Powell: It's time to think about a 16-team state volleyball tournament

The last three years, taking the eight district champions, adding eight wild-card teams from the nondistrict winners and putting them together for a one-match, play-in to the state tournament has worked well in getting the best eight teams to Lincoln.

What hasn’t worked is that no one west of Grand Island has been in the Class B state tournament the past three years. The fact the Saturday substate matches hosted by the higher seed have drawn sparse crowds for the most part, with little or no atmosphere in the gym, just adds to the issues some people have with these contests.

While the board deadlocked 4-4 on getting rid of substate in Class B and replacing it with the old system of six geographic district winners and two wild cards advancing to state, Classes C-1 and C-2 pushed their own version of substate through their class caucuses. This fall, the 12 subdistrict winners and four wild-card teams from the remainder of the field will advance to eight district finals, whose pairings are determined by the wild-card standings.

Without question, it will produce a better state tournament field than the old way of doing things.

Unlike Class B, these district finals will be played at a neutral site. Like Class B, these matches will be on the first Saturday in November. And like Class B, my prediction is these matches will have difficulty drawing fans or creating excitement while also being a pain in the neck for the athletic directors of the schools involved.

An identical format for Classes D-1 and D-2 just missed the 60 percent benchmark needed for approval when the schools voted last spring.

There’s no question the 16-team substate format needs to be added in Classes D-1 and D-2 and continued in Classes B and C. But the deficiencies have to be addressed as well.

To me the solution is simple — bring the 16 teams in those five classes to Lincoln, turn those substate/district finals into first-round state tournament matches and make it a four-day event.

It insures the best teams reaching the tournament while also guaranteeing every area of the state is represented. Turn these district finals into state tournament matches, and both the attendance and fan intensity level will rise considerably.

Lincoln has more than enough facilities to handle the extra matches. And the nice thing is, first-day action on Wednesday of championship weekend could start as late as 2:30 p.m., minimizing the effect on Lincoln public schools.

Class B could play its eight first-round matches on two courts at Pinnacle Bank Arena, with game times of 2:30 p.m., 4:15 p.m., 6 p.m. and 7:45 p.m. Using the same time schedule, Classes C-1, C-2 and D-1 could spread their first-round matches among the six LPS schools, while Class D-2 could use the Norris and Waverly gyms.

The final three days of the tournament would stay as it is now, with Class A remaining an eight-team field starting on Thursday. Setting up districts based on wild-card points late in the season has worked well for Class A, so nothing needs fixing there.

A change I would suggest for Class A, however, would be to play first-round district matches at home sites on Monday of district week, then have the seven district finals contested on two courts at Ralston Arena on Wednesday for a state tournament feel.

The time to move on the four-day state tournament is now in order to have it in place for next year. The contract with Lincoln is up after the 2016 event in November, so a four-day state tournament could be part of the bid process moving forward.

If proposed, I have no doubt this would fly through the Classes B, C and D caucuses and be approved overwhelmingly by the schools in each class next spring. It’s a compromise both sides should find appealing.