MIAA Board of Directors: Division 1A tournament may be revisited down the line
The Division 1A tournament may be gone, but it is clearly not forgotten.
At Wednesday’s MIAA Board of Directors meeting, the topic came up once again. While nothing can be done until July 1, 2025 at the earliest, MIAA associate executive director Sherry Bryant acknowledged that there is still an appetite for it, citing the efforts of two sports (boys hockey and baseball) to restore it.
“We’re collecting data right now to see if there is a pattern of dominance between the schools which would require a more balanced divisional structure,” Bryant said. “If there were a 1A tournament (in the future), it would have to meet all the requirements of the other tournaments: single elimination, site policies, similar facilities and assignment of officials.”
With the fall season winding down, MIAA assistant director Jim Clark, the man primarily responsible for collecting scores and creating the current power ranking system, said the process by which scores are being inputted into Arbiter has improved.
“We’re still dealing with missing scores,” Clark said. “But it is pretty minimal.”
In other topics of discussion, Bryant stated some schools have overscheduled games. While Bryant admits it is not a rampant problem, it puts them in a position whereby they have to uphold the integrity of the rules for all the other schools. As is the case, if schools overschedule games, they must forfeit them and it creates problems for many schools when it comes to tournament time.
The tournament bracket release dates for the fall sports were announced. Football pairings will be made public this Sunday, followed by volleyball on Monday, field hockey on Tuesday and boys/girls soccer on Wednesday. According to Clark, pairings should be out by 1 p.m. and they are final.
The board voted unanimously to grant a membership application to New Heights Charter School of Brockton.