5 Things To Know As High School Football Season Gets Underway In Metro Detroit

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By Kyle Beery | 97.1 The Ticket

The grueling days of summer camps and practices are coming to a close. Teams are putting their finishing touches on their game plans. Marching bands are gearing up. The cool, crisp autumn air is on the way. Friday night lights are almost here.

High school football season officially kicks off this week across the state of Michigan with hundreds of teams dreaming of playing at Ford Field on Thanksgiving weekend. Here are five things to know about the upcoming season:

End of an era
The 2019 season will be the last before the MHSAA makes some changes to the state playoff format. For years, playoff divisions were not decided until the end of the regular season, while it took six wins (or five with an eight-game schedule) to clinch an automatic playoff berth and some teams were left to sweat it out based on playoff point averages and school enrollments.

Beginning next fall, divisions will be determined prior to the season. Teams will be placed into one of the eight divisions based on enrollment and the top 32 teams in each division, based on playoff points, will qualify for the postseason, with no AQ win total.

Read for more details on MHSAA rule changes.
Week 1 starts with a bang at Xenith Prep Kickoff Classic
The season officially gets underway on Thursday, with six marquee matchups in the spotlight at the Xenith Prep Kickoff Classic at Wayne State. The event features three defending state champs and six state semifinalists from last fall.

Thursday's slate begins with Birmingham Brother Rice against Utica Eisenhower at 4 p.m., followed by reiging Division 1 champion Clinton Township Chippewa Valley taking on Saline, who fell one game short of Ford Field last fall.

Grosse Pointe South faces Birmingham Groves Friday at 4 p.m. before perhaps the game of the weekend -- defending Division 2 champion Warren DeLaSalle taking on Division 3 runners-up Muskegon.

Detroit Catholic Central and reigning D-3 champs Detroit Martin Luther King square off Saturday at 1 p.m. before Detroit Cass Tech takes on Wendell Phillips, a public school powerhouse out of Chicago.

Other prominent early-season matchups on tap

While the Xenith Prep Kickoff Classic is grabbing the headlines, there's no shortage of big matchups in the early going this fall. 

Aug. 30: West Bloomfield -- considered by some to be the top team in the state -- takes on a loaded Oak Park team in that same conversation. Oak Park DT Justin Rogers (committed to Kentucky) is considered the top college prospect in the state, while West Bloomfield features two Michigan-bound players on defense.
Sept. 6: Muskegon makes another trip back across the state to take on King in a rematch of last year's D-3 title game. The Big Reds are led by quarterback Cameron Martinez, who is committed to Ohio State and King is in search of a fourth state title in five years.
Sept. 20: Detroit's top two teams square off when King faces Cass Tech. The Technicians dismantled King in last year's Public School League title game, but Cass Tech failed to reach at least the state semifinals for the first time this decade, while King marched to yet another title.
Walled Lake Western's Yaseen is finally eligible:
Walled Lake Western's Abdur-Rahmaan Yaseen will get to play his senior season after all.
The Michigan High School Athletic Association announced Thursday that the Northwestern-bound wide receiver is in fact eligible for this 2019-20 season, after initially ruling him ineligible, saying that he began his high school academic career a year early when he was homeschooled and took online academy courses.
Read more on Yaseen's eligibility.
Replay review at the MHSAA State Finals

Limited video review of scoring plays or potential scoring plays and turnovers or potential turnovers will be added to the 11-player and 8-player football divisions. The MHSAA says this process will be available at Finals only, because of the availability of camera coverage provided by broadcasts of those highest-level games of the tournament. Although all scoring and turnover plays could be reviewed, a play will be reversed only when there is indisputable video evidence showing the original call was incorrect.

In just a few short months, 20 lucky teams might find themselves playing for a state championship. That journey officially begins on Thursday.