Down with the NCHSAA

I really don't like the North Carolina High School Athletic Association. Sure Rick Strunk is a nice guy, and Que Tucker seems OK, but the organization as a whole just stinks.

Why, you ask, have I taken aim at this body? Read on...

The football playoff system - Do we really need 256 teams in the playoffs? Do we really need EIGHT state champions? Is there any other reason behind this than pure greed? The answers are no, heck no and of course not.

The selection process - In a year when the SWFH 3A should be getting three or four baseball bids, it's getting two. Burns, Crest or Kings Mountain - or maybe more than one of them - will miss the postseason. Why? Because they built a few new schools in the East. Which leads me to...

The Eastern bias - The NCHSAA palace compound, uh, offices are located in Chapel Hill. I understand the need to have the football championships in the Triangle area, but Western basketball regionals in Winston-Salem? Title games in Raleigh? What's wrong with Charlotte, Boone, Boiling Springs (GWU) or Western Carolina? High Point Central was moved out of the East and into the West in the MIDDLE of the basketball playoffs. And there's a lot more...

I just think it's time that athletic directors stood up for the Western part of the state.

Somebody needs to.

Well heeled

Nobody dislikes the university of North Carolina more than me. As a South Carolina native and a Clemson fan, I have absolutely no reason to cheer for the baby blues.

Somebody asked me last month: "Who do you root for when Duke and Carolina play?" My retort: "It's too bad they both can't lose."

With that piece of trivia on display, here's the short version of my column in Saturday's Star:

The Heels are the best team in college basketball.

Period.

They will flatten Michigan State in the Final Four before dispatching Illinois or Louisville (probably the latter) on Monday in the national championship game.

Then people will have to think of a new question to ask Roy Williams, because "Gee, why haven't you won a national championship" just won't apply any longer.

Of course, then we'll have to deal with a year's worth of amped-up Tar Heel arrogance and Blue Devil angst. Not to mention Deacon and Wolfpack envy.

You've gotta love life as a fan of the Big Four.

Unless, of course, it's football season...