04/19/13 – Limitation of Seasons Discussion – Possible Reduction of Contests to be Proposed

April 22, 2013 Athletic Department Blog Updates

The following is an excerpt from the Board meeting summary of the April, 2013 Board of Control meeting.

At its April meeting, the Board continued its discussion regarding game limits for the sports of the KHSAA.  The Board had asked staff to research surrounding state limits for comparison (results are posted as attachments at http://portal.ksba.org/public/Meeting.aspx?PublicAgencyID=4374&PublicMeetingID=8983&AgencyTypeID=1). In addition, at this discussion, the Board asked for further reports about the actual number of games being played, using the scoreboard data as a resource (that data is also posted in the committee material). The review of game limits originally began with a request from the State Superintendents and Principals Associations following open dialogue at their meetings and has continued for many months through discussion at the state AD conference and many other meetings such as the different sport advisory committees and state coaches’ conferences. Among the issues of concern originally expressed by school administrators were missed school time due to travel, academic performance degradation due to fatigue and travel costs and other expenses. In addition, the subject has been discussed with various other constituencies of the Association over the last couple of years. Though the variance from the states surrounding Kentucky can be quite large (see the material in the Board site referenced above), that does mean change will or won’t happen.

Through this discussion, the Board members gave a final first reading approval to a proposal which would reduce the game limits in the KHSAA team sports to:

• Baseball and Softball, change from 36 to 32
• Volleyball, change from 36 to 31
• Soccer, change from 21 to 18
• Basketball, change 30 to 28
• Football, eliminate the open week and start the season one week later to avoid August play.

Be mindful that this is NOT a final decision as the Board will make a final determination as to what, if anything is authored for change to be considered by the Annual Meeting when it meets on May 7.