NEPSAC girls basketball has experienced rapid growth over the last two decades, both in its local prominence and its stature in the eyes of college coaches.
But what are the next steps for the conference?
In Part 3 of our girls coaches' survey, we're looking at three questions about the league's class structure, playoff system and recruiting visibility. I sent roughly 40 coaches our survey and 11 took the time to respond with their thoughts. Though these questions aren't a perfect representation of NEPSAC on the whole — and we have to remember volunteer response bias — they give some insight into how NEPSAC coaches are thinking about the state of girls basketball.
Here's what our participants had to say. You can also check out Part 1 of our survey on top prep school players and Part 2 on projected top teams.
What changes would you make to how NEPSAC's team classes are currently organized?
This is a bit of a leading question, and in fairness, we did have some coaches say that they did not need any significant changes.
However, a common criticism was the rigid nature of classes. Multiple coaches lobbied for some sort of competitive-based system for assigning teams to classes. One mentioned a promotion and relegation-style approach. Another even proposed a rough qualifier for AAA and AA, where AA teams with a certain win percentage over three years had to move up, while AAA teams below a benchmark had to move down.
"I would put more policy around who can be in AAA and AA instead of just whoever wants to be in can be. I don't want it to feel watered down," said one coach.
While AAA and AA are opt-in classes for NEPSAC girls basketball, some coaches wish powerhouse schools in the enrollment-based classes (Class A through Class C) were also spurred to move up.
"I wish there was a way to better encourage schools that are successful at the A and B Large and Small classes to play up at AA," said a coach. "AAA seems pretty set with the level that they play at. But AA could be the most competitive league by far if some of the successful A and B schools are able to play up and challenge themselves at a higher level throughout the season."
"The 'opt in' aspect of AA and AAA makes sense, but it’d be nice to see some type of performance-based changes," wrote another. "Loomis has always been Class A, but there’s been years where they could have won AAA. On the other hand there’s teams that are AA that would have trouble making playoffs in Class B."
The idea of performance-based classifications dominated this question, but we had some smaller notes as well. Two coaches mentioned removing the six "up" game limit (schools in lower classes can only schedule six games in a higher class outside of their league foes). One coach noted that it would allow schools in smaller or weaker leagues to build a more competitive schedule.
One coach just wants to see consistency in rules and classifications, which have changed significantly over the last two years.
"Just be consistent with numbers, changes, etc. I don't see a need to change it every few years," they said. "It has a significant impact on scheduling. I also don't think we need a 'small' and a 'large' class. Just one class, or make one B and the other C, then make Class C, Class D. With the new ranking system, which I think is awesome, class matters, but not as much as it used to."
What changes would you make to NEPSAC's current playoff system?
Again, we had multiple coaches say they were satisfied with the current playoff setup.
One notable gripe is with the current playoff schedule of Wednesday quarterfinals, Saturday semifinals and Super Sunday championships. Multiple coaches wish the semifinals were moved a day earlier.
"It's hard due to the timing of league tournaments on one end and spring break on the other, but I'd say two main things--one easily achievable and the other not so much," one coach said. "Make the semis on Friday instead of Saturday. Going Saturday and then finals on Sunday can be challenging, especially if you're traveling 3-4 hours one way to play and then back the other way. A day in between could help with the level of Sunday's games."
That same coach went on to propose 10-team NEPSAC playoff brackets, with 7-through-10 seeds competing in a Monday play-in game similar to the NBA's format. Though that was the only such proposal, another coach vouched for expanding the field in larger classes.
"The bigger classes should add teams. Class B is huge and with only 8 teams getting in (it) is tough," the coach said.
Some coaches brought up how playoff seeding works, nitpicking the weight of head-to-head wins and the coaches' association formula. We've dived deep on how it all works here. Others took issue with travel restrictions. In certain cases, NESPAC limits how far its schools can travel for playoff games. That results in neutral site matchups or even potential altered seeding in the brackets.
"I believe the travel distance should be irrelevant for playoff games and if you have earned a home game you should always get it. I understand and fully support the academic standards but for one day for a select few teams, I feel they should be required to travel the extra few miles to give the team that earned the home game their home game," one coach said.
What’s one change you would make to further help NEPSAC players get recruited by college coaches?
The common theme in these answers: more opportunities for visibility.
Right now, NEPSAC programs are kicking off their open gym schedules. But some coaches lament the randomness of these runs and believe better scheduling could better serve college coaches.
"More communication among NEPSAC coaches in regards to scheduling open gyms so that coaches coming from outside the region can see multiple schools each day. Too many times open gyms are held at the same time, and coaches can't get to all of them," one coach said. "It is important to note that this is not a NEPSAC coaches issue solely-- many schools have restrictions that prevent coaches from running open gyms whenever we want (gym availability, academic and study hall obligations, girls playing another sport, etc.). I do think there will be more collaboration in the future about this. It is something that several NEPSAC coaches are already talking about."
To that last point, six AAA schools are coordinating open gyms throughout the day on Sunday, Sept. 27. So this idea seems to be generating momentum.
Multiple coaches pushed for more showcases, either another Scholastic Showcase to match the boys' two summer events (though this would require the NCAA changing its recruiting calendar) or more large-scale fall and winter tournaments. On the girls' side, the Nickerson Showcase is the premier holiday tournament, and several others like the AA Midwinter Classic pop up throughout the season. But there could be room for more.
"More showcase events at central locations. 'Mini' NEPSAC showcases during the year. Pack the gym with talent and let coaches come watch," said one coach.
A couple of coaches suggested changing practice rules to allow more offseason practice time with teams, or be more flexible regarding coaching their own AAU players.
"Coaches should be able to coach 1-2 players from their school per AAU team," one wrote. "The NEPSAC has stricter offseason coaching policies than any other state public schools which puts our NEPSAC players at a disadvantage."
And again, some coaches said the NEPSAC already does a good job at promoting its players. One added that AAA schools in particular should try to play more nationally recognized schools to help platform the conference.
"I feel AAA should push to play a national schedule. It would provide more attention to how good our league is," they said.
