“We love it,’’ said Keefe, whose school has never been to a Super Bowl since the format was instituted in 1972.

If approved, the system - in which 50 percent of the teams make the playoffs - would give Malden a legitimate chance to go to the postseason for the first time.

The proposal to create a statewide football playoff continued its informational tour yesterday, landing in front of its most enthusiastic audience, the Massachusetts Interscholastic Athletic Association Football Committee.

The ad hoc committee working on the proposal appeared before the Football Committee for the first time May 11. Many of the members of the ad hoc committee are also members of the Football Committee, including Barry Cahill, the new Football Committee chairman and Ipswich principal.

Since May, the proposal, shepherded by members of the committee, has been on a tour, appearing before the MIAA’s Board of Directors in August and District Committee meetings this fall. The goal has been to present the proposal to as many people as possible and use the feedback to improve it. If approved, it would go into effect in 2011.

The basics remain the same:

■The proposal eliminates leagues and league schedules and replaces it with six divisions of approximately 16 teams divided into North and South sections. North teams, such as St. John’s Prep for example, would no longer play South teams, such as BC High, unless it was in the postseason.

■Fifty percent of the teams would make the playoffs. That means 96 teams in the EMass playoffs compared with 28 last fall.

■There would be a seven-game schedule within your division, followed by the playoffs. Losers continue their season with games assigned by a commissioner or a committee. Thanksgiving opponents remain the same. Week 10 would be open for schools to schedule any team.

■The Super Bowls at Gillette Stadium would be statewide, with Central and Western Mass. teams playing at Gillette for the first time.

Keefe believes the elimination of leagues would stop the raiding of the Greater Boston League for schools. Since 2005, the GBL has lost Peabody and Revere to the Northeastern Conference and Waltham and Arlington to the Dual County League.

With the added schools, the NEC and DCL split into Large and Small divisions and earned an extra playoff berth.

Bourne principal Ronald McCarthy expressed concerns some have raised about the potential loss of gate revenue if teams don’t play traditional league rivals.

“We had to cut $41,000 from out athletic budget, cut freshman programs,’’ said McCarthy. “There’s no place to recoup those losses.’’

But others, including Falmouth coach Dana Almeida said, “potential gate losses are exaggerated.’’

The bottom line, according to Xaverian athletic director and Football committee member Charlie Stevenson, is that, “this proposal gives everybody in Eastern Mass. a chance to be in the playoffs.’’

The ad hoc committee will meet again Nov. 9, make their revisions, and then appear before the MIAA Board of Directors Dec. 2.

The Football Coaches Association is working with Gillette Stadium officials to move the annual Shriners Football Game to Foxboro. The deal isn’t finalized but should be soon. The game, which has been held at Bentley since 2001, would be June 18 . . . Sites for the Dec. 1 playoffs have been set in the North: Lowell (Cawley Stadium), Lynn (Manning Field), Arlington, and Reading. The MIAA has six sites in the South, four of which will be used, with Durfee, Taunton, Bridgewater-Raynham, Westwood, Whitman-Hanson, and Weymouth possibilities.