Latest chapter in LHSAA playoff battle far from the last

This won’t end anytime soon, will it?
With the battle over select and non-select distinctions between Louisiana high schools and the Louisiana High School Athletic Association now moving into the courtrooms, it’s safe to say we won’t be hearing the end of it anytime soon.
That idea was driven home in a big way last Monday when a Louisiana judge filed a temporary injunction in favor of nine member LHSAA schools who are currently suing the organization.
The decision effectively barred the LHSAA from keeping its current playoff format that was adopted last fall and included an updated definition of what constitutes a “select” school within the organization.
The decision is pending further legal proceedings.
It, in effect, says that member schools should have a say in the criteria that determined a select and non-select school within the organization.
As of now, the definitions of “select” and “non-select” will return to definitions previously accepted for baseball, basketball, football and softball.
The next step is that the outcomes of these discussions will be presented to the association’s executive committee for more deliberation and further action.
The nine schools heading up the lawsuit – Buckeye, Carroll, Glenmora, Neville, Northwood (Lena), Plainview, Rapides, Tioga and Wossman – are now potentially the catalysts for earth-shattering changes in Louisiana high school athletics.
If the change occurs, it’s one that is a long time coming and needed. It’s an idea I don’t bat around lightly and with bias, as my alma mater Eunice won a state championship in football in 2018 in the middle of the split.
I, personally, do not think the split is entirely bad. As I said in the previous paragraph, it has given schools who previously had no shot at state glory an opportunity to bring pure joy to student bodies and towns that previously wouldn’t have had the chance.
Success isn’t a bad thing. Call it watered down if you want. Yet, there have been many schools who haven’t won state championships post-split despite these supposedly vanilla fields.
However, the LHSAA’s attempt at further defining the split was a bridge too far in many ways.
First, and foremost, defining many schools as select because of one or two programs within their schools is laughable.
The definition should be simple. No annual tuition, no select distinction. It isn’t hard.
Secondly, and this is now in the area of where the legal battle is currently ongoing, is that I completely agree that the member schools should have a say in the working definition of what constitutes a select or non-select school in the LHSAA.
That, to me, seems fair. That members of an organization have a say in how it is run and the decisions made within it.
Ultimately, it feels likely that the imbroglio will take another twist or two before the end of football’s regular season.
The Louisiana Prep Classic is, after all, the crowned jewel of LHSAA events. And it would seem to me that the LHSAA wouldn’t want to enter into its trademark event with egg on its face.
The organization has shown itself too proud for that to happen in the past and I don’t see that changing any time soon.