COLUMN: Is it time for the AHSAA to re-evaluate the regional model for basketball?

Garrett Coliseum is one of the current venues for the AHSAA Regional tournament but the association has moved others to different sites on numerous occasions the last few years. (File Photo)

By TIM GAYLE

I originally wrote this column three weeks ago, before the start of the Alabama High School Athletic Association basketball regionals. As the state’s basketball teams went through another successful season at the regionals, now in their 30th year of existence, the words really haven’t changed much, whether they were written three weeks ago or if they were written today.

AHSAA administrators, led by executive director Dan Washburn, wanted a change to the system that existed in the early 1990s of two sub-state rounds, followed by the quarterfinals, semifinals and finals played at the University of Alabama and Auburn University. The concept of the two sub-state rounds (especially the second one) had some mighty big matchups played on campus sites on the same night across the state. Wouldn’t it be better to showcase those matchups in a regional location in front of high school fans? 

The culmination of that task was an innovative regional format that debuted in 1994. With a few tweaks in the first couple of years, it has survived to this point, a credit to administrators with the Northeast Regional at Jacksonville State University and the Northwest Regional at Wallace State Community College in Hanceville for their handling of an event that has now spanned parts of four decades. 

But after looking at the other two regionals in the state, it’s about time AHSAA officials imploded this model -- or at least the formula for putting on the event -- and built a new one.

If you’re keeping score, the Central Regional (which has also been known as the Southwest Regional) has been at Alabama State (1994), Faulkner State Community College (1995-99), South Alabama (2000-06), back to Alabama State (2007-20), Garrett Coliseum (2021), the Multiplex at Cramton Bowl (2022) and now Birmingham’s Bill Harris Arena (2023).

The South Regional (which has also been known as the Southeast Regional) has been at Troy University (1994-2009), South Alabama (2010-12), the Dothan Civic Center (2013-18) and Garrett Coliseum (2019-2023). 

You would think that AHSAA administrators might sit down with Jacksonville State administrators and try to figure out how they’ve gotten it so right at JSU and Wallace and so wrong everywhere else they’ve been. 

Here’s an idea. If you’re an organization truly committed to the high school students you serve, try putting the regional sites in an area where they belong, not with the arena that provides you the best deal. You’ve got thousands of dollars pouring in through corporate sponsorship. Try using it. The next time you give a speech about giving back $2 million annually to the schools, try giving back $1.8 million and using the rest to provide this state with functional regionals in four areas of the state. After all, that would only lower the cut for each school by several hundred dollars. I think they would gladly accept that swap if it provided a better basketball setup.

Now, take the $200,000 or so that you didn’t give the schools and buy yourself a new web site -- one that is functional and provides information that students, athletes, family and media can visit and learn from, not one that you bought at a discount web site provider -- and give the rest of the money to the four regionals to provide a better environment.

Call it a reward for Jacksonville State and Wallace Community College. Call it an incentive for Alabama State, South Alabama, Troy or other institutions that lock the door and hide every time AHSAA administrators bring their ridiculous regional ideas to their campus.

I called it “ridiculous” because Washburn was lauded (and rightfully so) for inventing the regional concept and implementing it in 1994, but there have been few changes since then, except to play musical chairs with the sites in the southern half of the state. 

The state of Alabama is a little more than 400 miles from northern tip to southern tip and three of the state’s regionals are in the 100-mile range that makes up the northernmost part of the state, while one regional (at Garrett Coliseum) is in the lower 300-mile range.

I’m not sure that fits anyone’s true definition of a “regional” format. 

The AHSAA likes to run a lot of things through the Central Board of Control or to ask the member schools to submit legislative changes to be voted on, but where the regionals are held is basically a decision made by the staff and rubber stamped by the Central Board. Remember, this is an organization that reminds us every two years when new classifications come out how they go through a complex process to make sure the teams closest to each other are placed in areas and regions together, yet had student-athletes at three schools traveling 270 miles from the Gulf Coast to Bill Harris Arena one week, again the following week (for the regional finals) and yet again the following week if they’re fortunate enough to advance to the state tournament, also held in Birmingham.

And who was the bright bulb in the room that thought we should have a regional and a state tournament in the same city? Obviously, that would never be considered if we were drawing this up from scratch -- that’s the whole purpose of having “regionals” -- but instead of trying to find solutions, we seem intent on taking the easiest (i.e., most profitable) path.   

If we want to keep the regional format, that’s fine, but let’s determine where we want regionals and let’s pay schools to put them on under some established guidelines.

At present, the AHSAA sends a small check to these schools to put on the event, but each one of them lose money every year putting it on.

Greg Seitz, athletic director of Jacksonville State, said the AHSAA writes them a check “for about $5,000” and that ‘not even close (to covering cost), if you’re doing it right.’”

At one time the check was for $1,000 and it wasn’t even close.

Depending on Seitz’s assessment of what it costs to ‘do it right,’ it’s doubtful t the city of Montgomery or Wallace-Hanceville spend anywhere near the money of Jacksonville State, but the school also has sponsors to provide ”extras.” Also, regionals sites can certainly differ in how they spend money and that’s part of the problem. One sees it as a benefit outside of a money maker. Others see an intrinsic value.

For that matter, the AHSAA can certainly increase the amount in the check to around $50,000 for each regional and now dictate some terms for how it’s operated.

Regionals that are operated by a municipality certainly differ in their administration from those operated by a school. That’s not to say one is better than another, simply that they’re different. And the guidelines for a regional should be the same at each regional. 

We’ve gone 30 years with the same format and, quite frankly, it’s a good formula that creates a lot of interest in high school basketball (while putting the girls on an equal footing with the boys, which is well deserved). A lot more interest and fanfare is generated in the two northern regionals than in the south and nothing can be done about that. After all, the northern teams continue to prove their dominance every year and, for whatever reason, northern communities support their high school teams more than south Alabama communities. 

But it’s time we put the regionals in a regional location, administered with guidelines to make the event one of the state’s best.