Thankfully, the start of the West Virginia high school football playoffs only was delayed one week because of a litany of litigation about playoff seedings, reclassifications and more.
On November 19, the state Supreme Court issued an order saying the West Virginia Secondary School Activities Commission has the right “to proceed with the football championships according to its rules and authority.”
That means 64 teams will begin their quests for state championships this weekend using the original ratings points formula to determine the seeds for all four playoff classes.
Dickerson
| File photo
The state Supreme Court certainly should be praised for again refusing to tell the SSAC how to run high school sports.
“We have repeatedly held that the manner in which the WVSSAC applies its rules is not subject to judicial review,” Tuesday’s Supreme Court order states while noting several similar previous rulings. “It is well established that courts will not interfere with the internal affairs of such associations or organizations.”
But while it isn’t the court’s place to dictate to the SSAC how to operate, that doesn’t mean the SSAC hasn’t royally bungled the entire situation.
Here’s a brief synopsis.
A few years ago, the SSAC began examining the idea of expanding the state’s three classifications to four. It experimented with it for a few years in boys and girls basketball. So, the SSAC decided to move forward this school year with the new class system for football, baseball, softball, volleyball and cheer.
Officials at several schools across the state balked at how their schools were classified and appealed to the SSAC. In August, just days before the football season began, the SSAC moved 22 schools down a class. That decision not only affected those schools. It also affected the number of ratings points each team that played them would receive as a result of the matchups.
In other words, the SSAC created a gigantic mess. But that’s nothing new.
It mishandled many things during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic. It allowed certain teams to await the new weekly color-coded county COVID map to get in playoff football games. But it didn’t let, for example, some volleyball teams wait. It also allowed some volleyball regions push back games until their counties were clear to play. Cheer teams had similar issues.
As I said, hypocrisy is nothing new with the SSAC.
While the court system doesn’t have the authority to slap the SSAC’s hands for following its own rules, the SSAC clearly needs some sort of checks and balances.
Another perfect example of how much the SSAC has run amuck is the inane idea to expand to four classifications for all of these sports.
In a state that has seen declining population, school closings and mergers for decades, the idea that we need four classes instead of three is asinine. If anything, the SSAC should have considered moving down to just two classes.
But the “everybody gets a trophy” mentality prevailed again. Or, more likely, it’s the “more playoff games mean more money” mentality is what really won.
And after their decision to reclassify those 22 teams in August, only 16 Class AAAA teams remained in football. So every AAAA team in the state automatically made the playoffs. How does that benefit anyone?
I’ve thought the SSAC needed major changes for years now. Whatever the root cause may be (ineptitude or power-hungry leadership or even both), maybe this football fiasco will make others see the problems.
Governor-elect Patrick Morrisey and the state Legislature have a perfect opportunity to fix things.
Whether it’s legislation to fix specific issues with the SSAC or even a “tearing down to the studs” approach and basically starting from scratch, change can’t come soon enough.
Dickerson is editor of The West Virginia Record and a former sportswriter.