Summary:
The Problem With Class Basketball in Indiana.
It is a Friday night. Everyone is looking for something to do. There is a basketball game, and you don't want to miss the game and maybe miss one of the best games of they year. Basketball games in the State of Indiana can be some of the most fun things to do. You will always remember your high school days and you don't want to miss this opportunity to add a memory to that list, but nobody goes to the games anymore. You don't want to go to the game and be there by yourself. Should you go to the game anyway? This is the way the high school kids are thinking these days. Everyone used to go to the games. People these days only go if there isn't anything else to do. The IHSAA changed Indiana sports from one large group to the divided classes. The schools are grouped by school enrollment. The system was put into place for the smaller schools (Wolf 50). The smaller schools got sick of being beat around by the larger schools like Anderson High School and Ben Davis. The principals of the smaller schools worked their way onto the IHSAA board (Wolf 51). Before the 1997-1998 season, in a 12-5 vote, Indiana high school basketball was changed to the class system. Indiana basketball would never be the same after that vote. If the board would have changed the system to a two-class system, they might not have suffered all the faults that they have today.
Since that 1997, decision Indiana basketball has suffered through some tough years. The attendance and revenue at basketball games has plummeted. Anderson High school is a great example. The Wigwam, Anderson's home gym, used to be packed to a capacity of 8996 during every boy's basketball game. If you go to an Anderson game these days, you will find that it is only about one-third full (Wolf 52). In 1984 Anderson sold 5,600 season tickets and now Anderson sells around 1,100 season tickets (Wolf 52). Anderson games don't come anywhere close to the atmosphere they used to have at the Wigwam.
Even the Sectionals have taken a huge hit in attendance and revenue. Teams, instead of going five or 10 minutes, to a nearby gym, are now traveling around twenty-five minutes to play a Sectional game. It is much harder to have a large following when you're traveling that far from home. That has lead to less revenue and attendance at the Sectional sites. In the 1996-97 season, the Anderson Sectional had an attendance of about 17,200 and made around $44,800.00 (IHSAA 384). Last year Anderson played at the Richmond Sectional. At that Sectional, there was an attendance of around 10,000 and only had a revenue of $30,000. Anderson went from making around $7,000.00 at sectionals, to making only around $4500.00 (IHSAA 263). That has hurt the funds of Anderson dramatically. They depend a lot on basketball to make revenue for the school. The $2500.00 that the schools have lost has different affects. A school like Anderson, which has around 1,300 students, looses $2500.00 and it will not harm us very much. On the other hand, a school with only 700 students is going to miss that money desperately. This is one of the areas that has harmed the smaller schools. They are loosing a lot of money because they aren't playing with the larger schools. Playing large schools has lots of benefits for the smaller schools. By playing larger schools, there is going to be more attendance, which will lead to more revenue. The IHSAA State Championship has alsolost money in the last few years. In the last year without class basketball the IHSAA made around $190,400.00. Last year, the fourth year of class basketball, the IHSAA made $99,800.00. They lost over $90,000 a year since they changed to class basketball. This loss every year cannot continue something needs to be done with the system in place.
The damage that has been done to the system that is in place needs to be fixed. The best solution for the class system would be to change from four classes to only two. This is a logical solution to help bring back basketball in the state of Indiana. The implementation that will most improve this new system is the adoption of allowing the schools to play up in the large class. This should help to give all schools what they want. It will provide the opportunity for smaller schools to compete with larger ones. It will also give the opportunity for the smaller schools to compete with only small schools.
The first reason this solution will work is that it will provide the larger schools, such as Anderson and Ben Davis, with what they want. Some schools, after winning state titles in classes, say that it just doesn't feel like they have won anything (IHSAA internet). There should be a great deal of teams to compete against in the upper class. This will hopefully provide a atmosphere and feel that high school basketball had until the change to classes was made. Any of the schools will have the opportunity to win a state championship now. They will be able to cherish this state title more, since they willhave to beat the best teams in the state to win. They won't just be beating the schools with the same amount of people as them.
The second reason this solution will work is that the small schools will still be allowed to play with small schools. This will be a way to cure the small schools needs. They should be happy, since they will not have to compete with the large schools. The medium sized schools, which will be stuck on the edge of which class they will compete in, will be able to play in either class they want to. This should help to bring a large percentage of the schools back to a one-class system. The hope is that there will only be a few schools that will still want to play in the smaller class, and they can have their own playoff for a state championship. Also, this should help to bring some of the fire back to high school basketball in Indiana.
An objection to the solution is that there will still be problems with the smaller schools. There will be a fewer amount of teams to compete against for the smaller schools. This will make it a lot easier for a small school to win a state championship. This might take away the meaning of winning for the smaller schools. They might take the perception that their championship doesn't matter. That is not what we want for the smaller schools. This will also pose the question: What to do with two state champions? Should we have a battle between the two champions? People will still complain if there isn't a single champion. Another objection is where we will draw the line on the classes. The decision, on where the line is made, will be made by the IHSAA. The board is made up of more small than large schools. The smaller schools will then be the ones that will be making the decision on where the cut is. There will be some schools that complainabout this. The good thing is the schools will have the option of moving up a class. The hope will be that all the schools on the cut line will want to play in the upper class.
An alternative solution would be to change the class system back to one class. This could help to bring some spectators back to high school basketball. The problem is that some people will not want to come back. People will still be upset that the IHSAA broke up a great tradition. If you go back to this system the small schools will complain that they have no chance to win. They will have to play the large schools again, and some schools will dislike that with passion. The damage that was done, by messing with tradition, may never be repaired.
From the evidence and from the talks with professionals in this area, I think the only solution would be to change to a two-class system. This seems like the only solution that can satisfy the needs of both sides. The smaller schools will still be allowed to play schools of their size, if they prefer. The medium and larger sized schools will now be able to have their one state champion. The option for moving up a class, should allow all the schools to make their own decisions on whom to play. This should satisfy the needs of all the schools in the state of Indiana. Hopefully some of the love and tradition of high school basketball in Indiana will arise from this troublesome time. If you are ever sitting at home on a Friday night trying to decide to go to the game or not, you should go. High School basketball in the State of Indiana should be coming back very soon. The people that can make all that happen are we, the students.
This is the complete article, containing 1,529 words
(approx. 5 pages at 300 words per page).
