From the Sports Desk

with Carey Phillips: 02/14/02

The N.C. High School Athletic Association is expected to act this spring on a proposal from state football coaches to subdivide playoffs in all four classifications. This follows the 1-A playoffs being subdivided last season resulting in Swain and Albemarle both winning state 1-A titles.

It's hard to blame coaches in other classifications for wanting an equal playing field now that subdividing in 1-A has resulted in watering down state championships. It's a case of what's bad for the goose being bad for the gander.

The basic idea of subdividing is to let the smaller schools within each class play each other in the playoffs and the larger schools do likewise.

Subdividing has been on the table for about a decade. That it took so long to come about is evidence of what a bad idea it is.

NCHSAA member schools kept voting the idea down although some 1-A coaches continued to complain how unfair it was that a school with 250 students might have to play a school with 670 students in the playoffs. There were also minor complaints in 4-A regarding a school with an enrollment of 1,300 playing a school with 2,500 students.

Even so, common sense prevailed year after year. Seeing a way to pull an end run, the NCHSAA let each classification vote separately last year. The result was 1-A went for subdividing while the other three classes did not.

Never before had the NCHSAA given autonomy to a classification on any issue. If we're going that route, why not allow autonomy on all issues. Maybe the 2-A schools would prefer to play the state championship game at home sites rather than on a neutral field. The 3-A schools might like to no longer have the playoffs seeded. Perhaps the 4-A schools would come up with a totally different way to run their playoffs.

If any subdividing is to be done, 1-A is the last place to start. There are fewer 1-A schools playing football than in any other class. We're heading back to the days when Robbinsville dominated 1-A football simply because there were fewer than 25 schools playing in that class.

Until the early '90s, the stigma of being classified 1-A kept many of the state's smaller school playing up in class. It's no coincidence that when the NCHSAA started forcing schools to play in their proper class coincided with the time when Smoky Mountain Conference schools stopped making an annual practice of bringing a state title home. From 1993-2000, only one SMC team claimed a state crown.

One point pushed through the years by proponents of subdividing was that the playoffs would be shortened by a week. The bracket was to remain at 32 teams with 16 each in the lower and upper divisions. That's not what happened as the number of playoff teams was doubled keeping the postseason five weeks.

Of the 72 football playing 1-A schools, all but 10 made the playoffs. The regular season became meaningless. Sixteen teams made the playoffs with three or fewer wins. Among them was an 0-10 North Moore squad that lost 76-0 in the first round. Other blowouts caused by the mismatches were by scores of 63-0 (twice), 67-0 and 61-0. Now we'll see such scores in all four, or should I say all eight, classes.

Remember how exciting it was on the final week of the regular season last fall when Smoky Mountain needed to beat Enka and have Franklin knock off Roberson for the Mustangs to make the playoffs? By adopting the 1-A format, most every team will have a playoff spot wrapped up by then. Of the nine Mountain Athletic Conference schools, look for at least seven to reach the playoffs.

More teams going late into the playoffs hurts winter sports as basketball, wrestling, etc., are delayed in getting started. Sometimes it's the opponents who get hurt as well. That happened to Smoky Mountain's basketball teams when games with Swain were postponed early in the year and reset for February. They were snowed out and never played.

If the goal is to have teams playing for a championship that don't normally have the chance, 1-A subdividing failed miserably. Swain met Williamston for the lower 1-A title, but both of those schools won crowns in the 1990s. It's clear the system is flawed when Swain's semifinal opponent was Cherokee, a team from its own conference that hasn't beaten the Maroon Devils since 1982.

Swain topped Williamston 38-19 while Albemarle destroyed Wallace-Rose Hill 66-28 in the larger 1-A division. Not getting to play each other to see who was really best is unfair to the kids from Albemarle and Swain. Albemarle is the larger school but Williamston is also bigger than Swain. Who's to say that Swain wouldn't have gone to Albemarle for the semifinals and shocked the team with record-setting running back T.A. McLendon? What a great victory that would have been for Swain and Western North Carolina football.

As it is we'll never know. It's also unfair to allow Albemarle and Swain to receive the same status of state champions as is afforded to Clinton (2-A), Parkland (3-A) and Independence (4-A) since those they had to be the best of 80 something schools to be called champs.

If we're going to subdivide in all classifications for football, why not do it for all sports? I'll guarantee you the soccer coaches will start screaming to be included. They want anything football gets. Seeded playoffs serve as an example. Coaches should be just as demanding for basketball, baseball, volleyball, etc.

Charlie Adams, executive director of the NCHSAA, is on record saying how good it is to have more teams be state champions. Wouldn't it be just as good for other sports as it is for football?

The designation of the smaller schools as 1-A and the larger as 1-AA was confusing. That's the opposite of college where major schools are I-A and the next division down is I-AA.

Area print and television media failed to be a good job explaining the change, and many people throughout WNC were left with the mistaken impression that Swain was the champion of all 1-A schools.

A high ranking NCHSAA official once told me we were headed toward a world where every high school in the state would be a state champion.

As the smallest 3-A school in the state, Smoky Mountain would stand to gain as much as any school by subdividing. Nevertheless, SM has consistently opposed the move wanting to keep integrity in the state championship system.

"For some people it will be a good opportunity, and probably for us it's a good opportunity to play teams in the playoffs with similar numbers," SM Coach Tim Hawkins said. "On the other hand, it kind of taints a state championship. You'll never know who the state champion is because there are two in each classification."

It doesn't have to be this way. Going to five classifications would give some relief to the smaller 1-A and 4-A schools and keep integrity in the system. Eight champions are too many.

Subdividing in all classifications will equal the playoff field for what it takes to be a state champ. It's unfortunate that a title won't mean as much as in the past.

Back to Sports: 02/14/02.