KHSAA to reconsider football format; basketball shot clock, golf postseason also addressed
The Kentucky high school football playoffs format is up for debate once more.
Opponents of the current system successfully lobbied the Kentucky High School Athletic Association Board of Control to reconsider immediately changing formats for the 2022 season at its meeting Wednesday morning at KHSAA headquarters.
Since 2019, the state’s six football classes have competed in “intra-district” playoffs that pitted district foes against each other over the first two weeks of the postseason for the right to advance, a departure from tradition, which previously saw teams matched up against foes from neighboring or “sister” districts at those stages. That format change was created within the board and did not come as a result of surveying membership.
Last May, the board agreed to revert to the old “sister district” format in 2023 when the KHSAA delivers its next football realignment of classes. But the current system’s opponents criticized that move as going against the wishes of most of the state’s football-playing schools.
So, on Wednesday, the board directed KHSAA staff to survey its membership once more about the format to gauge whether it should immediately implement the change. Results of that survey will be announced and considered at the board’s February meeting.
This new survey comes less than a year after another KHSAA survey showed 109 schools favored going back to the “sister district” format, 58 schools wished to keep intra-district play and 58 schools did not respond. As a percentage of the overall, 48 percent of football schools wanted a change. As a percentage of those responding, 65 percent of schools wanted a change.
The Kentucky Football Coaches Association unsuccessfully fought the change when it was implemented in 2019, and mounted a more concerted effort to derail it last year. The KFCA’s own poll of its membership last February showed 148 of its 193 responding members in favor of a change.
“We would like to see it go back immediately. It’s going to go back in 2023,” said KFCA President John Hines, head coach at Pulaski County. “The overwhelming majority of coaches around the state want to do this. That’s why we brought it up. So, our goal is just to go ahead and go to it right away. To be honest with you, we thought there was enough support among the board to do that and thought it would go through on its own … It very well could get voted in in February.”
No shot clock for basketball, yet
The board reviewed the results of a survey of its membership on whether to adopt a shot clock in boys’ and girls’ basketball and decided against it for the 2022-23 season.
Last May, 75 percent of its member schools voted on the shot clock issue for boys’ and girls’ basketball with a majority of those responding voting against having it. In boys’ basketball the responses were 115 against, 97 in favor. In girls’ basketball, the responses were 117 against, 88 in favor.
Among the primary concerns about adopting a shot clock were how the clocks would be paid for and operated by each school.
Last summer, the National Federation of State High School Associations lifted its prohibition of shot clocks and allowed states to make their own decisions on it. KHSAA Commissioner Julian Tackett said the board could consider adopting the shot clock in future years as it gets tested in more and more states.
Golf to add semi-state round
The board agreed to add a semi-state tournament round to its boys’ and girls’ golf seasons and begin each season a week early to accommodate it.
Details on the semi-state competitions and who (number of teams/number of individual qualifiers) will advance to the state championship out of semi-state will be determined at a later meeting.
Golf’s 12 regions would be divided into three semi-state competitions based on geography. For instance, Regions 1-4 would compete in one semi-state, etc. The top two teams and top 10 individuals outside those teams in each regional would advance to semi-states.
The move comes after a controversial decision in 2019 to narrow the state championship field by eliminating region runners-up from the state team competition, because of time concerns. That decision was criticized by members and leadership of the Kentucky Golf Coaches Association.
