SC High School League votes to extend regular football season post-Helene

COLUMBIA, S.C. (WIS) – In the wake of Hurricane Helene, the South Carolina High School League voted to extend the regular season for high school football and maintain playoffs as scheduled.

The League held a virtual meeting Tuesday morning to discuss the impact of Hurricane Helene on the fall sports season.

SCHSL said around 66 football games were missed statewide during the two weeks when school closures were in effect due to Hurricane Helene, with four counties having missed two weeks of region play.

Officials presented two proposals regarding high school football scheduling changes to compensate for these delays in the season. They began by proposing cancelling one of the playoff rounds to end the season the same week as originally planned. Another proposal involved pushing championship games a week back while keeping all scheduled games intact.

SCHSL members largely agreed on wanting to extend the regular season by a week, while they disagreed on whether or not to eliminate a round of playoffs.

Eventually, the League voted 9-4 to extend the regular season by a week and maintain the existing five rounds of playoffs. SCHSL championships will now be held on Dec. 12-14, as opposed to Dec. 5-7 when they were originally scheduled.

They also discussed staggering games for teams that were able to play all their scheduled games during the weeks Helene affected. Staggering these games would mean teams could avoid several weeks of no games leading up to the playoff.

This story is developing. Check back here for updates.

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