NMAA chooses to keep state basketball tournament at 16 teams

The New Mexican Activities Association decided that change wasn’t good for the postseason.

The organization’s board of directors opted to keep the current postseason format — for the most part — in 11-man football, basketball and baseball during its Wednesday meeting. That means the state boys and girls basketball tournament, the premier high school sporting event in the state, will remain at 16 teams instead of the planned 12 that the board approved last year. The same goes for baseball, while 11 Classes 2A-6A in football will have a 12-team bracket instead of 10.

Those are the current configuration for those sports except for 2A football, which had a four-team postseason because it had only seven teams. The board also approved making the state softball tournament a 16-team bracket after dropping it to 12 for the 2017 season.

The 16-team format in boys and girls basketball, especially in 2A and 1A boys, alleviates concerns coaches and athletic directors had with the previous plan. With only 12 spots, the possibility existed that more teams could automatically qualify for the postseason than available spots. Next year, 2A in boys and girls basketball plus 1A boys basketball have seven districts, leading to 14 potential automatic bids via the district regular-season and tournament champions.

Of course, there is the notion that the state basketball tournaments are the moneymakers for the NMAA. Last year, the state tournament generated more than $900,000 in revenue.

As for football, the sport saw its playoff format expand from a proposed eight to 12 in the matter of seven months. Next year will see 12 of 18 teams in 6A make the playoffs (67 percent), while 4A will see 80 percent of its teams advance to the postseason (12 of 15).

Contrast that to basketball, where 59 percent of 5A schools will advance to the postseason (16 of 29), while 53 percent advance in 4A (16 of 30).

The board also approved a proposal requiring all qualifying track meets to have fully automated timing systems for all classes. Previously, only meets hosts by 4A schools and larger required the computer system. Next year’s Class 1A/2A cross-country championship will allow the top six teams in each district plus the top four runners not on qualifying teams to advance to the final meet of the season.