Division 1&2 Small School Basketball

[whsalum]

What in the world initiated separate divisions in small school high school basketball?? I can see it in 6A where there may be huge differences in enrollment numbers but this format seems to cheapen the accomplishments of the smaller schools. Also other than the traffic in Austin it was hard to beat the State Championship Tournament weekend. This one day stuff is for the birds. Bring back the championship to its rightful place, Nothing like easing over to the beer garden between sessions. MBGA- Make Basketball Great Again 🏀🏀🏀🏀🏀

[AggiesAreWe]

9 minutes ago, whsalum said:

What in the world initiated separate divisions in small school high school basketball?? I can see it in 6A where there may be huge differences in enrollment numbers but this format seems to cheapen the accomplishments of the smaller schools. Also other than the traffic in Austin it was hard to beat the State Championship Tournament weekend. This one day stuff is for the birds. Bring back the championship to its rightful place, Nothing like easing over to the beer garden between sessions. MBGA- Make Basketball Great Again 🏀🏀🏀🏀🏀

The majority of the coaches across the state wanted it. Sups backed them up so UIL made the change.

I hate it. It is completely unnecessary. Shortens the playoffs by one game, no more regional tourneys and now just the championship games at SA. Some of the sites played last night for semifinal games were a joke.

If they had to go to divisions, then UIL should have waited till next realignment and just did divisional districts like football. But I am hearing they won't do that at all and will just leave it to splitting after district play ends. That is stupid.

Football needs divisions because of the numbers. All other sports do not need it.

As for state tourney at Austin? I certainly do not miss it. Traffic along with astronomical prices for hotels because of SXSW was just too much. I am so glad UIL moved it to San Antonio. So much better there. 

I guess I do miss Schulze's beer garden but that's all I miss. SA has much more options on the drinking and eating front.

Keep it in SA and no more divisions!! That's how you make it great again. lol

[BBfan061]

I’ll admit I was in school still when going to the state tournament in Austin so I didn’t have to deal with adult issues as far as traffic and hotels… I’ve been a couple times to San Antonio to watch Kountze and Silsbee and I’ll say I really enjoyed it. I also don’t like the split divisions… mainly because I wanted to see a Kountze/Tatum matchup for the state championship 😂 but I hate that there isn’t a regional tournament anymore 

[oldschool2]

The small/big split should've been done so as districts.  Honestly, if they're dead set on doing it that way, they should have created the football districts the way they currently do... and then just said that those were the districts for every sport.  Doing it this way, there are examples where the "small" schools that made the playoffs in one district are bigger than the "big" schools that made it in others.  What a joke.

Small school champions and big school school champions?  Ok.. fine.. just make the football districts the districts for every sport.

[Box1]

First off, love it in SA by comparison.

Second, the divisional change IMO is warranted for sure at the lower classifications. The perennial schools will always be in the mix but this protects those who turn in enrollment that is nearly 1.5x less than that school that just so happen to drop down at realignment, but then a year later are already sitting comfortably back up a division and a half lol. I can specifically think of a case a decade ago that this would've brought a 3rd title to a well known small school in our area, and possibly a 4th the following year. 👀

[Coach 01]

I don't know what the numbers for 1A and 2A schools, but I think 3A needed to split. Whether they do it before district or after the regular season, idk.  Kountze has 333 students compared to Orangefield has 541. Having a 200+ student differential is a major advantages for the school that hover on the 4A line.

[bullets13]

I don't hate it, but am in agreement with splitting the districts before the season. that way it doesn't feel like teams get to "dodge" certain schools because they got lucky and two teams with higher enrollment than them made the playoffs in their district. that said, I don't hate the extra games, or the extra opportunities for schools to make a deep run. When four teams make the playoffs from each district, it's kinda hard for me to argue that the split is what's watering down high school sports. Having HF and BC girls play each other for a shot at making the state semis was pretty special a few weeks ago, for both teams and communities. If things hadn't been split it's likely neither team would've had that opportunity. I can promise you that none of the HF girls who took their team further than it's been since the 1960s were sitting around thinking "this isn't an accomplishment because they split the divisions." It meant everything to them, and to their fans. 

[topher805]

I don't like the divisions, but if they want to do it right, they need to bring back the Texas Cup 1A used to have. 1A DI & DII Champs would face off for ultimate bragging rights. Lose the Texas Cup? Still state champs, but win and you are undisputed...

[whsalum]

6 hours ago, AggiesAreWe said:

The majority of the coaches across the state wanted it. Sups backed them up so UIL made the change.

I hate it. It is completely unnecessary. Shortens the playoffs by one game, no more regional tourneys and now just the championship games at SA. Some of the sites played last night for semifinal games were a joke.

If they had to go to divisions, then UIL should have waited till next realignment and just did divisional districts like football. But I am hearing they won't do that at all and will just leave it to splitting after district play ends. That is stupid.

Football needs divisions because of the numbers. All other sports do not need it.

As for state tourney at Austin? I certainly do not miss it. Traffic along with astronomical prices for hotels because of SXSW was just too much. I am so glad UIL moved it to San Antonio. So much better there. 

I guess I do miss Schulze's beer garden but that's all I miss. SA has much more options on the drinking and eating front.

Keep it in SA and no more divisions!! That's how you make it great again. lol

I could live with that 

[BIASED]

22 hours ago, bullets13 said:

I don't hate it, but am in agreement with splitting the districts before the season. that way it doesn't feel like teams get to "dodge" certain schools because they got lucky and two teams with higher enrollment than them made the playoffs in their district. that said, I don't hate the extra games, or the extra opportunities for schools to make a deep run. When four teams make the playoffs from each district, it's kinda hard for me to argue that the split is what's watering down high school sports. Having HF and BC girls play each other for a shot at making the state semis was pretty special a few weeks ago, for both teams and communities. If things hadn't been split it's likely neither team would've had that opportunity. I can promise you that none of the HF girls who took their team further than it's been since the 1960s were sitting around thinking "this isn't an accomplishment because they split the divisions." It meant everything to them, and to their fans. 

I work closely with a large HS sports media company in the Houston area. I can tell you right now that there are a lot of people in the field thinking what the OP is thinking. The state tourney so far has been very underwhelming. Teams with 10+ losses making it to semis is just unheard of in the lower divisions of HS basketball. Obviously there are going to be underdogs, but this is too far. I'm hearing people ask, "how did this team make it to state?" 

[Box1]

32 minutes ago, BIASED said:

I work closely with a large HS sports media company in the Houston area. I can tell you right now that there are a lot of people in the field thinking what the OP is thinking. The state tourney so far has been very underwhelming. Teams with 10+ losses making it to semis is just unheard of in the lower divisions of HS basketball. Obviously there are going to be underdogs, but this is too far. I'm hearing people ask, "how did this team make it to state?" 

Sorry, but I don't understand what you're saying.

What changes are going to do away with teams that have 10+ losses making it to state? If they're beating teams and advancing then that's on the quality of teams they're facing in that region.

[bullets13]

56 minutes ago, BIASED said:

I work closely with a large HS sports media company in the Houston area. I can tell you right now that there are a lot of people in the field thinking what the OP is thinking. The state tourney so far has been very underwhelming. Teams with 10+ losses making it to semis is just unheard of in the lower divisions of HS basketball. Obviously there are going to be underdogs, but this is too far. I'm hearing people ask, "how did this team make it to state?" 

I think the obvious answer (which has been said on here before), IF UIL wants to do split tourneys, is to have the other sports play in the same districts as football. This way the tourneys will be set up for the best teams in each district to succeed. It's more likely that the best teams will meet up around the final 8 and state semis and finals, unless there are upsets. The split division enrollment stuff create so much variance, and makes for weird matchups. Creating D1-D2 districts would fix most of this.

[AggiesAreWe]

8 minutes ago, bullets13 said:

I think the obvious answer (which has been said on here before), IF UIL wants to do split tourneys, is to have the other sports play in the same districts as football. This way the tourneys will be set up for the best teams in each district to succeed. It's more likely that the best teams will meet up around the final 8 and state semis and finals, unless there are upsets. The split division enrollment stuff create so much variance, and makes for weird matchups. Creating D1-D2 districts would fix most of this.

I agree.

If you are to have split divisions, then having divisional districts like football is the best and only way to go.

[bullets13]

Courtside reporter just brought up something that i do think is a positive with having two tourneys per classification. Valley is in the state finals for the first time since 1983, and if I heard correctly, Perrin-Whitt for the first time since 1946? Pretty wild, and pretty awesome for both communities. It's unlikely that either team would be here if they just had one tourney. Maybe PW makes it, I'm not sure when they would've had to face and lose to Jayton.

[AggiesAreWe]

12 minutes ago, bullets13 said:

Courtside reporter just brought up something that i do think is a positive with having two tourneys per classification. Valley is in the state finals for the first time since 1983, and if I heard correctly, Perrin-Whitt for the first time since 1946? Pretty wild, and pretty awesome for both communities. It's unlikely that either team would be here if they just had one tourney. Maybe PW makes it, I'm not sure when they would've had to face and lose to Jayton.

In the old system, Perrin-Whitt would have faced Jayton in state semifinals. So technically, they still would have made state tourney from 80 years ago.

Valley would have saw Jayton in Regional finals.

[bullets13]

2A worked out better than 1A. You have #1 vs #2 in one championship, and a couple of lower ranked teams that found a way to make it in the 2nd bracket in #15 Hearne (26-5) and unranked (not sure why) Meyer, who’s 36-3. 

[Eagleborn]

2 hours ago, bullets13 said:

2A worked out better than 1A. You have #1 vs #2 in one championship, and a couple of lower ranked teams that found a way to make it in the 2nd bracket in #15 Hearne (26-5) and unranked (not sure why) Meyer, who’s 36-3. 

I’m wondering how they aren’t ranked also.