OIA-ILH Alliance OK’d for states, so why not for whole season?

It is commendable that they are discussing bringing back last year’s popular three-tiered football state championship at the Hawaii Interscholastic Athletic Directors Association annual meetings this week.

But the question athletic officials should be asking at several different league levels is: Why not adopt the three-tier football structure for the whole season, not just states?

The unspoken answer, of course, is petty politics and the decades-old feud that some dinosaurs refuse to see end.

HIADA is holding its 57th annual meeting and for 47 of those years the bad blood from the OIA-ILH breakup has not only endured but too often been projected into which measures pass and which don’t.

Which is why, you figure, the proposed OIA-ILH Alliance is having trouble gaining the requisite traction in various forums again this year when its worth should be most obvious.

Last year the OIA opposed, with dug-in heels and tightly-clenched teeth, the season-long alliance when it was initially proposed.

At one point it said it was even considering “whether or not to continue to participate in the (state) tournament.”

But officials were akamai enough by late September to realize that a three-tier — open, Division I and Division II — system for the state championships would make the most dollars — and sense. That’s why they went along with implementing for states and, sure enough, it paid off not only in interest but in affording better balance and more equitable matchups.

Privately, some of the old guard will even acknowledge, however begrudgingly, that they see it coming, eventually. Which is why it is puzzling that officials have thus far turned a collective cold shoulder to the proposal for the season-long OIA-ILH Alliance this year.

Such an alliance would help classify the 29 football-playing schools on Oahu in a way that the current Division I and Division II format does not, lessening the blowouts and promoting more attractive matchups.

It would encourage larger turnouts at the schools that, for lack of competitive options, too often needlessly find themselves fodder for the powerhouse programs.

With proposed tighter rules on transfers it also would significantly reduce one of the biggest, longest running areas of contention between public and private schools.

And while administrators lament the difficulty in adequately funding high school sports, they still turn their back on the pledge of $1 million a year — nearly $35,000 per football-playing school — that was offered up by supporters and community sponsors for up to three years. That is money that could be used to benefit much more than football teams.

Some, mostly those who bring a cold war mentality to the table, see three tiers as aiding and abetting the rival ILH. Call it the cutting-off-your-nose-to-spite-your-face school of thought.

Never mind that, in the big picture, it is better for all concerned, the players who get to compete on more equitable terms most of all. This was underlined last year when teams from three leagues — Maui, OIA and ILH — won state titles.

It took a quarter-century for high school football to move from the Oahu Prep Bowl to a genuine state championship format. And, then, another four years to embrace the wisdom of two divisions.

Let’s hope the wait isn’t as long for an OIA-ILH Alliance that feeds into a regular three-tier state championship format.

Reach Ferd Lewis at flewis@staradvertiser.com or 529-4820.