District Disturbance

Is giving up neutral court in the playoffs worth saving some gas money? Today's MHSAA representative council blog considers that possibility.

From the MHSAA:

"The Council approved the option of allowing District tournaments in basketball and volleyball to play games at drawn home sites beginning in 2008-09, instead of play taking place at a third-party host.
Details about guidelines for this option will be determined soon.  Where the option is utilized, travel expenses may be significantly reduced and crowd sizes could increase."

Other state associations also are looking at options for saving travel expenses, and the MHSAA has upped reimbursements for officials and teams traveling far for state finals, which will become further  necessary as schools and officials begin further factoring travel into decisions about whether to work/play.

The district home draw advantage already is used in other sports, notably soccer. But where crowds are bigger -- in basketball, and even volleyball -- home court means much more.

If I'm a basketball coach -- and even if I'm saving quite a bit of gas money in staying closer to home -- I can't see giving my playoff opponent homecourt advantage just because it happened to get a lucky random draw. What I could see instead is teams playing a district game at a closer neutral site. For example: Everett and Holt are often in the same basketball district as Battle Creek Central and Lakeview. If Central is hosting, but Everett and Holt are playing in the championship game, there's no reason that game couldn't be played at Don Johnson Fieldhouse.