Indiana reconsiders 4-class basketball

[Da Coach]

The Indiana High School Athletic Association changed from a single-class system to a 4-class system for basketball (as well as baseball and volleyball) in 1997. But now there is growing sentiment to reduce to a 3-class system. It would produce more regional rivalries and reduce driving costs by producing more schools of the same class near each other. The smallest schools tend to oppose this as it would pit them against more larger schools.

http://www.indystar.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080714/SPORTS0203/807140335/1004/SPORTS

 

[amckillip]

People still clamor for single-class playoffs. It's just crazy to me. People use the arguement that the title game isn't as packed now as it was before the switch... Well no... but theres FOUR of them.

I went to a school (Terre Haute South) that was very good in the biggest class in Indiana, we had a great run and made it to the Final Four my senior year, and had a player who would go on to play at IU (Armon Basset). But we came up against Lawrence North who had Mike Conley and Greg Oden (a Terre Haute native BTW) - We didn't stand a chance. We were a big school, with top-DI talent and couldn't match the athleticism or size of Lawrence North. The same could be said when we played Carmel (Josh McRoberts) or North Central (Eric Gordon). How could a school in French Lick, or Warsaw even stay on the court? At the end of the day class playoffs make sense and should be left in place, probably not even reduced to 3. Otherwise your first 3 rounds of games will be pointless and after that only the big schools will be left. And to boot this way there is almost always a somewhat local team to follow.