Stop Medicaid fraud
March 29, 2016
Faye Pizani
March 30, 2016
The Louisiana High School Athletic Association, as we know it, is dead.
That was decided a few months ago when the state’s principals voted to expand the public/private split to include all major sports – a move that further alienated the already-disgruntled private schools around the state.
My thoughts on the situation are clear. I’ve written about it several times in this column. I am not necessarily in favor of our schools being separated, but I think it’s a necessary evil until the LHSAA gets serious about actually enforcing its rules in place regarding recruiting, competitive balance and boundaries.
The problem when the schools are all together is that the competition isn’t apples versus apples, but is instead apples versus oranges. I think private schools have advantages in that they can accept students from anywhere they please, whereas public schools are confined to ‘playing its hand’ based on boundary requirements. It’s like raising one child based on one set of rules, but then raising another with totally different principles.
Of course, that’s not fair. Neither is pitting open-enrollment squads versus boundary-stricken squads in postseason play – but that’s just my two cents.
But this column isn’t about me, nor my opinions on the situation. Instead, it’s designed to ask questions about what lies ahead, assuming that the split stays in place.
As soon as the principals voted to expand the split, there became a 100 percent chance that the private school core would bow out of the association and make their own league – a process that’s slowly, but surely gaining steam now.
The new league would reportedly be called the Louisiana High School Sports Cooperative, and it seeks to find 60 schools – public or private – willing to break away from the establishment and start fresh.
The i’s are still not dotted, nor are the t’s crossed. But the movement has started, and it sure looks like the association is breathing its dying breaths.
Which gets me to wondering – how exactly will this all work?
Sure, it’s easy to stand behind a podium and proclaim that a new league is near, but it takes a ton of hard work to set the structure in place in such a way that it can have success.
Here are the five questions that I have – all of which are still not yet known.
Until all of these things get answered, I can’t put say with 100 percent certainty that this new league will be good for Louisiana.
From where I stand, there is too much unknown for these folks to get my full suport.
QUESTION 1: Who is committed to joining the new league?
The LHSSC says it wants to cap its membership at 60 schools. OK. So, who’s joining? There are more than 60 private schools in Louisiana – a lot more. My math says there are 70 football-playing private schools in the state. That’s not counting the all-girls academies around Louisiana which play other sports. That’s not counting the small-enrollment private schools which don’t have football, but have other sports. That’s not counting the alleged public schools who supposedly have proclaimed they’d like to join, too. So who gets in? Is it first-come, first-serve? Is it the highest enrollments? What happens to those who don’t make the cut? Do they make another, third-tier league? Give me a break!
QUESTION 2: How will districts be aligned?
Currently, public and private schools can still be in the same district, but they just aren’t allowed to play against one another in the playoffs. Once this LHSCC takes fold, that, obviously will change, because you can’t have non-LHSAA teams in LHSAA-drawn districts. Locally, that means that if Vandebilt or E.D. White were to join, they’d be put in an all non-local district. There’s no other option. There’s no other local public schools (of like size) for them to play.
QUESTION 3: How will postseason look?
Right now, football plays its State Title games in the Superdome, while girls’ and boys’ basketball teams play in Hammond and Lake Charles, respectively. What will the new league do? They say LSU will be the go-to, but can that realistically work? Can the Tiger Stadium grass hold up for that many games? I don’t know.
QUESTION 4: Who will officiate the games in the new league?
I don’t know the fine print, so maybe I’m wrong on this, but the LHSAA has a contract with the Louisiana High School Officials Association. To me, that means that the LHSOA will cater to LHSAA-sanctioned games first, then anything else second. That could put the new league in a bind on those busy football Friday nights or during the basketball Tuesday-night doubleheaders. Sure, an easy fix would be to just simply play the LHSCC basketball games on a different night, but will the LHSAA play hardball to keep its refs? Again – we just don’t know.
QUESTION 5: Can cross-league games be played?
And perhaps the biggest one is the question of whether cross-league competition will be allowed. For example, would Terrebonne be allowed to play Vandebilt, should Vandebilt join the new league? The organizers of the LHSCC say they’d prefer that, but the LHSAA has leverage in this one, if they choose to use it. Assuming the new league does have just 60 schools, that means the LHSAA will be four-times larger than the LHSCC. They don’t need the cross-league games as badly as the new league would. Could they maybe be the ones to put a ban on cross-league competition? That’s one that LHSAA Executive Director Eddie Bonine will have to hash out.
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Of course, it’s all unknown, and this entire column may end up being moot, because there’s legislation floating around Baton Rouge that might kill the split for good.
But as it stands now, it surely seems like a new league is coming in the very, very near future
Who knows? It might work out. It might not.
I just know that I have a lot of questions, and so do others.
Maybe it’d be best if the private schools bit their tongues, licked their wounds and took another year to think this thing through. •
