Circle the date: Sept. 26.
Perhaps the biggest regular-season high school football game in Long Island history is scheduled to be played that Saturday.Â
Never have two teams with longer winning streaks faced each other so early in the season.
Garden City is riding a 66-game win streak — the longest in the country. Massapequa is on a 23-game win streak.
Garden City has won five straight Long Island titles. Â Massapequa is the first Class I school to win three consecutive Long Island titles. The powerhouse programs will collide in a Nassau I and II crossover game.
The matchup was made possible after the Nassau County High School Football Coaches Association voted to play one crossover game between Nassau Conference I and II and Conferences III and IV. The teams would be matched by preseason seed, as voted on by the coaches. Thus Massapequa, the No. 1 seed in Conference I will play Garden City, the No. 1 seed in Conference II.
Here’s the problem: The game is scheduled to be played at Massapequa High School. But the matchup equates to an LIC — even bigger — with more intrigue. This game needs a more suitable venue, so why not play it at Hofstra University?
Hofstra’s James R. Shuart Stadium can accommodate 13,000 fans, and if they play the game at night, the stadium will be filled.
The game can serve so many other purposes, too, because the lure of competitive football can do that. The schools can charge a gate fee with all the proceeds to support a local charity or charities. The first one that comes to mind is the Boomer Esiason Foundation and the search for a cure for cystic fibrosis.
Esiason poured his heart and soul into what became the Empire Challenge, pitting Nassau County against Suffolk County senior all-stars and then Long Island versus New York City senior all-stars for 25 years. It would be apropos to give back to the man that promoted high school football like no other.
Or it can serve multiple charitable organizations agreed upon by Massapequa and Garden City. They must think outside the box and use this game as the spark.
The schedule makers at Section VIII and Section XI, which govern Nassau and Suffolk respectively, have been criticized for decades over the lack of competition and predictable schedules with no non-league encounters and no possibilities of playing out of the comfort zone of one’s conference or division.
This bold move by the Nassau coaches was a long time coming. We’re already talking about a Massapequa-Garden City matchup . . . and the game won’t be played for another five months. It’s that good. It’s the unknown. Can the smaller-school David slay the larger-school Goliath?
Which school will extend its winning streak? It would stand alone as Long Island’s longest current streak.
The anticipation of this matchup conjures up feelings that come with the potential of Long Island’s inclusion in the state playoffs with new opponents and new challenges.
The novelty of the Long Island Championships wore off years ago. The excitement of different opponents from across Route 110 corridor has lost its luster. The opponents rarely change.
Football is the only major high school sport that doesn’t advance Long Island teams to the state tournament. Admittedly years ago, when Bill Piner and Nick Schroeder first broached the LIC, I was all for it and excited about it every year. The newness dripped with drama when teams crossed Route 110 and collided with each other for bragging rights on Long Island.
The LIC is still fantastic. Extending the season beyond the LIC and into a state playoff is on the horizon. It’s inevitable. It cannot be ignored.
Wouldn’t curious fans want to see how Long Island matches up against the state? Look at the excitement surrounding Garden City-Massapequa. Imagine sending teams to the quarterfinal round of state playoffs and the interest it would generate.
Two examples of playing out of conference/division and the results: In 1990, Bellport  visited Union Endicott, the No. 1-ranked team in the state. The Clippers blew out the hosts, 30-7, and immediately became the top team in the state.
They never traveled again.
During the spring of 2021, Sayville, the defending Suffolk III champion, visited Floyd, the Suffolk defending Suffolk I champion in a true David vs. Goliath matchup. Sayville slayed the Giant in Mastic Beach, 24-0.
Wouldn’t we love to see Long Island’s powerhouse programs like Massapequa, Garden City, Sayville, Floyd and Bayport-Blue Point travel to the state tournament? I know I can’t wait for that day. I can say the same about Sept. 26.Â
Gregg Sarra is Newsday’s high school sports editor and has been on the beat since the mid-1980s.