Where is the logic?

Anyone who knows me knows that I have been a sports reporter and editor for most of my professional life.

Throughout the first 19 years of my career, I have dabbled in sports in some form or fashion.

Even during my tenure as managing editor for Polk County Publishing and the Brenham Banner-Press, I covered a game or two. I did the same as the general manager of the Fairfield Recorder and Teague Chronicle.

I was so associated with sports that when I began my tenure as the police and fire beat writer for the Temple Daily Telegram, one of my friends compared the change to Hulk Hogan’s heel turn in 1996, when he formed the New World Order faction in World Championship Wrestling.

This will be my first sports piece for this publication — and to give you a spoiler alert, this will be the first of many columns where I question the University Interscholastic League. I have questioned the UIL’s logic — or in some cases, lack thereof — for many years. While most of my questioning involved the way they draw up regions and districts, this one involves something different: playoff structure.

This season marked the beginning of a new era, split-division playoff brackets for basketball, baseball, softball and volleyball. While the split-division format has been in use in at least one football classification since 1990, this is the first time it has been used in other sports.

The way it works is the top four teams in each district — 32 districts per classification — qualify for the postseason. The two teams with the larger enrollments compete in the Division I bracket, while the two smaller enrollment teams compete in the Division II bracket.

In basketball there will be 12 state champions crowned, two in each classification. In baseball, softball and volleyball, there are 11 crowned, two each in Classes 6A-2A and one in Class A, which does not have enough schools to have a split-division format.

If you’re going to have 12 state champions, just create 12 classifications. It’s. Not. That. Difficult.

For basketball, you can have Classes 10A-A with 126 schools each and 126 schools in Class B, which will be split into Division I for non-football schools and Division II for schools that have football. In the smaller classifications, the schools that do not field football programs have an advantage over those who do because non-football schools can start dribbling a basketball in August. There are 1,386 schools in the UIL who play basketball. Divide that by 11 and you have 126 per classification.

In volleyball, there are 1,228 schools who participate. If you have 128 schools in Classes 10A-3A and 104 in 2A and A, you can have 10 state champions in that sport.

In football, there are 1,104 schools who play 11-man and 154 who play 6-man. That’s good for nine classes in 11-man and two for 6-man. If you have 128 schools in Classes 10A-4A and 104 in 3A and 2A, you can have nine state champions in 11-man football. For Class A (6-man), put 77 schools in Divisions I and II, and you can keep two state champions in that class.

Figuring this stuff out isn’t rocket science. It just requires a little logic.

Chlapek is the area editor of the Taylor Press an Elgin Courier. He can be reached at [email protected].