WATCH: Super Football Conference reveals 2022 schedules Thursday night on live broadcast
The North Jersey high school football season ended six weeks ago. That must mean it’s time to talk about the next one.
In an unprecedented move, the Super Football Conference, 113- teams strong, unofficially begins the countdown to the 2022 season by revealing schedules for its member schools live Thursday night at the Franklin Steakhouse in Fairfield.
That’s right, schedules have gone showbiz.
New Jersey broadcasting icon Mike Quick hosts the show starting at 7 p.m., revealing the schedules for the first time. You can watch the broadcast at the top of this page.
The program is expected to take two hours (there are a lot of schedules to get into), with instant media analysis (full disclosure: I am one of the invited media guests) and a chance to take questions on social media.
“The amount of people from the day the season ends asking about the schedules for next year is through the roof,” said Westwood athletic director Dan Vivino, who is the SFC’s chief scheduler. “When we had this presented to us to have a chance to do a show, we thought this is still within our timeline. We had nothing to lose, let’s see how it goes.”
The SFC continues to broaden its footprint as a major player in New Jersey high school athletics. On Wednesday, league officials will be at MetLife Stadium to give the “SFC Young Man of the Year Award.” There are also plans for a Coach of the Year to be named from the conference.
I could see a day when the SFC has its own broadcast channel. An SFC Game of the Week anyone? Or a coaches show. An SFC app? The potential is unlimited.
FOOTBALL: SFC announces divisions for 2022-23
While no one will say it publicly, there is a certain amount of pride to be affiliated with the league, and each of the leagues in New Jersey are jockeying to be the best.
The West Jersey Football League had great success with its Battle at the Beach season-opening event in 2021 in Ocean City and has booked an even bigger one for 2022.
The North Jersey Interscholastic Conference has been a hit with its revolutionary season format that crowns the only true conference champion in New Jersey high school football.
The Shore Conference has adopted a similar model of “pods” that has made its regular season compelling.
Expect this trend to continue in 2022 when we will have true group state champions in New Jersey for the first time. We will get a real idea at which league is the best.
The scoreboard last year of the 12 New Jersey champions (state for non-public schools, regional for public schools) was six for the SFC, four for the WJFL, one for the Big Central and one for the Shore.
And while you might be wondering who wants to watch a schedule show for high school football teams? The audience is out there. Kids want to know. The coaches, for sure, want to know too.
“We will be putting out our YouTube link to all our member schools so they can send it to their players and booster clubs,” SFC President Denis Nelson said. “I would imagine anyone with an interest in North Jersey football would be interested in watching it for a while.”
Coming up with schedules is a thankless task, one Vivino has done for the league since its inception. The process is complicated.
“It’s like putting together a giant jigsaw puzzle,” Nelson said. “There are teams with byes, teams that play on Thanksgiving and teams that want to play on Week 0. This year now that you have eight regular games, it’s even harder.”
The schedules revealed Thursday night are 99 percent official. Vivino said that there may be some gaps in some spots, most notably where one of the North Jersey Big Six non-public powers might be picking up an out-of-state game or two, but that’s about it.
Come Thursday night, we will know if/when Wayne Hills is playing Wayne Valley (the two teams aren’t in the same division anymore), when the Northern Highlands-Ramapo rematch will be and the date for the regular season game in Oradell between defending state No. 1 Bergen Catholic and rival Don Bosco.
We will also find out about Demarest facing Old Tappan (the two teams haven’t played since 2015), West Milford playing Lakeland, and when Clifton and Eastside will get it on.
It’s still a long way until football season, but on Thursday the countdown begins.
New Jersey football champions in 2021
Non-Public A – Bergen Catholic (SFC)
Non-Public B – Red Bank Catholic (Shore)
Group 1 North – Cedar Grove (SFC)
Group 1 South – Salem (WJFL)
Group 2 North – Caldwell (SFC)
Group 2 South – Haddonfield (WJFL)
Group 3 North – West Morris (SFC)
Group 3 South – Cedar Creek (WJFL)
Group 4 North – Irvington (SFC)
Group 4 South – Millville (WJFL)
Group 5 North – EO Campus (SFC)
Group 5 South – Hillsborough (Big Central)
Darren Cooper is a high school sports columnist for NorthJersey.com. For full access to live scores, breaking news and analysis from our Varsity Aces team, subscribe today. To get breaking news directly to your inbox, sign up for our newsletter and download our app.
Email: cooperd@northjersey.com
Twitter: @varsityaces
This article originally appeared on NorthJersey.com: Super Football Conference to reveal 2022 schedules on live broadcast
