Trending
PIAA needs more
flexibility to better reward top teams
The most watched sporting event each year by fans is March Madness as 68 NCAA Division I universities compete yearly for gold in basketball.
Up until a few years ago, this field consisted of 64 teams.
For whatever reasons, four schools (considered on the bubble) were added, and a seventh round, too, in hopes of providing more teams that thought they were left out prematurely.
Pennsylvania has its own March Madness yearly, offering six gold medals from 192 high schools in six classes.
One thing that bothered me yearly was seeing some schools qualify with below .500 seasons wondering if they could compete with 20-plus win schools.
A lot of my friends always complained about the "public" vs. "private" numbers each year. Through 50-plus seasons of playing, coaching and later officiating, I realized this was crazy.
I believe in order for a team to be the best, you should play the best -- period.
This year something unique has happened in District 6 basketball -- two schools at Class 4A competed for the district title, each with 20-plus wins.
Both schools were fully aware that only the winner would advance to inter-districts back in December.
It's sad to see a team with a 22-3 or 21-4 season end prematurely with no real postseason opportunities.
This is unlike the NCAA that over the years has managed to tweak their madness from 64 to 68 schools, so as not to snub a worthy team.
The PIAA should have had the foresight to figure out how to avoid this same problem when schools finishing with over 20 wins in a 22-game regular season are denied inter-district play.
A possible solution: Adopt a potential play-in game (if necessary) similar to what District Class 6A boys and girls are doing with District 8 and District 10.
Only here have the team or teams with 20-plus wins currently eliminated play a must-win game to qualify for the field of 32.
Basically this would mean playing six games, not five -- similar to the NCAA having four schools play seven games, not six to order to win gold.
These play-in games would only occur in a season if a school already eliminated or upset was to finish its season with 20-plus wins and a 75-80%winning percent prior to inter-districts.
The subregional may never apply come 2023-24 or in the future.
How many schools finish regular season and districts with 20-plus wins and an 80% win pct?
But at least this would give the PIAA a way to cover its bases should it happen and if you feel like I do.
In order to be the best, you would want to play the best. That applies here.
Stan Risser
Martinsburg