The agreement with the MIAA, at least as I understand it, that allows the Saint Frances National Team to be an MPSSAA-approved opponent (which is what lets them play games against all other NFHS-affiliated leagues in the US) and allows them to remain in the league in all other sports prohibits them from playing in the MIAA in any capacity in football. Last year their JV team played in the MIAA A but by the JV championship game Calvert Hall refused to play them as it was proven that they were using varsity players on JV.
That is part of the reason they are fielding a B team this year, it replaces their JV team because they couldn't get any JV games and it allows them to play their less talented juniors and seniors on the B team legally and for them to still be able to play varsity football. I wouldn't expect the B team to be much more talented than an average MIAA B Conference squad. Mostly juniors and seniors who wouldn't see any playing time for their national team along with a few underclassmen who could use some more live reps before moving on up.
What I was trying to say is that I'm not sure that Saint Frances' B-team would be able to be a countable opponent for Fort Hill as there has never been a case where a school in MD has fielded 2 varsity teams in the same sport. I'm pretty sure that the MPSSAA has a rule that only one team per sport per school is considered varsity. They would have to make an exception like the FHSAA did for IMG Academy to allow them to field multiple teams. IMG is up to 6 different varsity teams in some sports now and except for the one national-level team in each sport they all tend to play local schedules against small Florida private schools.
I have spoken with the MPSSAA about this...it's crazy!
St. Frances will field two varsity football teams. Bishop Walsh is attempting to do the same exact thing in basketball.
So St. Frances will have a varsity Team A (national touring team) and a varsity Team B (players that don't see the field with the national team combined with frosh and sophomores). Any MPSSAA school can play either squad. Games against Team A will count. Games against Team B will not count. I will use Fort Hill in this reference.
Fort Hill can play St. Frances B Team. They can charge money at the gate, have the media cover it, etc. just like a real game. But the game result and stats will not be recognized by the MPSSAA. So if FH has a full 9 game schedule, playing St. Frances Team B would have them as an 8 game schedule in the eyes of the MPSSAA. Any stats (rushing, passing, scoring, tackles, win or loss, whatever) cannot be a part of the MPSSAA stat book.
Basically it would be like playing another JV team. FH varsity could play the DeMatha JV team as a regular season game but it just won't count. This opens up a can of worms that really has no end to me. I was told St. Frances can move any kid from Team A to Team B any given week just like a sophomore kid can play varsity one week and a JV game the next week.
To demonstrate the can of worms I am talking about...FH can actually get rid of freshman and JV football and form 2 varsity squads. On Friday night Team A will play their game. On Saturday they can use Team B to play another game that won't count. But at least the kids who did not see action on Friday night will get to play in this game. Team B would likely be playing teams like Silver Oak or Maryland School for the Deaf or even Hancock.
What continues to frustrate me as a person who has had to deal with the MPSSAA for over a decade with scheduling dilemmas is that the MPSSAA has been extremely strict about who their member schools can play and who they cannot. No to Germantown Academy, No to Avalon, No to Canadian teams, no, no and no. But in this situation they say OK.
What could happen (if I get my way) is that FH will continue to have frosh and JV football. But a couple of weeks here and there we may schedule a couple of varsity games so juniors and seniors who don't get to play much on Friday night can get some playing time on Saturday. Literally, these players can play 2 quarters on Friday and 2 quarters on Saturday. As an example, we may see Silver Oak on the FH schedule twice. Who monitors what players played 4 quarters in a given week should lead to another interesting duty for the MPSSAA to add to their task book.