PEA RIDGE — Illegal use of tuba?

This could be the situation.

Your opponent's football team is on their own 10 yard line, facing a 3rd and 7 situation. Your defensive players are keyed up, hoping to make a big stop to get the ball back. Their quarterback is under center barking out the signals then all of a sudden, the line judge throws yellow flag and yells out "15 yards ... on the defense ... illegal use of tuba ... first down."

In the new rules vote taking place next week, one of the rules changes (Proposal 1) concerns how school bands may, or rather may not, operate during football games. You may have previously been to games where bands and fans routinely generate as much noise as they can to disrupt the other team at key times during the game.

The AAA has been debating on whether not this should be allowed.

The AAA is split over the rule change. It has a "do pass" recommendation, but only by a 10-8 vote count.

It is hard to really get all specific on rules like this because their are so many variables.

Some schools don't have huddles and have their plays precalled, making previous rule considerations to ban the playing of instruments during the time between breaking the huddle and the referees whistle unworkable.

Bands are a time honored and popular tradition in high school football. Scores of rules to cover every possible situation probably can't really be perfected and the new rules purpose states that "as long as bands are not trying to disrupt the opposing team's plays and the bands are courteous to each other and alternate playing, bands should be able to play during games."

I think what the AAA is trying to say is "play nice." Let the teams on the field decide the games and not thefans or bands.

Out of state events

The AAA has come up with some common sense with regard to their rules on who member schools may play when they go out of state. The current rules state that Arkansas schools can only travel to out of state sites for sporting events if the states involved have contiguous borders with Arkansas. The states that are contiguous with Arkansas include Missouri, Oklahoma, Texas, Mississippi, Tennessee and Louisiana.

What that means is that it is possible for, say, the baseball team to travel to Knoxville, Tenn., Biloxi, Miss., New Orleans, La., or San Antonio, Texas, and stay within the travel restrictions in place, but trips to Baxter Springs or Riverton, Kan., are out of the question.

The new rule allows travel to any sporting event within 300 miles of the school as long as students spend no more than one night staying at that particular site. The rule (Proposal 2) should pass.

Golf tournaments to change makeup

Currently for a golf team like Pea Ridge to make it to state, they have to place in the top three teams of their conference tournament then place in the top three teams of the region meet to qualify for state championship play. Individually, the top six players not on qualified teams can go to regions from district with the top six players from the region that are not on qualified teams going on to state.

In the new rules (Proposal 3), which won't take effect until 2010 even if passed, the top two teams in each conference advance directly to state, with the top four players not on qualified teams also advancing.

Since there were three regional meets, instead of nine teams qualifying for the state finals, now there will be 12. The overall effect will cut down on travel by eliminating the region meet along with increasing the number of players who will be able to experience playing in the state tournament.

In the other change proposed, the 2A-1A classification will be broken up into separate classifications.

Another private school rule change?

Proposal No. 4 would change the rule that places any private school that has more than 80 students in grades 9-11, into one higher classification.

The rule change could result in a private school being placed in a classification two levels above what their enrollment actually is.

The potential new rule states that if a private school drops in enrollment to where they would be placed in a lower classification in the next sports cycle, that move would be blocked if they happened to win state titles in boys football or basketball in that particular year.

That is just what we need - more confusion. The AAA board voted 18-0 in their recommendation to defeat the bill as it may be a Title IX violation as it only deals with boys sports. If the same situation existed with a girls basketball team, that team would move down a class where the boys could not. You could conceivably have a situation in which a private schools boys and girls teams are competing in different classifications at the same time. Just for example, if the 4AShiloh boys and girls teams happen to win state titles in basketball in the same year they lost enrollment down to a 2A level, the following year the girls could be playing 3A ball with the boys playing 4A ball. I wonder who came up with this one?

Diamond seasons could be moved later

In order to avoid conflicts with test dates, the AAA is proposing Proposal 5 which would start boys baseball and girls softball seasons one week later that is currently the rule. The season could also end one to two weeks later if necessary if the vote passes the bill. As rain often plays a role in baseball season, the extra time on the other end of the season might be necessary sometimes.

Starting a week later would be helpful, I believe, especially to northern schools. It is a whole bunch warmer in south Arkansas in March than it is for the teams up to the north.

Trading games from March to May would be a good deal. The season would be the same length either way. The AAA is 18-0 behind the rule change and it will most likely pass.

On the collegiate level, the NCAA has had proposals to have the college season set back several weeks. Teams currently start play in February and have their nationals in June. If you follow college baseball any and have noticed, nearly all the great teams hail from the southern half of the U.S. Football teams and basketball teams have good programs in all sections of the U.S. but rare are the teams from north of Arkansas who ever make it into the World Series.

Since nearly all players on college teams play baseball in the summer anyway, I think it would be a good thing if they had the NCAA College World Series in late July with team play starting in early April.

Sports, Pages 8 on 07/29/2009