Maybe I’m mellowing, or maybe the Maine Principals’ Association is on a good roll.

Never far from my watchful, admittedly critical eye, the organization that oversees our state’s high school athletics has administered a series of decisions in recent years each worthy of a standing ovation.

Cycling the open tournament blueprint through the shredding machine after a two-year trial was a good idea. Replacing it with a model by which two-thirds of the teams in all Heal Point-guided sports qualify for tournament play was grander still.

Turning to separate admissions for the Class A girls’ and boys’ basketball championship games was a gigantic step forward logically and logistically. Classes B, C and D appear headed in that direction soon, to which I’ll bellow another hearty amen.

All that good stuff, however, and none of it trumps the overdue arrival of Super Saturday in high school football.

Those of us who can’t get enough of all things gridiron now enjoy the opportunity for an early Thanksgiving feast. For the second straight year, the three football championship contests will be played back-to-back-to-back at Portland’s Fitzpatrick Stadium beginning at 11 a.m. Saturday.

The MPA will make a final determination of game times on Monday after considering each of the six finalists’ travel distance. The second game of the tripleheader kicks off at 2:30 p.m., with the nightcap unfolding at 6 p.m.

Three games in nine hours at one site. Pigskin perfection.

Actually, the football committee settled upon this arrangement largely out of necessity last autumn, after an early-season snowstorm blanketed the fields at Class B and C game sites in Augusta and Fairfield.

For several years, a delegation of football personalities throughout the state, many representing smaller schools, lobbied the MPA to consider one site for the three championship games. They cited convenience, the potential for a larger gate and increased spotlight on the intermediate and small-school finals as reasons for a change.

Mixed reaction followed, and the discussion was tabled. But with the likelihood of snowplows turning two of the three venues into a quagmire, playing three games on the newfangled artificial turf at Fitzy became an attractive option.

In the space of four days, the MPA pulled off what could have been a disaster without a hiccup. Rave reviews rolled in with minimal complaining as Portland, Scarborough and Boothbay hoisted the symbolic Gold Ball at the same, wholly intact 50-yard line, approximately three hours apart.

Sure, the system could use some additional tweaking. Schools such as Foxcroft and Stearns being asked to ride to Portland is like you or I hopping a tour bus for a trip to Connecticut’s Mohegan Sun. Even though the Portland site offers ample amenities, the games should be played in Eastern Maine every alternate year.

There’s another suitable artificial turf facility in Orono at the University of Maine. If that one is unavailable, the complex at Bangor’s Cameron Stadium tends to withstand the rigors of November weather better than most natural grass facilities.

That is a minor complaint, however. If you’re a player or spectator who has sloshed through the muck at Gardiner, Winslow, Lawrence (nice fields, all, but undeniably weather-beaten by now) at state title games of yore, you know how minor.

After roaming a mud-bog sideline with 30 other young men at Lisbon High School on Saturday, I’ll bet they’re excited about the trip to Portland.

So are we. In part because we won’t wreck another pair of shoes, but primarily because the Greyhounds’ game isn’t the only one we’ll get to watch.

Kalle Oakes is sports editor and can be reached by e-mail at [email protected].