44th District Basketball Tournament article
Opinion piece By J.T. Elliott
Kids have the best advice. Take, for example, the advice Linus provides in the animated film; It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown. He tells his childhood best friend: “There are three things I’ve learned never to discuss with people: religion, politics, and the Great Pumpkin.” Specific topics create division among even the best of friends. In Madison county, an issue that brings about this polarizing debate is the 44th district basketball tournament.
Each year all four district high school representatives meet to determine whether to seed or blind draw the annual basketball tournament. Those four schools reside inside Madison county and include Model, Berea, Madison Southern, and Madison Central. Kentucky High School Athletic Association (KHSAA) rules state that a majority vote must be reached for seeding to take place. Without fail, each year Berea and Model vote for the blind draw. Whereas Central and Southern vote for the seeded tournament. This deadlock results in the tournament format being determined by the blind draw. Therefore, the power structure and tournament decision firmly benefit Model and Berea.
Each year the argument is made that the blind draw gives the smaller schools a better chance to play for the championship and go to the eleventh region tournament. According to KHSAA school information statistics, Model and Berea’s total secondary school population combined, 548 students, does not equate to Madison Southern’s population of over 1,200 students. Madison Central has a student population of over 2,023 students. Accordingly, Southern and Central have a larger student-athlete talent pool.
In addition to the district tournament, Model and Berea also have the opportunity to play for a region championship during the regular season in the All “A” Classic. This small school basketball tournament began in January of 1980 and was expanded in the early 1990s. It promotes competition between schools of similar student-population size. In 2019 the KHSAA permitted an additional size classification basketball tournament with class 2A. Nevertheless, there is no other region or state tournament for Central or Southern.
Can a solution transcend this division of seeding and drawing the 44th district tournament? Adults may need to look to kids for advice. Kids know what is fair and what isn’t. When playing a game, kids usually agree, “You get a turn; then I get a turn.” Practically, this would mean alternating each year between seeding and drawing.
For the 2023 tournament, the blind draw remains in place. However, there is always hope in the belief that things will change with time. Just as Linus explains to Charlie Brown at the film’s end, “What until next year, you’ll see.”
