classB4ever wrote:heimer wrote:Oldman, the TV networks will not budge on their commitment to only three weekends. There will be no fourth weekend.
So, you can do one of two things to introduce a third division.
1. Expand A, split divisions, each division sends four to state tournament, and A remains on weekend of basketball. B boys and B girls get their own weekend.
2. B boys and girls on same weekend in same place, which opens up a weekend for a true-third class to have it's own tournament.
There was a time I would have favored option 2, and you'd think, with the poor attendance of this year's girls tourney, we could easily accommodate B boys and girls in the same weekend now.
But, I still like making teams fight for a berth at state. If we had, lets say, 16 teams AA, 16 A, and the rest B, both of the top divisions would have state tournaments for half their membership. I don't even like that now, with 20 A teams having 8 at state.
I can stomach an expanded 32 team A getting 8, if the big half gets 4, and the small half gets 4. That way, you get guaranteed small vs. large right away, and there's some real entertainment value to the tournament.
Either works. But if we're gonna do it over, I want to dress it up.
It comes down to "3" separate groups making a concession. Using your terminology:
Class AA - Has to get over the fact they've had it pretty good for a long time. To be honest, their state tournament and their brand of basketball has gotten much more exciting in the past decade+. The argument has always been, just too easy to get to the state tournament, with approximately 50% chance of going.
Class A - Big B's and Privates will fight this all the way and have clout. They've been the big kid on the block in B and don't want to give that up. Will they? Have heard, "life isn't fair" and "pull up your pants" used, are they willing to do the same?
Class B - Tournament attendance is down, for both girls and boys. They have received plenty of "tinkering" with their tournaments, but will need to concede something for this to happen.
I like heimer's proposal, except, if AA (4 go to state) and A (4 go to state) would be formed, then B has to make a concession. I think if AA and A had a tournament, it would become the biggest tournament of all. The AA/A boys and girls should each get their own weekend. Also, to make it work in B, I think the class B boys and girls should be on the same weekend, and if possible, in the same gym.
Here's an idea. Thursday of state B tournament, alternate games between boys and girls. It's going to have to start early in the morning, just like football. The losers in the first round are done. Friday and Saturday then alternates the semi-finals and finals, respectively, for the boys and girls. Yes, you lose all the 5th-8th place games for both boys and girls, but that's the concession.
Here's the problem: Are their enough gyms, refs, and quite frankly days in the week, to allow class B boys and girls to get their districts and regionals done? Maybe the super regionals idea would take off with this model?
I know it's a crazy idea, and am sure a lot of holes in it, but not much traffic on here, so threw it out there to get butchered.
IMO if the state would look at Heimers plan the attendance would be higher at all 3 tournaments. The reason I say this is: If you always have smaller schools in the class B the whole town will follow them for the WHOLE tournament, not like the Big B's now when the people only come for their game (not even both games of that session). In the class A/AA you would have those "A" schools (Now the david's) with a shot to knock off one of the double A powers and people would come out of the woodwork. So to sum it up, if you would have a combined A and AA boys and girls you wouldn't need to tweak the system.