Thursday, September 17, 1998

Size DOES count when you're looking at alignment

By Bill Hart

Size doesn't always mean everything in a football game, but it does matter in district alignments, especially in Classes 5A, 4A, 3A and 2A where three teams advance to the postseason.

This is the first year that 3A and 2A have sent three teams to the playoffs.

The school that finishes in the top three with the largest enrollment in each district will be placed in Division I. The other two will be in Division II.

This format has been under fire ever since the University Interscholastic League first went to three teams in Class 5A. The system is flawed because, on several occasions, the champion from Division II had a larger enrollment than the Division I winner.

A few coaches want the basketball and baseball format used in football. Under that setup, there is just one division per classification and the district champion gets a bye in bi-district. But most football coaches don't want the open date because they feel it would take away any momentum that was built up from winning district.

But if that plan was adopted, there would be only one state champion in each classification, which prevents the current watering-down of the state championships.

We're stuck with the current plan this year, however.

There will be an ad hoc meeting in Austin on Oct. 7 to discuss realignment and playoffs. Recommendations from that meeting will be discussed when the Legislative Council meets later in the month.

One of the things to be discussed in the first meeting is forming a Class 6A by taking the largest 200 or so schools from Class 5A. But don't look for this to fly. Too much travel would be involved and cross-town rivalries in some cases would be reduced to non-district games.

Using the latest enrollment figures, it would take a school with at least 2,000 students to be placed in Class 6A. This would mean that the present District 3-5A would keep the same membership (San Angelo Central, Amarillo High, Amarillo Tascosa, Lubbock Coronado, Lubbock Monterey and Lubbock High) and 4-5A would stay the same (Abilene High, Cooper, Midland Lee, Midland High, Odessa High and Odessa Permian). Adding a Class 6A would not solve any problems for San Angelo Central getting back into District 4-5A.

Also under the 6A plan, El Paso would have a problem. There would be nine Class 6A schools and four 5A schools in El Paso. To balance out, the 5A schools would have to appeal for membership in 6A and form two districts. A school may go up a classification, but cannot drop down a class.

And to take 200 schools and form a new 32-district classification would mean there would be a lot of byes in Class 2A and A because there wouldn't be enough schools to form 32 districts in the lower classifications.

Now back to this year. If Abilene High and/or Cooper make the playoffs, they will be in Division II because they are the smallest schools in District 4-5A.

If Wylie advances in Class 3A, the Bulldogs will be in Division I and could play Graham in bi-district if the Steers win District 5-3A and Breckenridge in the area round if the Buckaroos win District 7-3A and bi-district. All are the largest schools in their districts.

If Winters goes into the playoffs, the Blizzards will be in Division II because they are the third smallest school in District 25-2A. They would have to play a team in the Temple area or Johnson City, near Austin, in the first round. Then the travel gets worse.

Probable Division I teams (if they make the playoffs) are Big Spring (District 5-4A), Coahoma (3-2A), Jim Ned (8-2A) and Early (25-2A) because they have either the largest or second-largest enrollments in their district. Definite Division II teams are Sweetwater and Snyder (5-4A), Stephenville (6-4A), Colorado City (3-3A), Eastland (7-3A), Albany (8-2A), De Leon (15-2A) and Goldthwaite (25-2A) because they are either the smallest or next-to-smallest in their districts.

Things used to not be this complicated. Bring back the two teams in the playoff format and forget Class 6A.

Bill Hart can be reached at 676-6733 or sports@abinews.com