Feb 10, 2016 3 min read

The fallout from the PIAA’s expansion to six classifications has finally reached the WPIAL.

The WPIAL announced Wednesday that its football championships will be held on two different weekends in 2016, and only four of the six will be played at Heinz Field.

The Class 6A, 5A, 4A and 3A championship games will be played Friday, Nov. 18 at Heinz Field. The title games for 2A and 1A will be played the next weekend at sites to be determined. The WPIAL has held all four of its football championship games at either Three Rivers Stadium or Heinz Field since 1986, and it is not known whether the same four classifications will compete at the home of the Steelers in 2017.

Washington is one of 13 local programs that saw its chance to play on the Steelers’ home field end. Though Prexies head coach Mike Bosnic was disappointed to see the tradition end, he is curious what Wash High’s section will look like when the WPIAL releases its alignment Monday afternoon.

“It’s been a long tradition here in Western Pennsylvania,” Bosnic said of playing at Heinz Field. “No one really likes change. That part of it is kind of hard, but at the same time, I’m anxious to see how the conferences are going to play out and what we have to look forward to in the future. I’m excited to move on and learn what the future holds.”

The winners for title games from 6A, 5A and 4A will enter the PIAA quarterfinals Nov. 25-26, while 3A will have one week off before moving onto the PIAA semifinals Dec. 2-3. The winners in 2A and 1A will also advance to the semifinals the weekend following its championship games.

McGuffey head coach Ed Dalton said the location of a championship game is often overstated and cited some schools’ preference to playing the state championships in Altoona over Hershey because of past success at Mansion Park.

“It’s obviously quite a thing to play at Heinz Field for kids, but to me, when you’re playing for a gold medal in anything, the venue becomes secondary,” Dalton said.

In WPIAL football, 6A, 5A and 4A will have two conferences, while 3A, 2A and 1A will have three. The top-four classifications will have eight teams advance to the playoffs, while 2A and 1A will have 16 apiece.

McGuffey, which will compete in 3A, saw its chances to make the playoffs shrink, but Dalton anticipated the move.

“Sixteen is too many and I don’t know how they would have done it another way,” Dalton said. “I don’t know if you could have worked it out with three sections. Really, to me, a number like 40 percent or so is the number that should be in the playoffs, honestly.”

The PIAA Board of Directors voted in early October to expand from four to six classifications in football, basketball, baseball and softball.

Boys and girls soccer, as well as volleyball, expanded from three to four classifications and field hockey went from two to three.

The WPIAL also announced Wednesday that in boys and girls basketball, as well as baseball and softball, the top four teams in every section will qualify for the playoffs. The same goes for boys and girls soccer, which only took the top three teams in previous years.