Last week, I said that I wasn't a big fan of the state tournaments, that they only made the high school seasons drag on longer than necessary.

I still believe that, as well as in regular seasons that have too many games, but didn't go into any great detail about it. That said, let's delve into it a little bit more.

Somewhere along the line I'm sure someone thought this was a great idea, that the players would know if they were the best in the entire state, not just their own little corner in it.

Of course, if there wasn't money to be made in all of this, it would have easily been shot down. I doubt if the players angle is the top reason.

It might have been a good idea in theory, but that's probably what it was at the time — a good idea. Over the next few years, some tough decisions are going to have to be made.

Namely, pay for play. School districts are going to be tightening their budgets and the athletic department is an easy target. Lots of after school programs and activities have been dropped for budgetary reasons. Gym classes and youth sports through schools have been scaled back and, in some cases, eliminated. Music programs, for example, have also taken a hit.

If schools are going to offer these sports, the money is going to have to come from somewhere. Sports like hockey already put the burden of cost on the players, so expect to see that happening soon.

The cost of fuel always is in flux, and if it goes through the roof again, will schools decide, yeah, it's worth sending two or three buses on road trips to games, especially nonconference games? And it takes heat to keep a school warm into the late-night hours and electricity to keep all the lights going.

It seems boys-girls doubleheaders could be in the future and you've seen that in some instances this year.

Bad weather also is a problem, as we've seen this month. An occasional storm is one thing, but being socked in like we all have been left a lot of schools scrambling.

A shorter schedule would make sense here — the same with spring sports as winter creeps into April and it can get pretty wet over a period of time — as would mixing the season with nonconference and conference games.

Why do teams have to load up on section games late in the season? A couple of early conference games never hurt anyone.

Everyone would be in the same boat. If schools had some nonconference games in the final week of the year, some schools wouldn't have been scrambling for makeup games that had to be played.

Sure, the thrill of a section race in the final day or days of the season is exciting, but not at the cost of squeezing in must-played games.

If the state tournament didn't loom overhead, there wouldn't be the rush. Districts could play out the schedule in due time and better decisions could be made.

Costs will have to be made by schools somewhere down the road, that's a given. You can only have so many bake sales and car washes. Ditching the state tournament would offset some of those costs right off the bat.

After that, we'll take it step by step. Times change and schools and leagues will have to adjust accordingly.