AUGUSTA — The Class B championship game will be played Friday, Nov. 22, at the University of Maine, the Maine Principals’ Association announced Tuesday.

Championship games in Classes A, C and D will be played Nov. 23 at Fitzpatrick Stadium in Portland, home of every football state final since 2002.

The Class B game will be the first high school football final at the University of Maine since Oxford Hills met South Portland in Class A in 1999.

The move is the result of the MPA’s decision to expand high school football from three classes to four. In the past, all three finals could be played on the same day at the same site. With four games, the MPA looked at a handful of options, including two games each at two sites, and all four games at Fitzpatrick Stadium, with one game Friday night.

The University of Maine was eager to host, said Mike Burnham, assistant executive director of the MPA, but couldn’t host a game Nov. 23 because of a home hockey game against Boston College.

“We discussed it with the University of Maine and Portland. Both sites are interested,” Burnham said. “The best scenario is one (game) on Friday night in Orono and three at Fitzpatrick on Saturday.”

 

THE MPA classification committee met to discuss ways to deal with the state’s declining school enrollments and shift in population.

Among the topics discussed were adding a fifth class, eliminating the East and West regionals in favor of four regions, or determining classification by means other than enrollment.

Phil St. Onge of Nokomis suggested dropping the Heal point rankings and letting each league generate tourney teams, as is done in football.