[i82much]

Here's a novel idea (lol), abandon the regions and have four classes. If you play the semi's and finals of each class at Rupp you still have16 teams playing basketball, albeit with  12 games determining four champions...but...if the KHSAA is set on having the traditional 15 games determining one champion then the four state champions could play for some newly designated title. I know there will be issues and change is not easy, but one basketball champion in a state that has six football champions just doesn't make sense. The current region setup doesn't need to be fixed, it needs to be scrapped.

What about two classes? Then Elite 8 from each class move on to play the rest of the state tournament at Rupp.

A couple of years ago I spent quite a bit of time comparing our student populations to surrounding states relative to the number of basketball and football classes in each of those states. If we have too many classes one could argue, relative to other states, that our state championships are "watered down". I'm not saying that's true but the argument has merit considering how many teams make the playoffs in football. Relative to other states and based on the ratio of students per class "four" seemed to be the magic number in both football and basketball. But one class in basketball and six in football makes no sense. There are some assumed risks with basketball, as HCS pointed out earlier, we could hurt the persona of our state tournament if we stray too far away from the current format. I think you could have four classes competing within the confines of our Sweet 16 without much risk of hurting the tournament.  The strength of the current setup is that you have 16 teams from every part of the state competing in the first round of the tournament. That's cool, sets us apart from other states, and definitely boosts attendance. With a little imagination, for instance, I think you could set up the tournament with four sectional winners from each of the four classes. You would still have teams from all parts of the state competing which would minimize the risk of attendance loss, produce four state champions, and preserve the history and tradition of our tournament. I've got to hit the road in a few hours for my retirement job so I'm "over and out" for a few days.