AHSAA officials award Super 7 to Mobile, Birmingham for next four years
By GRAHAM DUNN
The Alabama High School Athletic Association announced on Wednesday the sites for the Super 7 state football championships for the next four years.
Alabama State’s ASU Stadium, rumored at one time to be a candidate, did not make the cut.
Executive director Heath Harmon announced that the sites would be Birmingham’s Protective Stadium and Mobile’s Hancock Whitney Stadium with games in 2025 and 2027 to be at Birmingham and the 2026 and 2028 in Mobile.
Whitney Hancock Stadium is located on the campus of South Alabama while Protective Stadium is the home of UAB football and has been part of the rotation since 2021.
“I want to thank all the cities that showed interest in hosting our Super 7 football championships in the coming years,” said Harmon. “All were impressive and could be outstanding venues for our Super 7 event,” said Harmon. “However, after much study and discussion, we concluded these two cities were our best options at this time. And I especially want to thank our Central Board for their guidance and support.”
Officials with Alabama State had provided a walk-through at ASU Stadium with AHSAA officials late last year. With 26,000 seats, It’s capacity is less than Protective Stadium (47,000) but greater than Hancock Whitney Stadium (25,000).
Officials with ASU did not comment on the decision.
In the last several years, Montgomery has also lost the Alabama North South All-Star that was played at Cramton Bowl as part of All-Star Sports Week. The AHSAA also moved both the baseball and softball state championships out of the Capital City in 2022.
Alabama State will host the 2025 Central Regional basketball tournament between Feb. 11-19. Garrett Coliseum will also be host to the regional tournament the same dates.
Harmon pointed out that he and his AHSAA staff spent many hours evaluating each site. In the end, he said, “we had to choose which sites we felt were ready to take on this major event right now.”
The Super 6 State Championships – which brought all six classification finals to one site, was first held it Birmingham’s Legion Field beginning in 1996. Prior to that time, the championship site was at one of the two schools competing in the finals for all classes but the largest class. The large school class first began playing its championship game at Legion Field in the early 1970s.
In 1996, the AHSAA had six classifications – all at Legion Field. That plan remained in place until 2009 when the cities of Tuscaloosa/Northport and Auburn/Opelika worked together to submit a plan of hosting the Super 6 Championships at Bryant-Denny Stadium on the University of Alabama campus and Jordan-Hare Stadium on the Auburn University campus. The Super 7 championships were held at the school which was not hosting the Auburn-Alabama college football Iron Bowl Classic on that particular year.
The Super 6 became the Super 7 in 2014 when the AHSAA expanded to seven classes.
Birmingham rejoined the rotation in 2021 creating a three-year rotation that included the city’s new Protective Stadium. That was the site for the 2021 and 2024 Super 7.
That plan ended when both schools had to pull out of the rotation due to the expanded College Football Playoff plan that could require both schools to host playoff games in the future would conflict with the AHSAA’s annual championships.
“We are grateful to the cities of Tuscaloosa, Auburn and Opelika, Auburn University, the University of Alabama and their tourism bureaus for taking the Super 7 championships to the next level,” Harmon said. “We think we now have an outstanding plan in place and look forward to continue working with Birmingham and now Mobile while striving to keep our Super 7 the envy of many other states across the nation.”