Some districts might cancel tourney

Is it possible that not every high school basketball district in New Mexico will have a tournament this season? Yes, it is. The New Mexico Activities Association has taken an extraordinary measure, giving individual districts the option of cancelling their district tournaments — IF a particular district has so many league games that must be rescheduled due to COVID-19 and school shutdowns, that the only way to get them all played by late February is to have some of them contested during the week that normally is reserved for the district tournament.

And since the only way for a school to qualify for the March state tournament is to play 100% of their district games, it is possible that some districts may bypass a league tournament so that all its members can play the entirety of their regular season district schedule.

NMAA Executive Director Sally Marquez said Monday that her organization has amended its bylaws to reflect this possibility.

During the COVID-impacted, and shortened, 2021 season, the NMAA revised its bylaws, allowing schools to qualify for state having played only 50 percent of its district contests.

In basketball, there are two ways to automatically qualify for state, under normal circumstances. One is to win the regular season, the other is to win the district tournament.

If a district chooses against having a tournament, the automatic qualifier is the regular-season champ. And if there is a tie for first place, tiebreaking procedures will be used to determine the first-place team.

The final day of the regular season is Saturday, Feb. 19. District tournament week begins Monday, Feb. 21. All regular-season games must be finished by Saturday, Feb. 26, ahead of the announcement of the state tournament fields in Classes 1A-5A.