Retire the ping-pong balls

(7-7-26) It is time for the Indiana High School Athletic Association (IHSAA) to eliminate the blind draw and retire the ping-pong balls. It is long over due. Why has this not been an issue by coaches and ADs?

RELATED: The IHSAA’s ‘Sacred Cow’ The Blind Draw

The current method makes a mockery of the football playoffs. The IHSAA could do the ping-pong ball method before the season even starts…the same result as doing it at the end of the season. Since there is no seeding process…why wait.

About the Draw
To conduct the random drawing for the state tournaments, the IHSAA places ping-pong balls representing each school in each sectional into a lottery-style air mix machine. A motorized fan in the bottom of the machine blows the balls around the inside of the transparent container and air then forces each ball up through a tube in random order.

For example, the first ball retrieved from the machine will be the visiting team in game one with the second ball representing the home team in game one. The third ball to come out is the visitor in game two and the fourth ball the home team in game two. That same method is followed through all 64 sectionals and 16 regionals.

A 9-0 team and a 0-9 are no different in the current format.

Put it to the vote of the membership…but don’t look for the association leaders to ever do that. The current IHSAA leaders are even afraid to defend the process.

Take the NIL (IHSAA didn’t call it that) recent debacle, transfers run rampant with an unofficial transfer portal, transgender policy, etc.

So what is the defense for the blind draw and ping-pong balls? Feel free to tell why it is the best format for Indiana.

Did you know?

All IHSAA team sports use ping-pong balls in a blind draw to determine brackets.