NET wants to broadcast baseball finals

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By the Lincoln Journal Star

Nebraska Educational Telecommunications wants to televise the 2009 Class A and B state championship baseball games at Haymarket Park, but it will take a change in the state tournament format for it to happen.

Nebraska School Activities Association executive director Jim Tenopir told the organization’s Board of Control at its monthly meeting Friday that NET wants a single-game championship, meaning the double-elimination bracket currently used would have to be modified. Both Grand Island and Elkhorn needed a second championship game — the if-necessary game — to win the Class A and B titles, respectively, last week.

The board decided that the NSAA should survey the baseball schools about possible formats before making a decision. Two formats mentioned Friday involved having two four-team, double-elimination brackets, with the two winners meeting in the finals, or having two pools of four teams playing in a round-robin format,  with the top team in each pool advancing to the championship.

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Grand Island celebrates its win over Millard West in the 2008 State Baseball Class A Championship game at Haymarket Park. (LJS File)

Grand Island celebrates its win over Millard West in the 2008 State Baseball Class A Championship game at Haymarket Park. (LJS File)

The Big 12 Tournament uses the four-team, round-robin pool format.

The board also discussed three possible changes to the state swimming and diving championships, but like baseball, delayed action until a later meeting to get further input from the schools.

One suggestion was to move the diving portion of the meet from the Devaney Sports Center pool to a more fan-friendly Lincoln Public Schools venue. Another was splitting the swimming preliminaries into separate boys and girls sessions on the first day, then having them compete together for the finals.

A third change would limit the number of alternates that schools can declare for relay teams. Since state swim tickets are allocated based on how many qualifiers a school has, that will prevent schools from putting excess alternates on the relays and getting extra tickets as a result.

The board unanimously banned balloons at the indoor championship events for volleyball, basketball, wrestling and swimming. Balloons were being used in recent years as artificial noise-makers, which are banned at NSAA state and district events. They’ve also been a distraction when they’ve floated into the competition areas during play.

— Ron Powell