If you get the feeling you've read parts of this column before, it's because you have. So, you're welcome to skip over to the story about the BC-Syracuse game without penalty.

But for those of you who are interested in the high school football playoffs, which begin Tuesday for the Mansfield High School Hornets and the Bishop Feehan High School Shamrocks, I invite you to stick around.

If you're pulling for the Hornets and Shamrocks in these playoffs, you've drawn long straws and are getting the best deals available from everyone's favorite whipping boys, the Massachusetts Interscholastic Athletic Association.

The Shamrocks are playing Bourne, champion of the South Coast Conference, 4 p.m. Tuesday at the recently upgraded Greater New Bedford Vocational High School stadium. The 4 p.m. starting time isn't ideal for parents who work, but the facility is nice and roomy, the concession stand is excellent, and the new FieldTurf surface will put both teams on equal footing (pun intended).

The Hornets, meanwhile, get the privilege of entertaining Atlantic Coast League champion Plymouth North on their own home field. The game between the Hornets, winners of 23 straight games, and the 9-2 Eagles of Plymouth North, will start at 7 p.m. at Alumni Field, immediately following the Division 2A semifinal between Hingham and Wilmington, and the only drawback to having a home game in the playoffs is having to search for a parking spot before the first game ends. But if you really want to appreciate your good fortune, consider how the fans of Division 1 combatants Everett and Xaverian must feel, having to play at Chelsea High School 7:30 p.m. Tuesday. Or how about Bridgewater-Raynham and Brockton, who could be bringing 8,000 fans to New Bedford Voke after the Feehan-Bourne game ends?

Much has been made of the fact that the MIAA tried to secure ``neutral'' sites with artificial surfaces for these playoffs, yet Mansfield wound up with a home game. Meanwhile, one of the best high school sports venues in the state, Brockton's Marciano Stadium, will remain idle this week despite the facts that the Boxers are participating in the playoffs, and that the venue proved one of the few capable of handling multiple events back-to-back last year.

The MIAA and Brockton wanted nothing to do with each other this year, stemming from a dispute over reimbursement for snow removal costs from last year's playoffs. As a result, more than 10,000 seats and lots of parking will remain idle while fans try to squeeze into smaller venues all over eastern Massachusetts.

This is not to knock the schools that have made their fields available for the playoffs. They deserve all the credit in the world for stepping up when others wouldn't.

But the situation once again draws attention to the selfishness of those who run the major venues in the eastern part of the state.

As pointed out in this space several months ago, most other states that have football playoffs enlist the aid of the stadiums where pro teams play, or those of major colleges, to accommodate the high schoolers as they play the most important games of their lives.

The folks who run Gillette Stadium have given absolutely no thought to playing host to the playoffs, nor will they as long as there is a grass surface in the stadium, or as long as Bill Belichick is head coach.

Belichick would never agree to having his field chewed up by high school football players -- even though, last year, he offered no objections whatsoever to the damage wrought to the grass field by his own team until the NFL intervened as the playoffs began, and forced the Kraft organization to re-sod the surface before the game against Tennessee.

Belichick wanted to play on a chewed-up field last year because his team was the one that chewed it up, and the groundskeepers managed the damage to his liking. Playing as many as four high school games on the Saturday before an NFL game would cause ruts and holes that couldn't be repaired to Belichick's specifications quickly.

Nor will the stadium be installing FieldTurf any time soon. The governing body of soccer, FIFA, does not allow important international matches to be played on artificial turf, and the Gillette Stadium hierarchy does not want to lose the income that major soccer matches generate. Boston University used to be the host venue for the high school Super Bowls, but that school's administration turned hostile to the games as a means of beating down alumni groups that wanted to revive football as a varsity sport.

With no hint of football present at Nickerson Field, the BU honchos reasoned, there would be less pressure to revive the football program. So far, their reasoning seems to be correct -- but it was also sleazy for BU to infer that the presence of the now-defunct women's pro soccer team, the Boston Breakers, was a factor in denying the high school access to Nickerson.

As for Boston College, that school's isolation from the world around it is legendary. Both Alumni Stadium and the Conte Forum could be excellent venues for high school championships, but BC continues to blame the Chestnut Hill neighborhood associations for blocking almost all non-college events at the stadium and arena.

Meanwhile, BC allowed Catholic Memorial and BC High to use Alumni Stadium for their Thanksgiving rivalry game Wednesday night. Go figure.

The problem with these venues is that they can't be forced to open their doors to the high schoolers. They're not state schools, and the only state school in Massachusetts with a fitting venue for championship games is in Amherst. And, apparently, they're arrogant enough to know that they don't need to foster good will with anyone.

Shame on them for not feeling a little more charitable with their facilities. And shame on the MIAA for not pursuing them more vigorously. The best games of the year deserve the best possible venues -- and while the schools who have invested in artificial turf deserve all the credit in the world for making their fields available, it's still not the same as playing where the Super Bowl champions play, or where Doug Flutie worked his magic as a collegian.

Hopefully, someday, those who operate the major venues will see it the same way. Why they don't just may be the biggest puzzle amid the jumble that is Massachusetts high school athletics.

MARK FARINELLA may be reached at 508-236-0315 or via e-mail at mfarinel@thesunchronicle.com