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UIL Council: No likely playoff changes

by Dave McNabb

Fri, Oct 19, 2007, 03:07 PM

If the UIL Council sticks to its historic patterns, don't look for a new Class 6A playoffs for football, at least not in 2008 and 2009, and don't look for Class A-3A to add a fourth playoff qualifier.
Don't look for an extension of the Class 5A pre-determined state championship football site either.

Look for tweaking the steroid penalty to base a 30-day suspension on a student athlete's season and close the current loop hole that a baseball player testing positive in November could have his suspension served before the season.

Players suspended for tests will be allowed to practice....Don't look for the Council to jump to a year-long suspension as some have advocated.

UIL athletic director Charles Briethaupt is preparing for Monday's annual UIL Council Meeting and isn't about to predict what will happen.

But according to survey results taken among UIL schools, Breithaupt said it's only running about 50-50 or less in favor of a Class 6A football playoff system that would put larger enrollment schools against each other in district competition and the playoffs.

There also hasn't been a majority of schools in smaller classifications in favor of adding another playoff qualifier.

The UIL Council history is not to go against survey results and to not look at them optimistically or pessimistically. They're analytical like a Bill Parcells, "You are what you are", when it comes to digesting numbers.

There's no Ya-Buts.

No "we lost seven games by 3 points or less" and there is no "if these schools just understood this proposal a little differently."

If you've sat through a couple dozen of these meetings for a couple decades, it becomes apparent these are Education Lifers who tend to be pretty report-based and analytical.

Never seen an emotional plea get very far with this group, who'd sit, blink and listen to Mel Gibson in Braveheart and then vote No Battle.

If the survey says most are for it, then it's considered for the pragmatics of making it work.

If it's 50-50 support, the Council nearly always waits and studies further. They meet twice a year, so what's the hurry? They might pass it along and let the schools officially vote in a referendum but that also means no changes until 2010.

If there's very little support in a survey for a proposal _ no matter how impassioned a Wylie parent or administrator says it's unfair for their kids to compete against the Plano schools _ it doesn't get legs.

With lukewarm survey support, it's very unlikely the Class 6A football district alignment would get Fast Tracked by the Council and be sent to the Board of Education for approval for 2008.

In the past, it has taken overwhelming support in a survey or referendum (or state law) for the Council to Fast Track an item.

The 6A district playoff design could be adopted for 2010, but, typically, it'd be studied again and then re-evaluated with fresh numbers after the 2008-09 and 2009-10 realignment numbers have been set.

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