Above: Alabama high school teams get to play in Bryant-Denny Stadium for the Super 7 championships starting tonight. (file)

Steve Savarese calls this week’s Super 7 football championships a football happening.

“It’s a great way to celebrate our wonderful schools and everyone who participates in the sport of football in the state of Alabama,” the executive director of the Alabama High School Athletic Association said of the title tilts Wednesday through Friday at the University of Alabama’s Bryant-Denny Stadium.  “If you’re a football junkie, it’s the place to be.”

Wednesday’s schedule starts at 3:30 p.m. with Lee County and Hewitt-Trussville playing in the second annual Unified Sports state game. The AHSAA partners with Special Olympics Alabama to present this exhibition contest, a flag-football game that will be livestreamed over the NFHS Network by Hillcrest High School’s NFHS School Broadcast Program team.

Class 7A gets the festivities underway at 7 p.m. Wednesday as Spain Park takes on McGill-Toolen at the University of Alabama. Spain Park was ranked No. 1 and McGill-Toolen No. 3 in the final regular season ranking of the Alabama Sports Writers Association.  Each has a 12-1 record.

Action resumes at 11 a.m. Thursday with the Class 3A championship, pitting Bayside Academy (11-3) against No. 3 Piedmont (13-1). The Class 1A final is at 3 p.m. with Maplesville (12-1) against Cedar Bluff (13-1). Thursday closes with No. 5 St. Paul’s (12-2) against No. 8 Mortimer Jordan (13-1) for the Class 5A title.

Friday, No. 3 Leeds (12-2) squares off against Fayette County (10-4) at 11 a.m. in the Class 4A final. Fyffe (13-1) and Elba (13-1) meet in a rematch of last year’s Class 2A finals at 3 p.m., and No. 1 Clay-Chalkville meets No. 2 Spanish Fort for the Class 6A title at 7 p.m.

Coaches for the teams playing in the Super 7 championships join AHSAA Executive Director Steve Savarese for a photo. (contributed)

The Cougars and Toros are the only undefeated pairing in this year’s Super 7. Each is 14-0 this season; Clay-Chalkville is bidding for its 30th straight victory.

Clay-Chalkville, Maplesville, Fyffe, Leeds and St. Paul’s are defending champions.

These are the 50th AHSAA state football playoffs. This will be the 20th year with all championships at the same site.

The state playoffs began in 1966 with four schools in the largest class (Class 4A) playing semifinals and finals. The next year, state championships were played in all four classes.

That format continued until 1984, when six classifications were installed. The AHSAA moved all championships to one site – Birmingham’s Legion Field – in 1996 and the “Super 6” was born.

The playoffs continued with that format until 2009 when the association began a rotation between Tuscaloosa and Auburn.

Last year, the six-class format was replaced by seven classes to yield the “Super 7” championships. In conjunction with Special Olympics Alabama, the first Unified Sports flag-football game was played in 2014 at Auburn.

“To participate in the championship, wherever you play, is a wonderful opportunity,” Savarese said. “But there’s not enough bleachers (at individual high schools) to accommodate all of the fans that want to see the games.”

Alabama appears to be setting a standard in having its football championships at one venue as other states are following suit.

Mississippi has mirrored the format, swapping its title games between Ole Miss and Mississippi State. Savarese said South Carolina just called about having a similar setup between Clemson and South Carolina.

“We hope that we’re are the forefront of, first of all, safety in our sport and, second, providing opportunities to our student athletes,” he said. “We hope what we do as an association enhances their experiences.”

Raycom Media will televise all seven state championship games over its affiliate stations in the Raycom/AHSAA TV Network.