Classes Still Create Hoosier Hysteria
July 27, 2017
By Rob Kaminski
MHSAA benchmarks editor
This is the fourth part in a series on MHSAA tournament classification, past and present, that will be published over the next two weeks. This series originally ran in this spring's edition of MHSAA benchmarks.
Twenty years ago, Bloomington North High School won the Indiana High School Athletic Association boys basketball championship, defeating Delta 75-54 at the RCA Dome in Indianapolis.
The date, March 22, 1997, is at the same time revered and disdained by traditionalists in the state who saw it as the last schoolboy championship game the state would ever host.
That’s how devout the game of basketball, particularly interscholastic basketball, had become in the Hoosier state during the 87 years a state champion – one state champion, to be precise – was crowned.
Following that 1997 season, the IHSAA moved to a four-class system for its roundball tournaments, like so many of its state association counterparts had done years earlier.
It would be shocking to find more than a small percentage of current high school basketball players around the country unfamiliar with the iconic movie Hoosiers, even though the film is now more than 30 years old.
And, the storyline for that blockbuster unfolded more than 30 years prior to its release, when small-town, undermanned Milan High School defeated Muncie Central High School 32-30 in the 1954 IHSAA title game.
Perhaps it’s because of the David vs Goliath notion, or the fame of the movie that replaced Milan with the fictional Hickory and real-life star Bobby Plump with Hollywood hero Jimmy Chitwood, or the simple fact that Indiana had something other states didn’t.
Whatever the reason, plenty of opposition remains to this day to basketball classification in the state.
The fact is, the small rural schools were regularly being beaten handily by the much larger suburban and city schools as the tournament progressed each season.
Small schools also were closing at a rapid rate following the state’s School Reorganization Act in 1959, as students converged on larger, centralized county schools. From 1960 to 2000, the number of schools entering the tournament dropped from 694 to 381, and in 1997 a total of 382 schools and 4,584 athletes began competition at the Sectional level (the first level of the IHSAA Basketball Tournament).
It was at the entry level of the tournament where school administrators felt the pain of the new class system, but not necessarily for the same nostalgic reasons as the fans who either attended or boycotted the tournament.
At the Sectional round of the tournament, the IHSAA was culling just 2 percent of the revenue, with the participating schools splitting the balance. So, when Sectional attendance dropped by 14 percent in that first year of class basketball, many schools realized a financial loss. It was money they had grown to count on in prior years to help fund various aspects of the department.
Schools cumulatively received more than $900,000 from Sectional competition in 1998, but that total was down from more than $1 million in the last year of the single-class tournament.
Yet, the current format provides a great deal more opportunity and realistic chances at championship runs for schools of all enrollments.
To date, 60 additional teams have championship or runner-up trophies on display in school trophy cases around Indiana.
That was the mission in front of then-IHSAA commissioner Bob Gardner (now National Federation executive director) once the board made its decision: to give thousands more student-athletes the opportunity for once-in-a-lifetime experiences.
As any statistician knows, figures can be manipulated to tell any side of a story. Declining attendance in year one of class basketball is such a number.
The truth is tournament attendance had been on a steady downward spiral since its peak of just over 1.5 million in 1962. By the last single-class event in 1997, the total attendance was half that.
The challenge then and today, as it is for all state associations, is to find that delicate balance for those holding onto tradition, those holding onto trophies, and the number of trophies to hand out.
Editor’s Note: Stories from the Fort Wayne Journal Gazette in 1998 and from a 2007 issue of Indianapolis Monthly provided facts in this article.
Streaming Season Begins on MHSAA TV
August 20, 2019
By John Johnson
MHSAA Director of Broadcast Properties
A new school year brings with it the start of more live streaming video of high school sporting events than ever before and a new website look for viewers on the NFHS Network and MHSAA.tv.
The NFHS Network Website and the member state high school association pages under that umbrella have been revamped for 2019-20, with an interface that improves functionality on desktop and laptop computers, as well as handheld devices.
Throughout the course of the school year, the number of schools appearing online will grow as more member schools will be installing Pixellot – the NFHS Network’s automated streaming solution – in stadiums and gymnasiums. More than 100 schools have signed up to install Pixellot units over the past few months.
This is the first full week of programming by MHSAA Members participating in the School Broadcast Program – either as a Pixellot or a traditionally-producing program giving students the hands-on opportunity to learn video production skills. Here’s a list of the upcoming varsity level events taking place over the coming week:
Tuesday - Aug. 20
Boys Soccer - Stevensville Lakeshore v. Edwardsburg - 6:30 PM
Boys Soccer – Comstock Park at Grand Rapids Catholic Central – 6:40 PM
Boys Soccer - Novi v. Howell - 7 PM
Wednesday - Aug. 21
Boys Soccer - Cedar Springs v. Howard City Tri County - 5 PM
Girls Volleyball - Stevensville Lakeshore v. TBA - 5:30 PM
Boys Soccer - Freeland v. Hemlock - 7 PM
Boys Soccer - Utica v. Pontiac Notre Dame Prep - 7:30 PM
Thursday - Aug. 22
Boys Soccer - Bloomfield Hills Cranbrook Kingswood v. Brandon - 4:30 PM
Boys Soccer - South Lyon East v. Pinckney - 6:30 PM
Boys Soccer - Brighton v. Canton - 7 PM
Boys Soccer - Novi v. Northville - 7 PM
Friday - Aug. 23
Girls Volleyball - Fremont v. White Cloud - 8:30 AM
Girls Volleyball - Otisville LakeVille v. Vassar - 11:30 AM
Boys Soccer - Maple City Glen Lake v. Traverse City Christian - 3:30 PM
Boys Soccer - Manchester v. Michigan Center - 5:30 PM
Saturday - Aug. 24
Girls Volleyball – Waterford Our Lady v. TBA - 8:30 AM
Girls Volleyball - Linden v. TBA - 8:30 AM
Girls Volleyball – Mt. Morris v. Oscoda - 8:30 AM
Girls Volleyball - Pellston v. Mancelona - 8:30 AM
Girls Volleyball - Bad Axe v. Deckerville Community - 9 AM
Boys Soccer - Ithaca v. TBA - 10 AM
Boys Soccer - Ovid-Elsie v. Laingsburg - 10 AM
Boys Soccer - Stevensville Lakeshore v. Ortonville Brandon - 11 AM
Boys Soccer - Ithaca v. Greenville - 1:30 PM
Boys Soccer - Ithaca v. TBA - 3 PM
Boys Soccer - Ovid-Elsie v. Perry - 4 PM
Girls Volleyball - Pellston v. Boyne City - 5 PM
Monday - Aug. 26
Girls Volleyball – Ann Arbor Greenhills v. Whitmore Lake - 9 AM
Boys Soccer - Maple City Glen Lake v. Charlevoix - 5 PM
Girls Field Hockey - Novi v. Ann Arbor Pioneer - 5 PM
Boys Soccer - Ithaca v. Birch Run - 5:30 PM
Boys Soccer - St. Clair Shores Lake Shore v. Clawson - 6 PM
Boys Soccer - Freeland v. Alma - 7 PM
Boys Soccer - Howell v. Hartland - 7 PM
Tuesday - Aug. 27
Girls Volleyball - Pontiac Notre Dame Prep v. TBA - 1 PM
Boys Soccer - Ovid-Elsie v. Byron Center Charter School - 5 PM
Girls Volleyball - Pontiac Notre Dame Prep v. TBA - 5 PM
Boys Soccer - Manchester v. Brooklyn Columbia Central - 5:30 PM
Girls Volleyball – Bloom. Hills Academy of the Sacred Heart v. Southfield Christian - 6:30 PM
Boys Soccer – Cedar Springs v. Grand Rapids Forest Hills Northern – 6:30 PM
Boys Soccer – Troy Athens v. Berkley - 7 PM
Boys Soccer - Novi v. Salem - 7 PM
Boys Soccer - South Lyon v. Milford - 7 PM
Boys Soccer - Troy v. Clarkston - 7 PM
Boys Soccer – Birmingham Seaholm v. Bloomfield Hills – 7 PM
Boys Soccer - Lapeer v. Pontiac Notre Dame Prep - 7:30 PM ?
In addition, there are a number of sub-varsity contests and non-athletic events from school board meetings to daily school newscasts being streamed. Visit the MHSAA.tv Website for complete information.
Football games will begin as early as Aug. 28 with sub-varsity contests, and Aug. 29 with varsity games. The NFHS Network launches its Michigan schedule Aug. 29 with its annual coverage of the Prep Kickoff Classic in Detroit.
The Prep Kickoff Classic, conducted by the Detroit Sports Commission, is in its 15th year and takes place at Tom Adams Field on the campus of Wayne State University. Here’s the complete schedule:
Thursday - Aug. 29
Bloomfield Hills Brother Rice v. Utica Eisenhower, 4 p.m.
Clinton Township Chippewa Valley v. Saline, 7 p.m.
Friday - Aug. 30
Birmingham Groves v. Grosse Pointe South, 4 p.m.
Muskegon v. Warren De La Salle, 7 p.m.
Saturday - Aug. 31
Detroit Catholic Central v. Detroit Martin Luther King, 1 p.m.
Detroit Cass Tech v. Chicago Wendell Phillips Academy, 4 p.m.
The NFHS Network also is working with FOX Sports Detroit to help promote the 2019 edition of Football Week In Michigan by making the games available to cable or satellite subscribers of that channel on FOX Sports GO!
In addition, the NFHS Network will send a School Broadcast Program crew to Atwood Stadium in Flint to cover the third annual Vehicle City Gridiron Classic. Here’s the schedule:
Thursday - Aug. 29
Grand Blanc v. Midland Dow, 4 p.m.
Goodrich v. Flint Powers Catholic, 7 p.m.
Friday, Aug. 30
Otisville LakeVille v. North Branch, 4 p.m.
Flint Carman-Ainsworth v. Port Huron, 7 p.m.
Now in its 11th year, the School Broadcast Program gives members an opportunity to showcase excellence in their schools by creating video programming of athletic and non-athletic events, with students gaining skills in announcing, camera operation, directing/producing and graphics. Pixellot – The NFHS Network’s automated streaming solution – is used by schools wishing to live stream games but lacking the ability to staff the events. The program also gives schools the opportunity to raise money through advertising and viewing subscriptions.
NFHS Network subscriptions begin at $9.95 a month. Subscribers will have access to all live video and streaming statistics across the country. All content becomes available for free, on-demand viewing 72 hours after being shown live. School Broadcast Program participants benefit, as a portion of every subscription sold by a school goes to benefit its program.
A complete list of participating schools can be found on the School Broadcast Program page of the MHSAA Website.