Judge Denies Boston English High Football's MIAA Playoff Bid

Judge Gillian R. Feiner Denies Boston English Football Playoff Appeal After Clerical Error

“Tournament eligibility should be based on a team’s record, not on clerical errors,” a Boston Public Schools spokesperson said after a court decision on Friday. A judge has officially denied a bid by Boston Public Schools to allow English High School’s football team to compete in the Massachusetts Interscholastic Athletic Association playoffs.

Court paperwork reveals that the English High football squad missed out on the championship bracket because the district failed to report their seventh and final matchup against O’Bryant High School to the MIAA prior to the season’s commencement. State tournament rules require teams to schedule a minimum of seven regular-season games to qualify. Because the O’Bryant matchup was incorrectly filed as a scrimmage instead of an official contest, English High sat below the mandatory threshold.

Boston Public Schools Files Restraining Order over Playoff Exclusion

Seeking a temporary restraining order, Boston Public Schools contended that the MIAA misapplied its regulations when barring English High from the postseason tournament. The district maintained that the game against O’Bryant should have counted as a forfeit loss, which would have allowed the team to qualify. BPS submitted a schedule that listed six games instead of seven, despite the team holding a 5-2 record heading into a game against Pentucket Regional High School.

English High School football team set to miss playoffs after judge denies bid

All scheduling decisions are considered final after the Nov. 5 deadline. In her decision handed down Friday, Judge Gillian R. Feiner acknowledged the human cost of the administrative oversight.

The court recognizes that BPS’s omission of the seventh game from the schedule it submitted to the MIAA was inadvertent and, moreover, that English’s resulting exclusion from the tournament is devastation for the student athletes who worked hard to make it into the postseason.

Judge Feiner added that granting the requested relief would require the MIAA to revisit and reconfigure the tournament brackets. Scheduling decisions and tournament arrangements were already underway when the injunction was sought, meaning another school would have to be displaced and deprived of its opportunity to compete.

Next Steps for Boston English Athletes

The MIAA confirmed in a statement that the tournament, which began Thursday, will continue as scheduled without English High. Meanwhile, district officials are auditing their internal verification workflows.

BPS stated that it is reviewing verification protocols to ensure schedule mistakes do not happen again. District representatives noted they will work directly with the team to determine the best way to recognize the Eagles’ achievements despite the abrupt end to their postseason aspirations.