Five items on the New Hampshire football landscape:

1. The New Hampshire Index Plan.

Just a reminder to all NHIAA football fans that the NHIP will be used to determine playoff teams this season. Under the NHIP, teams are awarded four points for a league victory at home and five points for a league victory on the road. Total points divided by the number of league games played will be each team's rating.

We'll be fortunate if we escape this season without any major controversy regarding the NHIP, which is both unfair (not every team plays an equal amount of road games) and unnecessary (head-to-head results should be used to seed teams that have the same record). Why should a road victory over an 0-8 team be worth more than a home victory against an 8-0 team?

One member of the NHIAA football committee said the committee will ask the NHIAA to scrap the NHIP for football next season.

2. The Colonial Clash.

The first college football game at Gillette Stadium will be played Saturday, when the University of New Hampshire (4-3 overall, 2-2 Colonial Athletic Association) meets the University of Massachusetts (4-2, 2-1). The opening kickoff is scheduled for 3:30 p.m.

The game is the first half of a two-year agreement between the schools to play in Foxboro. UMass leads the all-time series 43-26-3.

3. Sam Auffant.

Auffant, whose father Ron is the head coach at Winnacunnet, led Holy Cross with 71 yards rushing on 22 carries in Saturday's 27-19 loss to Dartmouth.

Auffant has run for 242 yards and two touchdowns on 65 carries this season. He rushed for 1,092 yards and 20 touchdowns during his senior season at Winnacunnet. He spent a year at Phillips Andover Academy before moving on to Holy Cross.

4. Unbeatens.

Keene and Winnacunnet each entered last weekend unbeaten, but didn't exit the weekend that way.

Although it was without starting quarterback Tyler Zabkar (concussion), Dover throttled Keene, 52-7, Sunday night. Winnacunnet fumbled the ball away five times in Friday night's 26-14 loss to Timberlane.

Those two losses left Lebanon (Division IV), Trinity (Division IV), Kearsarge (Division V) and St. Thomas (Division V) as the only undefeated high school teams in the state.

5. The place to be Friday night.

That would be Hampton, where Winnacunnet (6-1, 4-1) will battle Bishop Guertin (5-2, 4-1). The winner will remain in the hunt for the No. 1 seed for the Division II playoffs, while the loser may have a hard time securing home-field advantage for the semifinals.