By: NYSPHSAA Staff

Saratoga Springs, NY – The New York State Public High School Athletic Association (NYSPHSAA) held its Winter Executive Committee meeting at the Embassy Suites in Saratoga Springs. The committee voted on numerous topics including regional rotations, rules, championship host sites and were introduced to new proposals for discussion.
               The Executive Committee approved an earlier start to the Fall 2025 season to begin on week #7 of the NYSPHSAA calendar (was previously week #8). The new start date this Fall will be August 18^th for all sports.  NYSPHSAA has received support from the New York State Education Department (NYSED) for football to have a 16-week season starting with the Fall 2025 season.
The Handbook Committee presented a revision of language in the NYSPHSAA Handbook regarding the Foreign Exchange Policy to read: “This only applies to students participating at the Varsity Level. Those students that play at the sub-varsity level are not held to this regulation.” This was unanimously approved and would afford foreign exchange students the opportunity to compete as student-athletes at the sub-varsity level.
                A long discussion about an “informational” item regarding a 3-region rotation prompted a motion made by an Executive Committee representative from Section VII. The motion was to create a sub-committee with the goal of exploring implementing a 3-region regional rotation concept for the Fall of the 2025-2026 school year. The motion was carried and a committee will be created to present a proposal for action at the May 2025 meeting.
                The Softball Committee introduced a proposal to add two waivers to their recently adopted NFHS rules for the 2025 season. Due to the need to include the waivers for 2025, a motion was made by representative from Section XI to vote on the waivers. The vote was carried unanimously.   
                With the growth of Outdoor Track & Field to a third class, a new set of Super and At-Large standards to qualify for the state championship was approved by the Executive Committee, effective for the 2025 season.
Multiple state championship site locations were approved in varying sports. Visions Veterans Memorial Arena (Section IV) was approved for Competitive Cheerleading for the 2026-2028 championships while MVP Arena (Section 2) was approved for the Girls and Boys Wrestling Championships for 2026-2028.  Cicero-North Syracuse High School (Section III) and Icahn Stadium (Manhattan) were approved for the Outdoor Track and Field Championships for the 2027 and 2028 season, respectively. The NYSPHSAA staff is currently seeking a host site for the 2026 State Tournament.
                Regional rotations were approved for three spring sports which were Girls Lacrosse, Boys Lacrosse and Boys Team Tennis for 2025-30. Boys Team Tennis additionally had its new at-large rotation approved for 2026-30. Related to at-large berths, Bowling was approved to start its new at-large rotation with Section III in 2025, then this spring establish a rotation from 2026 and beyond.
               For Flag Football, numerous new rules were voted on and unanimously approved for implementation including a 14” length minimum of flags, measuring from the bottom of the flag and revised language from “The ball is spotted where the ball was when the player is deflagged” to “The ball will be spotted where the flag is pulled”. Additionally, it was approved to change the ball positioning of the 20-yard line to the 14-yard line in varying scenarios of a Flag Football game. Supplemental information on the Flag Football additions can be found between pages 122-124 of the meeting agenda.
 
The meeting agenda can be found here.
The voting items and meeting minutes can be found on the NYSPHSAA website under the “Central/Executive” portion of the ‘About’ tab.
 
This was the first meeting called to order by NYSPHSAA President Tim Mullins, at 9:00 am and concluded at 12:11 pm. The NYSPHSAA Executive Committee will return to the Embassy Suites in Saratoga Springs on Wednesday, May 7^th 2025 for the Spring meeting.