NIAA eyes realignment, fewer games to cut costs

Nevada’s high school sports scene soon could undergo some big changes.

Exactly how drastic and how quickly, though, aren’t yet known.

Asked by the state’s superintendents to help cut costs as schools face major budget cuts, the Nevada Interscholastic Activities Association is looking at potential reductions in the maximum number of games teams can play and possibly even moving from a four-class system to three classes to help rural schools trim travel costs.

“We’ve got some ideas in mind, but the next step is to put it all on paper to see what it looks like,” NIAA assistant commissioner Donnie Nelson said. “There’s a lot of steps that need to be taken before anything can be put in place.”

NIAA executive director Eddie Bonine met with the superintendents Thursday in Carson City.

“He wanted to find out how serious and of what emergency nature this is,” Nelson said. “He got a feel for it but didn’t get an exact answer. Mr. Bonine got some comments in favor of what he presented and some who didn’t like it.”

Reclassifying schools could be a huge change. Schools are classified based on enrollment figures.

Many smaller schools, those in Classes 1A and 2A, are in rural areas and travel long distances to play league games. For instance, West Wendover and Needles (Calif.), separated by more than 500 miles, are in the same Class 2A league.

Nelson said a 10 percent reduction in the maximum amount of games a team could play was “probably a nice number.” Decreasing game limits would reduce travel costs, as well as game-staging costs. A reduction in games and cutting tournaments in which a school can compete from two to one, could trim five or more games off baseball, softball and even basketball teams’ schedules.

The NIAA could make changes for the 2009-10 season. Fall sports start in just more than three months, and most schools have fall sports schedules close to, if not, finalized. Reclassifying schools or even reducing game limits could alter those schedules.

“I don’t think there’s a particular day on the calendar that we need to have something done by,” Nelson said. “If something were to be done, it would have to be done in a timely manner.”

Nelson said the NIAA, which also proposed its office reduce travel costs, is preparing to list its potential cost-cutting measures and e-mail them to its member schools Monday.