The maligned high school basketball playoff setup used by the Louisiana High School Athletic Association may be getting a makeover and it could come quickly.
The girls and boys basketball postseason, as well as proposal to try to curb athletic-related holdbacks, are among the topics the LHSAA executive committee will discuss when it convenes its three-day summer meetings today in Baton Rouge.
"They threw a lot of options out there," Bossier High principal David Thrash said about the changes regarding the playoffs. "We're going to have to move the regional sites."
In March, the LHSAA played its first combined boys and girls basketball state finals at the Thomas Assembly Center in Ruston. The event had been moved from Bossier City's CenturyLink Center to Louisiana Tech's campus.
Changes in college basketball schedules have forced the LHSAA to look at different sites for the semifinal rounds, which were played at ULM's Fant-Ewing Coliseum, Southeastern Louisiana's University Center and the Lake Charles Civic Center last year.
"All the colleges are bumped for regional sites, except for Lake Charles because they play at the Civic Center," Thrash said.
They LHSAA also will make a decision on playing the girls and boys tournaments concurrently. Prior to the 2011-12 season, the girls semifinals and finals were held at one site one week prior to the boys semifinals and finals.
The basketball discussion is set to take place on the second day of the meetings immediately preceding a "golf request for proposals" where state championship bids are expected to be accepted.
Thrash said the committee has a proposal ready to submit regarding holding back students for athletic gains aimed at reducing the number of 19-year-old student-athletes competing at the high school level.
The proposal would make Sept. 1 a cutoff date for those involved.
"Our proposal was for the Class of 2016 moving the age to 18," he said. "We had 2,682 19-year-olds compete this year in Louisiana. That's a lot."
The committee also expects to discuss recovery school districts as well as homeschooled athletes. Thrash used Carver High School in New Orleans as an example of the LHSAA's struggle with exactly how to classify recovery schools.
"This year, Carver will be 10th, 11th and 12th grade," Thrash said. "Their ninth grader is in a new incoming charter school that will phase out Carver. Next year, they'll be just 11th and 12th grade and the year after that they'll be just 12th grade. The question is how do you count their attendance and where they compete?
Connect with Jason Pugh on Twitter at @JasonSPugh.
