COMMENTARY: Sensible plan rooted in competitive balance

When I read the Nevada Interscholastic Activities Association was considering a “rubric” to realign its Southern 4A schools, I was reading pretty fast.

For a second, I thought they were going to put the school logos on one of those mechanical cubes that replaced hacky sack at my high school, jumble them up and rearrange them into divisions that made more sense.

There are approximately 43 quintillion ways to configure a Rubik’s Cube. The Nevada Rubric, as it is being called, is slightly less complicated. The proposal I received is outlined on two sheets of paper.

The formula still is being massaged before it will be put to a vote. If ratified, this rubric — a statistical analysis used as a guideline — and the new division alignments it produces will go into effect for the 2012-13 school year.

Under the proposal, the high school athletic season will be divided into fall, winter and spring segments. Schools will receive points for the performances of their football and girls volleyball teams (fall), boys and girls basketball teams (winter) and baseball and softball teams (spring). They will receive fewer points in cross country, golf, soccer, tennis, wrestling, swimming, track and boys volleyball.

No points will be awarded in hacky sack, if anybody still plays hacky sack. Football will receive double points.

Bonuses will be issued for winning state and region titles and finishing second in state and region. A bonus will not be awarded for losing to Bishop Gorman in overtime, other than the unmitigated respect you will receive from your peers.

Points will accumulate over a two-year period, with the top 24 schools being placed in existing 4A divisions. The others will be grouped in a new 13-team division, where they likely will compete against smaller schools with “Valley” or “County” as part of their names. The process will be repeated every two years.

This will prompt wailing and gnashing of teeth, because whereas some of the big schools are tired of getting hammered by Bishop Gorman, most do not want to step down to a lesser division to avoid the ignominy. This is understandable. But if you heard Gov. Brian Sandoval’s state of the state address Monday, it’s clear realignment might be unavoidable.

The governor is calling for major education reform, and using what’s in petty cash to pay for girls volleyball road trips likely isn’t part of his plan.

Realignment would save the current 3A schools on travel. If you’re tired of losing 77-13 to Bishop Gorman or 100-23 to Centennial in girls basketball (actual scores), it also makes sense from a competitive standpoint. And if you’re troubled that beating schools with “Valley” or “County” in their names lessens the achievement, take it from me, you’ll get over it.

Between my junior and senior year in high school, Indiana outlawed leather helmets. It also switched from a one-class system to a three-class system in football.

Instead of going 1-10, the football team at my school went 10-1. The football players, initially resistant, grew to like playing against schools their own size. After games, they got dates with pretty girls, which beat soaking their bodies in Epsom salt.

This realignment proposal also will make high school sports — all high school sports, not just football and boys basketball — more interesting, because potential exists for meaningful competition at both ends of the standings.

The result will be similar to the relegation and promotion system in European soccer, in which a percentage of the bottom feeders in the higher classified leagues switch places with the pacesetters from lower classified ones.

If you follow English soccer, then you know nothing is more intense or compelling than Manchester United playing Arsenal or Chelsea for first place. Unless it’s West Bromwich Albion going up against Wigan Athletic for 17th place on the last day of the season, with the winner remaining in the Premiership and the loser being relegated to the English League Championship. Those games really bring out the hooligans.

In most cases, who gets to play Bishop Gorman and who gets to play Ridgemont High will be determined long before the golf match played in fading sunlight on a pockmarked municipal course.

But on occasion, the nerdy kid who wears a pocket protector will be standing over a par-saving putt that will decide the fate of the football and boys basketball teams at his school. I find that intriguing.

I hope for Lewis Skolnick’s sake that he makes the putt and he gets to take Linda Barrett to the prom and the nerds have their revenge or their moment in the sun.

Because if you’ve ever tried to play hacky sack, it’s much more difficult than it looks.