Hutton: Time to push IHSAA for 3-class tourney

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Updated: February 23, 2012 8:24AM

I’ve never quite understood why the IHSAA commissioner couldn’t stand for something other than what his members wanted and why the last two haven’t recognized what is generally accepted by the majority of the coaches and athletic directors: That the four-class tournament system in basketball has been an abject failure since it was instituted in 1998.

Current IHSAA commissioner Bobby Cox is no different than previous commissioners Blake Ress and Bobby Gardner.

Proposals to change the format of the tournament are member driven he says, and there is nothing on the table from anyone, anywhere to make a long overdue adjustment to the tournament format.

I don’t personally hold Cox responsible for the inertia but I would like to see some dynamic, bold vision from someone who understands the problem. It’s a symptom of the office, a long-standing practice that commissioners are benevolent caretakers of high school sports, responsible mostly for administering tournaments and making sure its members follow the bylaws.

That leaves little room for marketing and leveraging your best asset, which is the high school basketball tournament.

Here is the format that makes the most sense, the one that deserves to be tried after having the greatest high school basketball tournament in the world for 86 years and one that is just simply forgettable for the last 14: a three-class system. This idea is neither original nor new. Most importantly, it doesn’t make anyone wax nostalgic for the impossible — a single class system. It’s also the format the most number of people wanted in 2007 when it was favored by 58 percent of the athletic directors in a survey by the Indiana athletic directors. A proposal to change the tournament from four classes to three classes was voted down mostly because of concerns about travel, rising gas prices, and resistance from the very smallest schools, who didn’t want their odds of winning a title to decrease. It’s been dead ever since, mostly, I believe, because no one has the energy to sell it.

The tournament would work like this. There are 404 member schools. Each class would have 134 or 135 members and each sectional would have four teams in it. (Five or six would have to have five teams). Sectionals, regionals and semistate would all be on Saturday with four teams. The state championship would be a one-game final.

As Valparaiso coach Joe Otis said, the proposal has always been the best solution to a nagging problem that has been ignored for way too long. The format they have now, which has between five and nine teams in each sectional, is just unfair, disjointed and too watered down.

Having Saturday games keeps the kids in school and it would result in better attendance because there won’t be a midweek game. It also decreases travel for most teams. The morning-night combinations for three straight weeks would feel like the single class tournament for fans. The competition would be tougher but not impossible and I’m betting interest increases.

Now is the time to start talking about it again because Cox was wrestled into a series of town hall forums by Senator Mike Delph, a Republican from Carmel, who wrote a bill, part of which required Indiana to return to a one class format. Delph dropped that requirement with the stipulation that Cox seek input from fans about the state of the tournament. One is tentatively scheduled for April 25 in Merrillville.

Cox is genuinely interested in exchanging views with the public perhaps so he can lay out first hand why the dreadful four-class format has stayed in place for so long.

Over the years, the IHSAA has taken a brutal public relations beating on the issue of switching from single class to multi class, because the public wrongly blamed Gardner, a Milan graduate, for spearheading the move. He didn’t want it but the members — specifically the small schools — banded together and executed the switch.

Cox said one thing that really bothered me and should bother you too in an interview Friday.

“The student athletes are the customers,” IHSAA Commissioner Bobby Cox said. “This is about serving them.”

It’s just simply not true. Everybody — the fans, the players, administrators and coaches — are the customers. Is it different than a classic commercial-driven enterprise. They are kids and this isn’t all about the money. However, that shouldn’t stop someone from trying to make the tournament better for everyone involved.

If it’s just about the kids, than they should play the games in an empty, dimly lit gym — in front of parents. No stories, no publicity, no fans — just a cloistered, tightly knit affair for loved ones and close friends. But it doesn’t work that way and Cox knows it. The tournament still makes money, has corporate sponsors and is shown on television mostly because of you and I — the people who pay taxes and pay to watch the games. It’s about time we were heard.

Cox doesn’t like to view the tournament as a product but it is a product: A wholesome product that used to be healthier and needs to get better.

It’s pretty clear that Cox isn’t going to lead the charge for a format that is fairer and more appealing to a greater number of people. That is regrettable. It could be a real legacy builder. It would take courage and conviction and perhaps some quiet arm twisting for the right person to get over this hump. I hope that person is out there. I’m glad Delph is getting in Cox’s ear and he needs to stay there until there is some movement toward something better. It’s time to start talking about making a move for real. Fourteen years of four-class basketball is about 10 years too much. This is a problem that has lingered far too long and it’s a shame, considering what the high school basketball tournament in Indiana once meant to this great state.

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