Blog
Tuesday, July 1, 2008
How many champions is too many?
All of you have heard the arguments on both sides of the issue. One side will say that numerous champions gives more kids the opportuntiy to experience success. Others will sarcastically say that we need to just give everyone a trophy and a pat on the back and not even play the games.
Since the playoffs became the way to end a football season and basketball was first divided into classifications, the definition of a successful season for a lot of people is whether you win a state championship. Personally I prefer the days when every game was life and death and you were judged, and judged yourself, on how well you competed from one week to another. A district basketball championship was great and a region championship and state appearance was a dream come true.
Now we are facing the possibility of having 6 public school basketball champions and 2 DII champions in both boy's and girl's basketball, beginning in 2009; 16 state basketball champions. Surely we can come up with a better plan. Here's mine- one state champion for boys and one for girls.
First, change to four classifications for basketball. As always, play a regular season where everyone plays in the district and only two teams move on to the region. From there, only the region champions advance to the sectionals which is the first-round of the state with 16 games played at 8 neutral sites around the state, 2 games per site. (or, 4 neutral sites with 4 games per site.)
At the end of the sectionals you have 4 teams left in each classification, 16 teams total, that head for Murfreesboro. The 4 best teams of each size from all over the state and, from this point forward, it is every man for himself.
Put all 16 teams in a hat and draw. Play 4 games on Tuesday, 4 on Wednesday, 4 on Thursday, 2 on Friday, and play the state championship on Saturday. Personally, I would play them at 10, Noon, 2, and 4 for the simple reason that kids will do anything to get out of school and go to a game and you have limited late night travel.
And, come Saturday, you have a Tennessee State Champion.
(I have purposely left DII out of this because there are so many possibilities and I don't want this to become a public vs private issue. Obviously DII needs to be included in this in some way. One way would be to leave public schools with three classes and take 2 DII-A and 2 DII-AA teams to make the 16 teams.)
Posted by CoachT at 9:40 PM · 1669 Views · COMMENTS
Since the playoffs became the way to end a football season and basketball was first divided into classifications, the definition of a successful season for a lot of people is whether you win a state championship. Personally I prefer the days when every game was life and death and you were judged, and judged yourself, on how well you competed from one week to another. A district basketball championship was great and a region championship and state appearance was a dream come true.
Now we are facing the possibility of having 6 public school basketball champions and 2 DII champions in both boy's and girl's basketball, beginning in 2009; 16 state basketball champions. Surely we can come up with a better plan. Here's mine- one state champion for boys and one for girls.
First, change to four classifications for basketball. As always, play a regular season where everyone plays in the district and only two teams move on to the region. From there, only the region champions advance to the sectionals which is the first-round of the state with 16 games played at 8 neutral sites around the state, 2 games per site. (or, 4 neutral sites with 4 games per site.)
At the end of the sectionals you have 4 teams left in each classification, 16 teams total, that head for Murfreesboro. The 4 best teams of each size from all over the state and, from this point forward, it is every man for himself.
Put all 16 teams in a hat and draw. Play 4 games on Tuesday, 4 on Wednesday, 4 on Thursday, 2 on Friday, and play the state championship on Saturday. Personally, I would play them at 10, Noon, 2, and 4 for the simple reason that kids will do anything to get out of school and go to a game and you have limited late night travel.
And, come Saturday, you have a Tennessee State Champion.
(I have purposely left DII out of this because there are so many possibilities and I don't want this to become a public vs private issue. Obviously DII needs to be included in this in some way. One way would be to leave public schools with three classes and take 2 DII-A and 2 DII-AA teams to make the 16 teams.)
