Wednesday, March 14, 2012: Are NYSPHSAA championships doomed? Nope.

   My only phone calls today were to a couple of local athletic directors, but I'm sure that I'll run into several executives from the New York State public high school athletic Association this weekend in Glens Falls. And if their insight is anything like what I heard today, then there's no reason to suspect that we're really at risk of losing state championship tournaments after the end of the 2012-13 season.

   Let's start with some quick background, then I'll explain why it's too soon to worry about reports that started circulating yesterday.

   Though I can no longer find the story on the MSGvarsity.com server, Rich Thomaselli reported late Tuesday afternoon that the NYSPHSAA is asking section representatives to discuss ideas for changing state playoffs -- up to and including abolishing season-ending tournaments and championships for two or more years beginning with the 2013-14 school year.

   The NYSPHSAA Executive Committee is scheduled to discuss the matter again at its May meeting, with votes possible at that time. As was the case in 2009 when NYSPHSAA member schools trimmed regular-season schedules, such as scaling basketball back from 20 to 18 games, money is at the heart of the matter.

   Specifically, it's concerns raised by Section 11 representatives that started discussions on this issue. Situated at the eastern end of Long Island, Suffolk County schools frequently must travel farther than counterparts from anywhere else in the state in order to attend championships at the end of the respective seasons. While sympathetic, the people I spoke to briefly today said they cannot fathom doing away with state championships altogether even as schools wrestle with budget issues further complicated by New York’s newly imposed 2 percent cap on tax increases.

   At the state level, Nina Van Erk, executive director of the NYSPHSAA, told MSG Varsity that the NYSPHSAA is trying to do its part financially and has frozen the cost of dues for two years.

   “We as an association have to take a hard look at what we do, too,” Van Erk said. “This idea came from (Section 11), the other sections will discuss it, and their representatives will provide us with input.”

   Van Erk told MSG Varsity the state will explore all options before putting state tournaments on hiatus. That includes the idea of saving money by having athletes wear their school uniforms rather than tournament-issued garb at state championships such as wrestling, and it could also mean a reduction in the number of classes for some tournaments. Cross country scaled back from five classes to for this year.

   Now, here's why I'm not losing sleep over what would otherwise seem to be a raging controversy heading into arguably the best weekend of the sports schedule, the NYSPHSAA basketball tournaments in Glens Falls and Troy:

   (1) No one is holding a gun to the head of Suffolk County athletic directors, superintendents and school boards. If they want to skip the state tournament, which is exactly what both Long Island sections already do in football each fall, they're more than welcome to do so. With 10 other sections in the state, credible championships could still be held in all sports.

   I'm sorry if that sounds callous, but it's true. The football playoffs, though obviously watered down by the omission of two large sections, still work. And the state baseball and softball tournaments got along just fine beginning in early 1980s even though Section 5 couldn't be bothered to attend.

   (2) What I think I'm hearing from Section 11 rates somewhere between a cry for help and a shakedown. In voicing their concerns at the Executive Committee meeting in January, Section 11 officials suggested adjusting criteria for selecting state tournament sites, which sounds like a desire for Suffolk County to host some of the season-ending events. Considering that swim finals are sometimes held in Buffalo and cross country meets in both the North Country and the Southern Tier, that hardly qualifies as an unreasonable desire and deserves to be addressed. Just remember, the trip from Buffalo to Long Island is as long as the trip from Long Island to Buffalo, so be careful about shifting the hardship from Suffolk to Erie County.

   If the venues don't change, then perhaps the reimbursement for expenses should. To that end, Van Erk told MSG Varsity some sections could perhaps accept less compensation than those making longer trips. Again, that probably makes sense.

   When all is said and done, though, just remember that there are no signs of a grassroots movement out there in support of the nuclear option. You didn't see sections racing to discuss the future of the state tournaments before Section 11 complained and the NYSPHSAA told its members to give it some thought.

   Real financial issues might still exist, but maybe the 10 other sections come back with better ideas. If six or seven of them show up in Albany in May and tell Suffolk County to go suck raw eggs, then it becomes a Section 11 problem rather than a statewide one.

   (3) In the world of education -- and remember that schools continue to be foundation of athletic programs at the high school level no matter how many AAU basketball programs or travel soccer teams pop up -- nothing gets done in a vacuum. Any school superintendent or school board advocating for doing away with state championships had better be prepared to cut proportionally into other extracurricular activities that their schools sponsor. That doesn't mean doing away with the school band, but it would mean not funding travel for musicians selected for all-county or all-state events. Ditto for the debate club, the chess team, the robotics team, etc.

   Good luck selling that to the angry mob already showing up at school board meetings on a regular basis to hear first-hand about the latest proposed cuts to staff and class offerings. You might as well plan on spending some of that sports money you save on extra security to maintain order at school board meetings.

More N.Y. postseason coverage All sports • NYSSWA site for brackets of tournaments from the past and present seasons. Boys basketball • Road to Glens Falls for scores and stats. • NYSPHSAA tourney brackets • Current state rankings. Girls basketball • Road to Troy for scores and stats. • Current state rankings. Ice hockey • NYSSWA site for tournament brackets. • Current state rankings. Wrestling • 2012 state meet results: D-I | D-II • Final state rankings.

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   (4a) Placing a moratorium on championships would presumably require some sort of consideration whether the concept is penny-wise and pound-foolish.

   I'm increasingly skeptical about the purported $10 million a year districts from around the state are said to have saved each year through the 2009 schedule reductions.

   Even if for the sake of argument that number is close to accurate it doesn't reflect the potential damage to athletes (and their parents) in the form of lost opportunities to be seen by college coaches in a position to offer scholarships or financial aid.

   Kentucky basketball coach John Calipari sat in front of me on press row last March in Glens Falls. Sure, he can just as easily get a look at prospects in high school gyms during the regular season but he's certainly not going to see collections of talent there that would match the fields fans get to see in the state playoffs.

   But it goes beyond that. Untold numbers of coaches at the Division III and junior college levels also come to see these kids play. They frequently find late replacements when other recruiting prospects fall through, and they sometimes find diamonds in the rough -- kids who were scarcely noticed during the regular season but come up big at states.

   National letter of intent day for football last month was nothing short of a disaster for New York and might be even worse next year. I'm not prepared to lay the blame at schedule reductions -- at least not entirely (yet) -- but it has to be asked whether we're stunting the athletic growth of some of our better athletes with short schedules. As it is now, only NYSPHSAA football finalists play as many as 13 games a year; slash everyone back to 10 or fewer and kiss Division I ambitions good-bye for all but a dozen or so NYSPHSAA stars.

   With a five-year scholarship commitment worth in excess of $250,000 at some universities that should be no small consideration.

   (4b) staying on the subject of dropping money into one pocket only to see it plucked from another, schools get no state aid for district residents who attend private schools. If the allure of longer regular seasons plus postseason playoffs sways 50 families to send their sons or daughters to Canisius, Iona Prep or St. Anthony's, that's money coming out of the pockets of local public school districts. All in all it doesn't add up to a lot of money. But how many times in the last three years have you heard your school board president or your superintendent lament that every little bit counts when it comes to putting a budget together.

   (4c) Staying on the money theme, basketball weekend is huge in the Glens Falls and Troy areas. Cortland reaps benefits from girls soccer and lacrosse, girls volleyball is also anchored in Glens Falls, Utica hosts ice hockey and Middletown is the new home to boys soccer after a long run in Oneonta.

   Those are all relatively small communities, where hotel managers and restaurant owners notice a difference on championship weekends. I know I probably wouldn't want to have to break the bad news to them, but I'm positive I wouldn't want to have to also relay the message to the various state senators and assemblyman representing those areas.

   (5) The state office already cedes considerable authority to its 11 sections across New York. The sections decide on formats for sectional tournaments and they enforce their own rules on issues such as transfers and the classification of private schools. If there are no longer state championships to run, school districts and sections might rightfully begin to wonder why they need to continue paying dues to a state association; couldn't that office be rolled into the government bureaucracy?

   I'd hate to see that happen because more government involvement is rarely a good thing. But I could understand why people might begin asking that question.

   At the very least, the state association would run into credibility issues with potential advertisers and corporate sponsors if and when the competitions were ever restored. The NCAA can justify a lack of a football playoff by arguing that they've never conducted one and therefore don't need one. (An aside: No, I don't buy that either.) I would wish them all the luck in the world, however, if they decided to put the Division I basketball tournament on hiatus for a couple of years.

   Bottom line is that people may not miss something that they never had, but they'll fight like hell to keep something that already exists. I wouldn't want to be the administrator trying to stand my ground in front of that fast-moving truck.

   More on the subject: Keith McShea of The Buffalo News wrote a lengthy story for the paper and blog for the website today. Check it out.