Changes to football, hoop calendars overwhelmingly approved

Changes are officially coming to the New Mexico high school football and basketball calendars beginning in 2018.

Schools voting in a referendum overwhelmingly approved the New Mexico Activity Association’s Board of Directors proposal to move the high school football calendar up one week and move the start date for basketball practice back two weeks.

According to documents obtained by NMPreps.com, 66 of 73 schools voting in the referendum gave thumbs up to the calendar changes.

As a result, the 2018 high school football regular season will likely begin the weekend of Aug. 17-18 with the state championship games taking place Thanksgiving weekend (Nov. 23-24) or perhaps on Thanksgiving Day itself.

Moreover, high school basketball practice will now begin in mid-November for the 2018-19 season, decreasing the overlap between football and basketball from five weeks to two and reducing the number of teams affected by the new calendar to four in each classification since the semifinal football games would be played the weekend of Nov. 16-17, 2018.

NOTES:

-- The proposal to allow schools to utilize an electronic 25-second play clock/timer at field level in football was also overwhelmingly approved (60-7). However, schools are not required to use this technology. The approved change only allows the on-field play clock as an option.