KHSAA looks to keep Girls’ Sweet 16 basketball tournament in Rupp Arena through 2028
The Kentucky High School Athletic Association aims to sign a new deal with Central Bank Center to keep the Mingua Beef Jerky Girls’ Sweet 16 in Rupp Arena at least through 2028.
Rupp Arena has been home to the girls’ state basketball tournament for the last four years, but 2021 was the final year of the contract.
The KHSAA Board of Control had already authorized Commissioner Julian Tackett and his staff to negotiate a new deal to keep the tournament in Rupp but, Tackett said, Central Bank Center management asked to delay those talks until after this year’s event and “until they saw, really, what was close to a full state tournament.”
The 2020 tournament was stopped by the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic and 2021’s was held under attendance restrictions, making 2019 the only real measure of the event’s potential until this year.
With the 2022 attendance totals surpassing 35,000 over four days and the arena setting the third-highest attendance mark for any girls’ session at any site with 6,790 on a Friday afternoon, the Central Bank Center has signaled it’s ready to hammer out a new agreement.
“They’re very eager to have this as a long-term commitment,” Tackett told the board. “And therefore it’s my recommendation that you all authorize us to do whatever we need to do to get that in writing where we don’t have to worry about the girls’ site until we have to worry about the boys’.”
The contract for the UK Healthcare Boys’ Sweet 16 runs through 2028 and the KHSAA will seek to get the girls’ tournament to match that, Tackett said.
The boys’ tournament has been held continuously at Rupp Arena since 1995. The girls’ tournament has been there only since 2019 when 40,852 came to downtown Lexington for it that year. That total set the highest attendance mark for the event since 2011 when it was in the midst of a long run at Western Kentucky University’s Diddle Arena in Bowling Green.
State golf’s first-round sites set
The KHSAA has secured sites for the first ever “state first round” golf tournaments to be held this fall. The final rounds of the boys’ and girls’ state tournaments will continue to be held at Bowling Green Country Club.
In a tweak of its state tournaments to include more golfers and assuage critics of the more exclusive format revision that has been in place over the last few years, the KHSAA established three “first-round” sites for its boys’ and girls’ golf championships.
For Regions 9-12, which includes eastern Kentucky and Lexington-area schools, the state first-round site will be Winchester Country Club this year. Western Kentucky’s Regions 1-4 will play at Owensboro Country Club. The Louisville and Northern Kentucky Regions 5-8 will play at Heritage Hill Golf Course in Shepherdsville.
The KHSAA hopes to establish a site rotation for each state first-round event. Two additional sites have been secured for 2023 with Calvert City Country Club and Kenton County Golf Course agreeing to host. In 2024, only Hopkinsville Country Club has signed on, so far.
Volleyball dates moved
With the Breeders’ Cup being held at Keeneland this year on Nov. 4-5, the board moved up the dates of the volleyball state tournament quarterfinals, semis and finals in Winchester due to what is expected to be premium pricing for hotels in Central Kentucky that weekend.
The quarterfinals will be held Thursday, Nov. 3 with the semifinals and finals on Friday, Nov. 4 at George Rogers Clark High School. The first round of the tournament, to be held at various high school campus sites, remains unchanged as Monday, Oct. 31.
Boys’ volleyball gains steam
Boys’ volleyball, currently a club sport like lacrosse, is near the threshold required for the KHSAA to consider it as a sanctioned sport.
In the latest KHSAA triennial survey, 49 schools have expressed interest in adding a boys’ volleyball team if the KHSAA sanctions it. The threshold for the board to consider sanctioning a championship in a new sport is 50.
This spring, several Fayette County schools had boys’ volleyball teams and this Saturday, Lafayette and Henry Clay high schools will host the 2022 KVCA Boys Volleyball State Tournament, featuring 12 schools, including the hosts as well as St. Xavier, West Jessamine, Franklin County, Paul Laurence Dunbar and Western Hills.
Longtime Henry Clay girls’ volleyball Coach Dale Grupe is the tournament director.
The KHSAA board took no action on boys’ volleyball as the survey is used as an information document at this time.
Girls’ wrestling on the horizon
For its next board meeting in July, the KHSAA staff will draw up a plan and offer more insight into the potential for sanctioning girls’ wrestling.
Unlike lacrosse or some other unsanctioned sports, the KHSAA does not need an expressed desire from 50 schools to have a girls’ division in wrestling because it’s not really a separate sport from boys’ wrestling, Tackett told the board. The rules are the same with only the weight classifications being different. In the past, the KHSAA has cited Title IX as a reason for sanctioning a girls’ sport such as field hockey without the 50-school threshold being met.
The KHSAA’s latest triennial survey showed 42 schools already competing in or interested in girls’ wrestling. At this past season’s coaches association state meet, 210 female wrestlers from 64 schools competed.
Experimental shot clocks?
Tackett told the board that the KHSAA would authorize experimentation with a basketball shot clock “if schools want to use it for an event or a tournament.” He added that the KHSAA has already received a couple of requests to do so.
“The only requirement is going to be that they have to provide data: How many violations did you have? How many delays and resets did you have?” Tackett said, noting that the data would help schools see whether some of the logistical concerns critics have about high school shot clocks are really a problem.
While the KHSAA’s full membership has previously voted against the use of a basketball shot clock, the National Federation of State High School Associations came out in favor of its use last year. However, the NFHS left the decision to its individual member states. Several states have adopted it.
More from the KHSAA’s triennial survey
Other highlights from the triennial survey of the KHSAA’s membership include:
▪ Lacrosse: There’s not much change from last fall. There is interest from 45 schools for boys’ lacrosse and 46 for girls’. Those numbers are still shy of the 50-school threshold the board sets for consideration of sanctioning a new championship. Locally, one of the state’s two girls’ club championships is set for Saturday at Henry Clay. The local club boys’ championship is scheduled to take place a week from Saturday at Great Crossing.
▪ Weight lifting: The breakdown of school interest is 54 teams for boys and 46 schools for girls. The KHSAA staff will explore further.
▪ Girls’ bass fishing: 30 schools expressed interest in having a separate girls’ bass fishing championship. Girls are eligible for the boys’/co-ed tournament, which is being held this weekend at Kentucky Dam Marina in Gilbertsville.
▪ Flag football, riflery and trap shooting: Each of these sports has enough interest from schools for the KHSAA staff to offer some guidance and support for them. Girls’ flag football has interest from 42 schools, riflery has interest from 43/36 schools (boys/girls) and trap shooting has interest from 40/38 schools.
A football RPI tweak?
Tackett suggested the board could consider a possible tweak to the KHSAA’s RPI formula to begin in the 2023 season to coincide with the next class realignment. The change would give large schools one game against a smaller school opponent in which a loss to that smaller school would not hurt the large school’s RPI rating. The proposed change would respond to concerns that small schools are having trouble scheduling larger-school opponents because of the potential negative RPI impact that could hurt their playoff seeding.
COVID-19 protocols
Upon recommendation from the state sports medicine advisory committee, the KHSAA changed its six-day return-to-play protocol to a recommendation for its districts rather than a requirement. KHSAA guidance also will recommend that athletes who test positive for COVID-19 consult with a medical professional.
