OHSAA to bring back Final Four format
Credit: Marcus Hartman
Credit: Marcus Hartman
The OHSAA announced this week the absence of “state tournaments” in basketball will only last one year.
While the organization has gotten a lot of heat for various decisions over the past five years, this is likely to be welcomed with open arms because it is not only logical but desired.
I used quotation marks for state tournament initially because what’s to come still won’t be quite like what came before, but it might be a good compromise.
Originally, the boys’ state tournament was quite literally a tournament. Steele High School (located in Downtown Dayton) was among the eight teams invited in Class A while Plattsburg High School (located in eastern Clark County) won the first Class B championship in 1923 at the Fairgrounds Coliseum in Columbus.
Central Ohio hosted every year until 1941, when Xenia Central won the Class A title in Kent and Tipp City and the team from the Ohio Soldiers and Sailors Orphans home in Xenia were part of the Class B tournament played in Springfield.
A year later, it moved back to Columbus, and only the semifinalists were invited for the first time.
Since then, the state tournament has moved around***, but the Final Four model endured until this year, when the OHSAA expanded to seven divisions for the girls and seven for the boys.
That led the organization to adopt a model more like football with the state semifinals held at neutral sites across the state. That idea was not really popular from the jump, nor did it seem to work out great in practice — especially with almost all of the girls games played at high school facilities.
While UD Arena won’t be able to put on all 21 state tournament games, the plan is to bring all of the semifinalists to the Dayton area next March to at least bring back more of the Final Four feel.
That will necessitate using other facilities — the Nutter Center, Butler High School’s Student Athletic Center and Fairmont’s Trent Arena seem like logical choices, but nothing has been solidified yet — but overall this seems like a better setup.
***I know there are folks (at least from other parts of the state) longing for a return to Columbus, but I don’t see that happening anytime soon. Ohio State just doesn’t have much room on the calendar with the need to have Value City Arena available to host the first and second rounds of the women’s NCAA Tournament and Big Ten hockey tournament games (both relatively recent developments) every year.
(Now, Ohio State doing the smart thing and reviving St. John Arena with a major renovation could facilitate such a return, but that is sadly just a dream of mine and probably a few others at this point, too.)
Mid-major Talent Drain Continues Unabated
Credit: David Jablonski
Credit: David Jablonski
While the men’s Final Four featured four power programs and three exciting games, a big theme of the early part of NCAA Tournament this year was the dearth of Cinderella stories.
Some inexplicably pushed back at the idea this is bad for the sport, but the people defending what now passes for the status quo might just be missing how difficult life already is for teams outside the top six conferences.
More proof to that can be found in David Jablonski’s story this week about all the accomplished players who left the Atlantic 10 over the last month for brighter lights and (ostensibly) bigger paydays, a trend that only figures to grow more pronounced with the amount of money available to players set to grow, especially at schools with big football revenue to distribute.
Ohio State Football Looks Ahead to Offseason
You can look for more on this in Sunday’s paper (and online), but Ryan Day held a press conference this week to discuss the results of spring football practice and other topics pertaining to his team.
While one local player — Lakota East grad Austin Siereveld — used the spring to establish himself as a starter, another undertook his latest attempt to find a way onto the field on a regular basis.
C.J. Hicks, who has been a big name since his freshman year at Alter High School, received high marks from his head coach for his efforts to learn a new position — defensive end — but he will need to bulk up this summer and continue to learn the finer parts of playing on the line of scrimmage to earn a spot in Larry Johnson’s rotation.
Day also discussed the quarterback battle, the potential changes to the offense and how he wants his staff to attack recruiting in an ever-evolving landscape this spring and summer, so you’ll want to keep an eye out for that story.
That’s all for this week, but if you have thoughts on this newsletter or anything else pertaining to the local sports landscape, please feel free to reach out to me at marcus.hartman@coxinc.com.
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