The AHSAA on Wednesday announced that Auburn will no longer host high school football state championship games in Jordan-Hare Stadium.
Alabama’s Bryant-Denny Stadium was also removed from the hosting rotation.
Next season’s state championship will be held in Protective Stadium in Birmingham and the AHSAA said it is studying other rotation options.
The AHSAA said it came to the conclusion to remove the championships from the Iron Bowl campuses in coordination with the cities of Auburn, Opelika and Tuscaloosa, citing the possibility that the colleges could be seeded to host a College Football Playoff game in the years it happens to host the high school championships.
The Super 7 championships are regularly hosted the first week of December, and the first College Football Playoff is scheduled to kick off in late December this year. In 2024, the Super 7 is scheduled for Dec. 4-6 while the CFP isn’t set to open until Dec. 20.
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Still, the AHSAA cites a scheduling conflict. “All parties regret the necessity for this rotation coming to an end,” the official announcement read.
The Super 7 in recent years rotated between Auburn, Tuscaloosa and Birmingham.
“Hosting the Super 7 has been a tremendous honor for the City of Auburn,” Auburn maor Ron Anders said in a release. “The Super 7 serves as a pinnacle moment in the lives of many young students in Alabama. Our city has treated this hosting responsibility with the same level of professionalism that regular visitors to any local athletic event, conference, performance, or family gathering have come to expect. Our community has similarly served the teams, families, and other Super 7 visitors with a personal investment of time and effort that characterizes the Auburn Spirit.”
Opelika mayor Gary Fuller said Opelika was similarly honored to share the duties as host city.
“The experiences had by the athletes, band members, students, cheerleaders, and fans are priceless,” Fuller said. “To be under the big lights in a grand stadium is something we all will remember for a lifetime. We are hopeful to one day be back at Jordan-Hare Stadium (for the Super 7).”
The 12-team College Football Playoff runs for the first time this upcoming season, with the top four seeds all getting byes and seeds No. 5-8 hosting the seeds No. 9-12 hosting first-round games on campus. Once the field is down to four, the quarterfinals, semifinals and finals are all held off campus at neutral sites.
