Basketball could go from 4 to 3 classes

If IHSAA OK’d plan — not imminent — others altered would be softball, baseball and volleyball…

By Pat McKee

High school basketball, and other sports in Indiana currently divided into four classes, would change to a three-class format under a new plan being discussed by athletic directors around the state.

Although it’s still in a preliminary stage, the Indiana Interscholastic Athletic Administrators Association is surveying athletic directors at Indiana high schools on whether it should formally submit a plan for a three-class format to the Indiana High School Athletic Association.

LaPorte athletic director Ed Gilliland chairs the IIAAA committee charged with offering solutions to inequities in the four-class system that was implemented in 1997-98. Issues include sectional brackets and alignments, travel distances, transportation costs and revenue.

Under the new plan, the IHSAA’s 407 member schools would be divided into three classes for basketball (boys and girls), baseball, softball and volleyball. It would not affect football and its five-class format.

The largest 256 schools would be split into groups of 128 by enrollment into Class 3A and Class 2A. The remaining 151 schools would be in Class A. There would be 32 sectionals in each class, with all sectionals in the upper two classes having four teams and sectionals in Class A having four, five or six teams. The system would restore the four-team, two-games-in-a-day format to the regional and semistate rounds, and the state finals would offer three title games at one venue in one day.

If such a proposal becomes formal, it likely would be debated throughout the 2008-09 academic year and be considered by the IHSAA board of directors at its 2009 annual meeting. A majority vote by the IHSAA board is required for adoption.

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