Class AA basketball leaders mixed on viability of region format over SoDak 16

Mar. 15—After eight years of using the SoDak 16 format for state tournament qualification, some leaders within Class AA basketball have seen enough.

Introduced for Class AA ahead of the 2017-18 season, the current state-tournament qualification process calls for the top 16 teams in Class AA to be seeded No. 1 through No. 16. Then, they're paired up (No. 1 versus No. 16, No. 2 versus No. 15 and so on) to play one another in a single game to decide the eight qualifiers.

But now, a movement is being made to revert to a prior method of qualifying for state based on regions (or districts, as they used to be known).

At the South Dakota High School Activities basketball advisory committee meeting in February, a proposal favoring a regional structure in Class AA advanced out of committee. It will be voted on by Class AA athletic directors before the SDHSAA Board of Directors considers the idea in April.

Here are the basics of the proposal, which was submitted with the signatures of Rapid City Central athletic director Jordan Bauer and head boys basketball coach T.J. Hay:

* Split the 20 Class AA schools into four regions of five teams.

* Each of the four regions plays a regional postseason tournament, with seeding determined by seed points.

* The winner of each region earns qualification to the state tournament.

* Second- and third-place finishers from each region are re-seeded Nos. 1-8 to play a state-qualification game. No. 1 would play No. 8, No. 2 versus No. 7, and so on, with winners advancing to fill the remaining four state tournament positions.

At its core, the proposal scratches at one primary question: Should state tournament qualification center around merit alone or factor in regional representation?

Among the rationale listed with the proposal from Hay and Bauer, they cite creating better playoff atmospheres with local games as opposed to traveling across the state, the opportunity to save in travel expenses and affording a postseason opportunity to all Class AA schools. Because Class AA basketball now has 20 schools and only 16 go to the postseason, 20% of the teams currently aren't going to the playoffs.

"The state tournament should be an award, not a gift," said Jamie Parish, head girls basketball coach of Sioux Falls Washington. "If it's about earning it, then base it on things like record, who you beat and seed points, and let those teams have the chance to compete instead of giving an advantage based on geography."

Perhaps part of the reason Parish is so impassioned on the subject is how the proposal was presented. As the Class AA coaching representative on the SDHSAA basketball advisory committee, Parish frequently sees proposals ahead of meetings, and, in some cases, is approached to submit proposals to the committee on behalf of peers. But this time, Parish said he was caught off guard when the proposal was brought forward during the Feb. 5 meeting. He was quick to note there was nothing improper about the timing or process by which the proposal was presented, it simply caught him by surprise.

But Parish is far from the only one with strong opinions on the subject, and to say the proposal has mixed levels of support would be an understatement.

Parish's boys basketball counterpart at Washington, Jeff Tobin, is also a supporter of the current SoDak 16 format over changing course back toward regions. On the spectrum of what should decide state tournament berths — merit or geography — Tobin and Parish both lean heavily toward merit alone, with geographic representation as a bonus, not a requirement.

"I like what we have now, and I think the representation in state tournaments has been pretty good," said Washington boys basketball coach Jeff Tobin. "There's no perfect way to do it, but I think (the current SoDak 16 format) is as fair of a way as we can have. It does a nice job of trying to get the best eight teams into the state tournament, and ultimately, that's what we're trying to do."

Spearfish girls basketball coach Dakota Johnson is in favor of a regional tournament format for qualification. Part of her belief is that playing in a region tournament as part of the lead-in to a state tournament seems like a natural fit. After all, it's part of the postseason format for Class A and B basketball.

"It would be great state tournament prep, having that tournament style before you even get to the state tournament," Johnson said. "I think the best teams in the state would still get to the state tournament, but regions would be a great preparation tool for all teams."

Though some view the SoDak 16 as an extension of the state tournament, its one-and-done nature at non-neutral sites is a point of contention among coaches.

There are those, such as boys basketball coaches Derek Robey, of Sioux Falls O'Gorman, and Ryker Kreutzfeldt, of Mitchell, who also don't mind the idea of returning to a region-based postseason format, but for reasons not all directly related to state tournament qualification.

Robey, among the longest-tenured coaches in Class AA with well over 300 wins leading the Knights, said he dislikes ending the season and having to wait until the SoDak 16 is seeded to know what matchup awaits in the postseason. Under the district format, this was hardly an issue. Meanwhile, Kreutzfeldt feels that not all schedules are created equal, and the seed-point calculation can be too easily manipulated for it to be completely fair. As such, he thinks it would be beneficial to afford all 20 Class AA schools the opportunity at a playoff game, something the region format would do that the SoDak 16 does not.

However, Robey and Kreutzfeldt both also expressed that having geography-based qualification on its own isn't completely in the spirit of competition. It's among the reasons that the MHS coach doesn't expect the proposal to make it in front of the SDHSAA board later this spring.

"Is it fair?" Kreutzfeldt pondered with a lengthy pause. "No system is completely fair right now. The state really has to decide if it wants geographic representation or the best teams. Maybe this can be a mix of both."

"Anybody who's telling you (geographic representation) is not a big part of it isn't telling you the truth," Robey added. "... Everybody should want the best teams in the tournament, no matter where they're from."

Prior to this season, there were three consecutive Class AA boys basketball tournaments without a single West River qualifier. This year, No. 8 seed Spearfish snapped that streak. The steady presence of Rapid City Stevens has made it so every Class AA girls basketball tournament in the SoDak 16 era has included a West River school, and in five of the eight years, either Rapid City Central or Spearfish has also qualified.

The submitted proposal didn't include a breakdown of how region boundaries might be drawn, but based on the district alignments used up until 2017, the five West River Class AA schools — Douglas, Rapid City Central, Rapid City Stevens, Spearfish and Sturgis — would likely be in their own region. Under the proposal's guidelines, one would be guaranteed a place in the field for every tournament.

From both sides of the issue, there are several points for leaders to consider before enacting any major changes. If there's one thing that nearly all coaches were in agreement on, it is that there is never going to be a system that caters to everyone's wants.

But if there's a better solution out there, Parish, among others, believes it's to be found by looking forward, not falling back.

"You can put a bow on it and say that this is different than what we used to do, but it really is not. We've already been down this path, and we decided we didn't want to do that anymore," Parish said. "... There are absolutely great discussions we can have on trying to find ways to improve, but moving backward to the old system of regional representation is just not the right way to go about it in my mind."

The Mitchell Republic's Luke Hagen and Blake Durham contributed to this story.

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