The Oregon high school playoff format for the next four years was finalized Monday when the Oregon School Activities Association's Executive Board approved the recommendation of the OSAA Championship Committee with only a couple of minor tweaks.
The bigger of the two changes was moving the first day for spring sports contests up three days to March 14 next year. The other removed the word 'pilot" from the language for wrestling, reflecting that the regional format that begins next winter will be in place for the next four years, just like the rest of the recommendation.
The Executive Board did not rule on the joint proposal by Marshfield and North Bend high schools to host the Class 3A basketball tournament in the Bay Area. The board will take that matter up at its July work session.
Marshfield athletic director Bryan Trendell, who made a presentation along with North Bend athletic director Boyd Bjorkquist, Marshfield Principal Greg Mulkey and Katherine Hoppe of the Bay Area Visitor and Convention Bureau, said the idea was well-received.
'I think there was a lot of support from the Executive Board," Trendell said. 'There was some good conversation. The one concern was the travel piece. They're concerned not only with the teams, but also the families of the teams."
Trendell said that Hoppe did a nice job presenting the merits of the Bay Area, while the administrators were able to show the overwhelming support they received from Class 3A athletic directors at a conference last month. He said local officials still need to determine the support of a handful of superintendents within the Class 3A ranks.
'We haven't heard from all the superintendents," he said, adding that the group has heard from most of the school districts. 'They are supportive, for the most part. The east ones are hesitant, just because of the travel."
Officials have proposed a three-day tournament as one way of reducing costs. Quarterfinal games for the boys would be held at Marshfield and for the girls at North Bend. The semifinals and finals would be at Marshfield, with consolation games at North Bend.
Also still to be determined is the exact nature of a power ranking system that will be used to seed the final 16 teams in the playoffs in most sports. The ranking will not take into account margin of victory or credit or discredit teams for playing schools in either the next higher or next lower classification. It will reflect the winning percentage of opponents. A committee that includes Gold Beach athletic director Kevin Swift will come up with the system for the Executive Board to adopt in July.
The change in the playoff structure was prompted largely by the OSAA's approval last fall of hybrid leagues, such as the Midwestern Hybrid, which includes Class 6A Sheldon, South Eugene and Thurston, and Class 5A Marshfield, Marist, Churchill, North Eugene, Springfield and Willamette.
The discussion about how to deal with hybrids prompted several new ideas, including a play-in concept that gives all schools in Class 6A and 5A a chance to reach the final 16 in all team sports.
In Class 4A, the top four teams from each league (the top three from the four-school Greater Oregon League) advance to the postseason, along with the three hybrid schools. One additional school from two different leagues also advances each year for a 32-team total. The Far West League will advance its fifth-place team for all the team sports next year.
Another new creation is the regional qualifying format for wrestling, rather than qualifying by leagues.
Regional qualifying was discussed for all the individual sports, cross country and golf as the Championship Committee sought ways to improve the level of competition and reduce the costs of operating the state championships, but only wrestling will see that format in the next four years.
Instead, the number of state qualifiers in both cross country and golf will be reduced because there is no guarantee individuals will qualify outside of the top two teams from each league, which advance to the state championships.
The Executive Board approved all of the Championship Committee's recommendations for the number of teams qualifying for state in the smaller classifications. That means in the Sunset Hybrid, two of the four Class 3A schools — Bandon, Coquille, Glide and Myrtle Point — will advance to the playoffs in each team sport. The two Class 2A schools — Gold Beach and Reedsport — will be combined with the Class 2A schools in the Southern Hybrid — Lost River, Bonanza and Chiloquin for playoff purposes.
The entire recommendation can be found at www.osaa.org.
