We urge the New York State Public High School Athletic Association to consider lengthening the football season. Please sign this petition to show your support for an extended New York State High School Football season.

Why are we doing it?
To help the recruitment of High School Football players in New York State. 

According to statistics from the Football Foundation New York State is 48th Nationally among scholarship recipients in college football per population with only 0.1 scholarships per one million student athletes. 

RECRUITING STATISTICS FROM 247 SPORTS
(#1 recruiting service in America) 

New York State had 14 D1 FBS Football Signees in 2024 class 
**Season official start date 8/19/2024
First games in 2024 9/06/2024

New Jersey had 54 D1 FBS Football Signees in 2024 class 
**Season official start date 8/12/2024
First game in 2024 played 8/29/2024

Pennsylvania had 63 D1 FBS Football Signees in 2024 class 
**Season official start date 8/12/2024
First game played 8/23/2024

Ohio- 120 D1 FBS Football Signees in 2024 class 
**Season official start date 8/1/2024
First games in 2024 played 8/23/2024

The difference in these numbers are hard to ignore, especially in states that face similar obstacles such as weather, length of school year, & other factors. If these states can produce this amount of players receiving scholarships; so can New York. We need to lengthen the High School Football season to give our student athletes more opportunities to get scouted and receive scholarships. By starting the High School Football Season earlier in the month of August, we give student athletes more opportunity to prepare for their season and compete against other teams to give them more opportunity to earn collegiate scholarships. 

Please sign this petition to support our young athletes and help give them more opportunities.

We propose to start the first week of practice for the 2025 NYSPHSAA Football Season August 4th or August 11, and allow teams to compete in a “Week 0” non conference game to start their season either August 22nd or August 29th. 

By doing this we allow our athletes to even the playing field in the recruiting world that is already favored to other areas of the country. More preparation and game day opportunities to get film and impress college scouts is essential to earning a scholarship.