Well, it is that time of year again. Time for the North Carolina High School Athletic Association to swoop in and just about destroy high school football in the state. The bloated, insane, money-grubbing playoff pairings are out and we have some big tilts to look forward to.
How about a 3-8 Swain County team at a 4-7 Cherryville squad? Oh, the NCHSAA has seeded Cherryville fourth in the 1AA West, ahead of two 7-4 teams and one that is 8-3. Makes perfect sense now. A 4-7 Weddington team should also enjoy being a speed-bump at Independence this week.
In fact, there are 18 one, two, or win teams in these “playoffs,” another 26 with only four wins, and a total of some 70 teams with losing records. That is nuts. Fully 256 teams out of 368 NCHSAA member schools are playoff bound. Some cut there.
What’s more is that many of these dog match-ups are going to cost schools money to put on as the NCHSAA claims a big chunk of the gate from each playoff game. Yet the cost of security and lighting and such is fixed, and schools will have to make up any short-fall for games essentially no one bothers to go watch. That’s fine as the entire point of these games to route money back to the NCHSAA. Screw the schools, the teams, and the players.
Oh, yeah, the players. How do the undermanned teams feel about being marched into the arena by the NCHSAA for one more humiliation? At least gladiators had a shot at winning their freedom; high school kids will still be high school kids even after they compete for the pleasure of the NCHSAA.
And get this, there is serious talk about adding another class, a 5A. Then there is the dopey Charlotte Sports Commission looking to enable and aid the NCHSAA by hosting one of the eight football state championship games in the future.
All that requires is the NCHSAA calling card, upfront money. Make it out to cash.
