Playoff fields could shrink in football, basketball too

Click to view

Last week, officials from the N.C. High School Athletic Association held regional meetings with member schools across the state. One of the big topics was potentially trimming the number of teams that qualify for the playoffs.

In the spring, the NCHSAA Board of Directors recommended that schools consider a voluntary reduction in regular-season games, particularly in junior varsity and non-revenue sports, as a way to cut costs in bad economy. The board also announced it was forming a committee to study ways to save money on the state level. Those ideas included potentially trimming playoff teams in all sports except football and basketball.

Now, those two major sports are also in the discussion.

"Even though the schools get the bulk of the money (from playoff gates), there's a lot of travel involved, and people said maybe reduce the size of the playoff field," NCHSAA spokesperson Rick Strunk said.