Open Division, state championship venues, girls flag football, NIL among topics at AIA Media Day

During the Arizona Interscholastic Association's Media Day on Friday, Executive Director David Hines hit on several hot topics ahead of the 2022-23 school year, including how the Open Division in football will change with a new formula.

It will still be eight teams for the best-of-the-best playoff system for the big schools. But it's going to be harder to qualify, especially for 4A schools.

The 4A Conference decided to remain a part of the Open, Hines said, even though most coaches at that level would rather not play in that brutal field.

But here's the twist.

A multiplier will be used to rank the teams for the Open. Had the AIA used this system last year, 4A would have advanced just one school to the Open. That would have been Glendale Cactus, which ended up a No. 7 seed and lost to Scottsdale Saguaro in the first round.

That's because Cactus ran the table and beat two top-five 5A schools by 40 points each.

American Leadership Queen Creek, the other 4A school that got into the Open, would not have been part of that elite eight.

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But Hines said, with this new ranking system, Cactus would have been a No. 4 seed last year in the Open and not had to face Saguaro right off the bat.

"We always have the question about a 4A school that moves onto the Open Division," Hines said. "With a multiplier, a 4A team can get to the Open."

That team would pretty much have do what Cactus did last year.

"There will always be a 4A team that could run the table, but if they are not playing a quality 5A or 6A opponent, it's not going to help with our system," Hines said.

Hines said the multiplier will not be the actual seeding. The seeding will be on the actual rating.

Hines said that because there are "destination" schools, which get multiple high-profile transfers, there will always be an Open Division in football with Arizona being an open-enrollment state.

"When you have schools that have multiple transfers, you're going to have an Open Division," Hines said.

More: 'This is a no-brainer': AIA looking into 32-team Open state tournaments in basketball

Expanded Open basketball

Hines confirmed that the Executive Board voted to go with the coaches' proposal of a 32-team Open Division tournament for both boys and girls basketball this year.

This will take 32 teams — the top eight teams from 6A,  5A,  4A and eight at-large teams. They get seeded 1 through 32 with 32 opening at No. 1.

After two rounds are played, the losers of those games fall into their conference tournaments.

It's already been set for the the state championship games to be played at Veterans Memorial Coliseum with a media day planned for the start of the eight-team Open.

Hines said this works because multiple games a week can be played in basketball, as opposed to football with teams playing one game a week.

There will still be conference play-in games, Hines said.

The 35-second shot clock also begins this year for schools 6A through 3A. The 2A and 1A conferences voted against a shot clock. Hines said that a shot clock will be used for all state games, from the Open through 3A. He also said that schools that don't have a shot clock, if they are hosting, there will be no shot clock utilized. But if those schools have a higher seed at state, the game will be moved to a school that has a shot clock in place.

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Venues

Hines said it's not easy finding big stadiums to host championship games. There are financial and availability concerns. He said it's also important for the schools to not lose the championship atmosphere by being swallowed up in a 70,000-seat stadium with only 10,000 fans.

Chase Field, where the Diamondbacks play, was brought up to Hines, who didn't discount the idea of playing state football championships games there.

More: AIA, Arizona's Family partnering to telecast select state high school championship games live

Girls football

Hines said that the AIA is exploring the possibility of girls flag football as an emerging sport in the 2023-24 school year. That could lead to being an AIA-sanctioned sport, the way girls wrestling evolved as an AIA sport. He said a possibility is tying the girls flag football championship to the same week as the state boys football championships.

More: Athletes in this growing high school sport have few college options in Arizona

Open track and field

Yes, the AIA by Monday, during its first Executive Board meeting of the school year, could be passing a proposal to have an Open Division state track and field championships meet.

The plan is expand to a fifth division and have the five division championship meets run the first weekend of May. Then, Hines said, the elite of the elite would be taken from those meets with the best marks competing in an Open Division state championship track and field meet the following week.

NIL clarification

The AIA doesn't fault a high school athlete for making money but, if it happens while wearing school jerseys or anything that would show the school, he or she would become ineligible, Hines said.

The name, image and likeness that colleges have for athletes beginning last year has trickled down to high schools with 12 states permitting NIL.

"We have a rule in our bylaw regarding amateur status," Hines said. "What I've said to the schools, the best thing we can do for high school kids is to educate them on NIL, and prepare them when they go to college.

"What's kind of ironic across the country, a lot of the states that put in a NIL rule, the assumption is they can do NIL. In reality, they all have an amateur rule that kind of protects the high school level from the NIL experience. If there are kids who are influencers on social media, and they get paid to do that, that is not a violation as far as the amateur rule. But if you use your school, your team, your sport, your name, image and likeness referring to anything athletic-wise, and you get paid for that, and it's more a thousand dollars, then it would be a violation of the amateur rule and you'd be ineligible.

"The biggest concern I have after talking to college people about NIL, which is a nightmare, they don't understand contracts and they don't understand how it works with the IRS."

To suggest human-interest story ideas and other news, reach Obert at richard.obert@arizonarepublic.com or 602-316-8827. Follow him on Twitter @azc_obert.

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This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: AIA's football Open Division will have new qualifying formula