Why Do We Have Such Terms

Let me begin by doing a spring cleaning of my brain with a thought I’ve had in there for a while.

I can’t stand the term “(blank) will test the NBA draft waters.” It’s one we hear often. At one point last week, my AP wire had that headline for four different stories that came out within about two hours of each other as several college players happened to announce that they’d become available for the NBA draft but left open the opportunity to return to school. Last I checked, getting to the NBA doesn’t include a swim.

But it’s typical of the turns our sports vernacular takes in these mass media times. Games used to be won by “game-winning” plays. Now they’re won by “walk-offs”.
This term gets under my skin because how do you know that those who exited the field “walked-off”.

So, within the next few weeks we’ll see how many players who “tested the NBA Draft waters” decide to return to school. I can only think they’ll have to reach for a towel at that point. Maybe they’ll look up at the TV and see a “walk-off homer” while they’re drying off.

To another matter as the South Carolina High School League’s executive committee voted earlier this week to stick with four classifications when they go through with the scheduled realignment in a couple of years.

A group of athletic directors offered a plan of three classes instead of four for consideration. Theirs would have had 64 teams in AAA and AA and the rest (about 75) in A and each level would have playoffs set-up to have two state champions in all sports.

While this idea could ease some issues with aligning regions and travel it would have caused various issues.

For one, schools in that 55 to 64 range could get stuck in the same region with the biggest schools in the state and have a nearly 2,000-student difference. Granted, they’d be working toward a different playoff bracket within their classification but such a disparity makes it impossible to even consider winning your region title. You could make similar comparisons on the other two levels.

What would also be a major hurdle for such a plan would be the clutter of state championships you’d confront in each sport. For example, you’d have to have 12 title games in basketball (boys and girls) which would make impossible to squeeze into one weekend at the same site. And that would be the case in many other sports.

So the way it is is how it will stay. When they come up with the final realignment plan this summer there will likely again be complaints as there always are. But they won’t be able to gripe about a change as radical as shrinking the number of classes.