11/16/17 – Board of Control Addresses Future Basketball Calendar, Regional Alignment and State Advancement

November 16, 2017

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For Immediate Release: November 16, 2017

The Board of Control conducted a regularly scheduled meeting at the KHSAA Offices on Wednesday morning, during which time it addressed a future basketball scheduling conflict, the placement of a new school in 2018-19 and revised state qualifying in two championships.

With a facility conflict pending at Rupp Arena in 2021 due to the venue hosting first round games of the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament, an adjustment to the basketball calendar was necessary to accommodate the Sweet 16®. In addition, the girls’ basketball tournament was previously awarded to Rupp Arena in 2019 and 2020, with an option to extend to 2021 and 2022.

Based upon recommendation from staff, the Board approved a proposal to shift the start of the basketball season forward one week, for the 2020-21 season only, and adjust the corresponding dates calendar accordingly. The Commissioner was also authorized to begin final negotiations with the arena and hotel properties, and return data to the Board for a final determination of dates for both the 2021 boys’ and girls’ basketball tournaments.

With the opening of Great Crossings High School next year, and the desire of the Scott County schools Superintendent to keep the new school aligned with Scott County HS, the Board needed to address the alignment in the 11th Region. With the Board’s preference being to avoid six-team districts, an adjustment in several other districts became necessary to keep Great Crossing paired with Scott County. After examining several possibilities, the Board approved a recommended option to move Scott County and Great Crossings into the 41st District, while relocating Woodford County to District 30 in the 8th Region. The new alignment, which will be shared with the membership for comment could be finalized in January, and if approved, will place five teams in District 30, 41 and 43, and four teams each in district 42 and 44.

The Board also took action in the sport of Swimming and Diving and the sport-activity of Bass Fishing to address overcrowded regions and competitive balance. The Commissioner’s Advisory Committee on Swimming and Diving met on November 14, at which time it reviewed the situation created in northern Kentucky following the statewide realignment to nine regions. Dating back historically to the days of six-lane pools, regional performances were capped at the top-12 times/marks being considered for at-large advancement to the state meet (twice the number of lanes). The expansion from five regions to nine, however, has had a potentially adverse impact on overly large regions.

While most regions were “spread out” evenly through realignment, the Northern Kentucky region remained the largest meet with well over 500 competitors, and splitting the region into multiple regions was determined not to be advantageous due to facility options. To remedy the situation and create competitive equity within the regions, the Board approved a recommendation to increase the cap to be considered for at-large qualifying from 12 to a maximum of 16, which corresponds to the fact that all regional facilities now have eight lanes (allowing consideration of all competitors in the consolation and championship finals for state qualification). In addition, staff was directed to consult with schools in Madison County (including Berea) about voluntary relocation to Region 9 in order to remedy a potential overcrowding problem at the regional meet.

With the continued growth of Bass Fishing among member schools, an imbalance in the regions has developed over the last three years, particularly in region two. When the KHSAA conducted its first state championship in 2013 there were 108 entries at the regional championships, a number which has grown every year and reached 314 entries in 2017. This growth resulted in region two having nearly twice as many teams entered in its championship as two of the other regions.

Due to the limited options available to host a regional championship, expanding the regions was not deemed to be a practical option, therefore the Board approved a recommendation to address the competitive balance. Beginning with the 2018 season, each regional will advance a minimum of 16 competing boats to the state championship (as has been done previously), and an additional one boat for every five competitors entered over 72 boats to a maximum state field of 80 boats.

In other action taken Wednesday, the Board:

• Approved the InBody 120, InBody 270, Tanita TBF-300WA plus as the three bioimpedance devices for determining wrestling minimum weight along with the BodPod, while allowing the Hydrostatic weight to remain as the appeal device. This change was necessitated by the fact that the older Tanita model in use by a large number of members schools is no longer being supported by the manufacturer.

-KHSAA-

About the Kentucky High School Athletic Association
The Kentucky High School Athletic Association was organized in 1917 and is the agency designated by the Kentucky Department of Education to manage high school athletics in the Commonwealth. The Association is a voluntary nonprofit 501(c)3 organization made up of 282 member schools both public and private. The KHSAA sanctions 44 state championships in 13 sports and 5 sport-activities, licenses and trains over 4,000 officials, provides catastrophic insurance for its more than 70,000 member school student-athletes, as well as overseeing coaching education and sports safety programs.

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