Let’s classify all sports and have separate private and public school championships

We are currently in the middle of the Kentucky High School Athletic Association’s yearly mandated dead period for athletic activities across the state. It is a time to regroup, reflect and prepare for what lies ahead as another high school sports year is about to get underway.

In that same spirit, it seems like as good of a time as any for me to throw some ideas out there to all of our readers, and discuss some potential options for how statewide athletic contests could be organized in the future. These ideas aren’t necessarily new to anyone, as these debates have been ongoing for some time now, but I figure it wouldn’t hurt for me to do my part to keep the conversation going.

First of all, let’s go ahead and classify all sports across the board. We are already doing it for football. Track and cross country are both split up into different classes. Why not baseball? Or softball? Or soccer?

One could have argued at one time that soccer didn’t have enough overall participation to warrant a classification system, but I think we are well beyond that particular concern at this point. And when it comes to baseball and softball, those are arguably the two that need to be classified the MOST.

A large part of this is about fairness in competition. Football has six classes. I’m not so sure that we couldn’t get by with five classes at this point, or maybe even four, but that’s another topic for another day. A single A school might choose to play a 6A school in the regular season if they wish, but those typically lopsided affairs are not a factor when it comes to the playoffs. Not so in other sports.

In baseball, softball, basketball and other activities, small schools regularly have to contend with much larger schools that are in their district in order to earn spots in regional and state-level tournaments. It rarely works out to the benefit of the smaller schools, which is why the annual All “A” Classics are such big events. For many teams, those tournaments present the only legitimate chance that they may have at contending for a state title.

Now, you could argue against classification due to the fact that it would eliminate the need for an All “A” tournament, and while that would certainly be unfortunate, I think that the organization could probably re-brand if it wished to carry on. You could still have member schools, and you could still host regular events. It just wouldn’t be *the* single A championship of the year. Again, this is another conversation for another day.

Now, say we did classify baseball and softball. Instead of Williamsburg having to overcome the likes of Corbin, Whitley County and South Laurel in order to make it into a regional tournament, they could instead compete against teams like Lynn Camp, Pineville and Barbourville. That sounds a little more competitive, doesn’t it?

Same goes for basketball, but the big argument with that sport is always going to be the Sweet 16 tournaments. Let’s face it, those tournaments are such big money makers for the KHSAA that it is unlikely they will change the format anytime soon, if ever. I don’t see why you couldn’t make just as much money hosting a series of classified championship games, though. Or you could have four classes that each play their Final Four at state. Four times four equals 16. Same amount of games, just with a different format. I think it could work.

Before I finish, let me make one other plea. I wrote a column about this last year that received a big response, so I know that there are many in our community who feel strongly about it. I am referring to the request to hold separate state championships for public schools and private schools, as the public schools are almost always going to be at a disadvantage when it comes to these competitions.

All you have to do is look through the record books to see how many times public school student-athletes have been dominated by their private school counterparts. This is especially true in activities like volleyball, soccer and tennis, but it is a reality pretty much across the board. They just need to be separate. If nothing else happens, I hope that we will at least see that become a reality in the not-to-distant future.

A person could easily write a whole series of columns on these topics. You could literally spend days looking at historical data and formulating arguments, but I think that the arguments in favor of classification probably outweigh the arguments against it at this point. I am almost certain that the arguments for the separation of private and public school competition would outweigh the arguments for keeping it as-is.

Still, I’m sure there are many considerations that I am not aware of in both cases. What do you think? If you have an opinion, feel free to let me know.