Chuck Landon: Uniformity needed in determining post-season participants

I am sympathetic toward the plight of local softball coaches.

There's no denying that Region IV has been the hand that rocked the Class AAA state championship cradle for the last three years.

Huntington, Spring Valley and Cabell Midland have proven that unequivocally by winning the last three titles, respectively.

So, it doesn't take much deductive reasoning to realize that more than one Region IV team deserves to be in the state tournament.

Yet, that's not the case.

Does that mean the answer is a ratings system? Yes, but there's a catch.

The problem is much bigger than just softball. What all coaches -- regardless of sport -- need to realize is there's an all-encompassing issue involving all West Virginia high school sports that needs to be addressed.

The problem?

Every single team sport has a different post-season scenario. There is no uniformity, no conformity, no consistency whatsoever.

For example:

• In football, there's a rating system that determines post-season playoff berths. If six Mountain State Athletic Conference teams qualify for the playoffs, then six go. If Cabell Midland, Huntington and Spring Valley all qualify, they all make the playoffs. But football is the only sport that uses a rating system.
• In basketball, the state tournament teams are seeded in hopes of the best teams reaching the respective championship games. But basketball is the only team sport that uses seeding.
• In volleyball, two schools from each regional advance to the state tournament. But volleyball is the only sport that qualifies regional runners-up.
• In baseball, a double-elimination format is used during the sectional tournaments. It changes to single-elimination for the rest of post-season, including the regionals and state tournament. But baseball is the only sport that has double-elimination for only one phase of post-season.
• In softball, sectional tournament competition is either single- or double-elimination based on the discretion of the tournament director. Then, the regionals switch to single-elimination. The state tournament, however, is double-elimination. But softball is the only sport that has the significant advantage of double-elimination in state tournaments.

Five different team sports, five different post-season criteria.

That's absurd.

The answer? Consistency.

If the SSAC truly wants the best teams to compete in their respective state tournaments, then it needs to adopt a ratings system format across the board. If it's possible in football, it's possible in any sport.

That way the regular season actually means something. As it is now in the sectional and regional format, the regular season means virtually nothing.

It shouldn't be that way.

The highest rated teams in every sport should advance to their respective state tournament regardless of geography. Right now, that isn't the case.

That, too, is absurd.

The bottom line is the SSAC needs to have the same post-season criteria for every team sport. In this case, that means using a ratings system across the board and utilizing a single-elimination format in every state tournament.

That way competition will determine state champions, instead of locale.

Geography is for the class room, not the field of competition.

Chuck Landon is a sports columnist for The Herald-Dispatch. Call him at 526-2827. E-mail him at clandon@herald-dispatch.com.