Is it time to expand Idaho’s state tournaments? Here’s what IHSAA high schools said

A strong majority of Idaho high schools want to expand their state tournaments, the state’s governing body revealed Wednesday.

An Idaho High School Activities Association survey showed 68% of the state’s superintendents, principals and athletic directors want to expand the current state tournaments.

The survey also found 16% rejected expansion, and 15% of the 268 respondents said they might favor expansion.

“It’s very clear the majority of people in the state are interested in some type of expansion,” Ty Jones, the executive director of the IHSAA, said during Wednesday’s board meeting.

But what that expansion will look like or when it will come remains up in the air.

The IHSAA has either finalized or started to finalize its state tournament brackets for next year, meaning any expansion would likely have to wait until at least the 2025-26 school year.

The state has also not reached any consensus on what a new format would look like. It could feature more play-in games, or Idaho could revamp its state qualification process entirely.

“There are more than a couple ideas,” Jones said in a phone interview. “There’s just not one that I’ve heard that 75% of the people say, ‘This is exactly what we should do.’

“… I don’t hear from a lot of people that we need more than eight teams. We just need a different way to get eight teams there.”

Outside of football, Idaho teams clinch state berths in their district tournaments. Each district gets a proportional number of state berths based on the number of teams in their league. That includes a few last-chance spots reserved for play-in games.

The goal is to provide equal representation from each region of the state. But it hasn’t always sent the best teams to the tournament.

Preston’s boys basketball program stands as the state’s unfortunate poster child. Preston finished first or second at the 4A state tournament six years in a row from 2016 to ‘21. But the Indians now play in a three-team league, which only gets one state berth.

Pocatello claimed that berth the past three years, bringing home the first- or second-place trophy each time. But that meant Preston stayed at home despite finishing second, third and sixth in the classification’s MaxPreps.com rankings those seasons.

Idaho instead sent lower-ranked teams to state those three years. The state uses MaxPreps rankings to seed its tournament matchups, but it does not use them to determine who qualifies.

“In my opinion, most people want representation,” Preston boys basketball coach Tyler Jones said. “That’s important to all districts, and I’m totally for that.

“But also, you want the best teams (at state). With expansion, if done correctly, you could get the best of both of those.”