February at First Interstate Arena in Billings since 1988, as the gold standard for a combined event. And it distinguishes between a celebration of the games and athletes and a normal state tournament gathering.
The state volleyball tournament is also an all-class event held each year in Bozeman.
It could be "a central championship location versus a championship event, to where there are things surrounding that event, whether it be a banquet the night before or something like that," Michelotti said.
"I always say, let's look at state wrestling. When they put state wrestling in, they had this huge parade at the start. They have a parade of athletes, and they put in a parade of champions at the end, as well, to make it a championship event — not just a move to centralize everybody into that facility, but to make it a big deal.
"And when you show up, it is a championship event, not at just a central site."
Because of Class AA's lack of interest for the moment — based partly on the fact that they already have higher-end venues — Michelotti speculated that a state football event could initially begin as a joint venture with Class A and B, potentially along with 8-Man and 6-Man, depending on their eagerness.
One challenge for Class C's participation would be the need to retrofit a field to regulation 80-yard by 40-yard size, should multiple title games be played on a single playing surface.
Kickoff times would also likely be rotated between the classifications over the course of multiple years.
A point of contention for years has been the fact that some of Montana's high school state football championship games fall on the same Saturday as the annual college football rivalry game between Montana and Montana State. Michelotti said he hears about about the Cat-Griz factor "all the time."
"No question. It's the biggest game in our state," he said. "It's something that I think is why Class A moved theirs to Friday night. And I think there's genuine interest in Class B to do the same thing. I've heard this come out of some of our administrators' mouths ... 'What if?' What if we can have the biggest weekend of football by putting our games on Friday and then give everyone the opportunity to (watch) that game Saturday down in Bozeman or Missoula?
"We'd be kidding ourselves to think that we don't know what's going on there. It's a massive event."
One of the potential downsides of moving to a central championship location, however, is the possibility of depriving certain Montana communities from hosting their own title game.
Michelotti brought up this season's 6-Man championship, which was hosted by Grass Range for the first time.
"We're over 100 years into this thing in football and this is how we've always done it, right?" Michelotti said. "Grass Range got to host a championship. And there's a significant amount of passion on that. And everybody had a blast that day in Grass Range."
In the end, Michelotti said the decision will come down to the member institutions if and when there is ever a vote on something of this magnitude.
"Are we going one way or another? Absolutely not. This is up to our schools, not the MHSA (executive board)," he said. "But I think we have to provide some good information for them, some pros and cons. From our standpoint, the pros outweigh the cons. Maybe someday it doesn't work and we go back to the old system. But we're excited about the conversation. And there are a lot of people that are open to the conversation.
"I've always said if we do it, let's run a great event. Let's see how it works and pilot it over the course of a couple years. If it turns out that it didn't work so great, then we'll adjust or go back to the old way. But I do think there's some merit in growing this thing that if you were to do it there'd be a lot of interest and we'd eventually get everybody to the same site, I would hope."
