WPIAL declines basketball coaches’ request to revive PIAA play-in games

By: HSSN Staff
Monday, January 21, 2019 | 9:48 PM

WPIAL basketball teams hoping to reach the state playoffs will keep following the winner.

The WPIAL board denied a request from some basketball coaches to re-implement play-in games this season for determining which teams qualify for the PIAA tournament. The WPIAL used play-in games for a short time but abandoned them once basketball expanded to six classifications in 2016-17.

The WPIAL didn’t dismiss the idea completely, but voted at Monday’s board meeting to wait until after this two-year cycle ends to reconsider. That means the earliest the play-in game could return would be the 2020-21 season.

“We’ll give it strong consideration at the next realignment,” WPIAL executive director Tim O’Malley said. “It will depend on how many qualifiers we get and how we might be able to fit it in.”

The WPIAL concerns are twofold, he said.

One, the play-in games were always a struggle financially because of low attendance. And two, the WPIAL doesn’t have open dates in the playoff schedule now that there are six classifications.

“The last time we did it, we had two days to play with: Mondays and Thursdays were off days,” O’Malley said. “We played Tuesday into Friday, and Wednesday into Saturday, so we were able to do it. We’re playing six days a week now.”

The current follow-the-winner system rewards teams that lost to the eventual WPIAL champion or runner-up.

For example, in Class 6A boys basketball, the WPIAL sends five teams to the PIAA playoffs. The four WPIAL semifinalists automatically qualify along with whichever team lost in the quarterfinals to the eventual WPIAL champion.

Chris Harlan is a Tribune-Review staff writer. You can contact Chris at charlan@tribweb.com or via Twitter @CHarlan_Trib.