Football: How many games are too many? CIF says there’s no good answer

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There’s a proposal to create California regional high school football playoffs starting in 2012, which would add a 16th game to the schedule of a select number of teams, and the California Interscholastic Federation is saying there are no specific data to answer the question, ‘How many games are too many?’

With schools expressing concern that 16 games are too many, the CIF recently consulted a panel of doctors to get their opinion.

CIF Associate Director Roger Blake said although doctors noted that how a coach conducts practices can greatly affect players (number of practices, intensity and length having a likely effect), they said as far as number of games, there was “absolutely no medical or scientific data that supports a recommendation in any direction,’ Blake said.

-- Eric Sondheimer