The West Virginia Board of Education sunk its official teeth into Paden City High School's plea for parity on Wednesday, with the result being a bite mark that will probably smart for some time.

Board members are overwhelmingly against Paden City principal Warren Grace's SSAC-approved proposal to divide member schools into four competitive classes for the purpose of football and basketball championships.

A final vote on the measure comes today, although it likely will resemble the 2006 decision blocking a similar proposal to create a fourth class only in football.

That vote was 9-0 against a further split.

Instead of additional ripping of the proposal and the thought processes behind it, it could be prudent to look at an alternative method to bring about the even playing field that Grace and his cohorts desire.

Ohio's classification methods have been brought up on many occasions during the conversation on Grace's proposal. Perhaps something else should be eyeballed when looking at the Buckeye State's way of doing things.

Ohio approaches football much the same way it - and West Virginia - approaches basketball. That is, with a regional format. Schools compete for playoff spots within their division (or class) inside their own region, so each area is going to be represented somehow in the state playoffs.

Regional representation by itself is a horrible way by which to determine a playoff field. But when regional play is combined with a system that rewards regular-season performance within the context of the entire state ... well, now you're on to something.

The recent revamping of the basketball tournament format has given just about each team with any legitimate claim to a State Tournament berth that very opportunity.

If Grace, Paden City Athletic Director Fred King and their backers want a better chance at reaching the playoffs in football, they would receive a better response by suggesting a regional plan.

It would spare everyone the chaos of divisional realignment for the sake of two sports, it would save the SSAC a headache in trying to figure out how to stage yet another championship game during the final weekend of postseason playoffs and, face it, such a suggestion would allow Grace to save a little bit of face.

As it is, Paden City has - by the actions of its administrators - become the current patron school of the whining class.

By adopting a regional playoff format, the state could keep its three-class formula in football and create greater interest for the first round of the playoffs, at the very least.

How would it work and look?

The West Virginia Board of Education sunk its official teeth into Paden City High School's plea for parity on Wednesday, with the result being a bite mark that will probably smart for some time.

Board members are overwhelmingly against Paden City principal Warren Grace's SSAC-approved proposal to divide member schools into four competitive classes for the purpose of football and basketball championships.

A final vote on the measure comes today, although it likely will resemble the 2006 decision blocking a similar proposal to create a fourth class only in football.

That vote was 9-0 against a further split.

Instead of additional ripping of the proposal and the thought processes behind it, it could be prudent to look at an alternative method to bring about the even playing field that Grace and his cohorts desire.

Ohio's classification methods have been brought up on many occasions during the conversation on Grace's proposal. Perhaps something else should be eyeballed when looking at the Buckeye State's way of doing things.

Ohio approaches football much the same way it - and West Virginia - approaches basketball. That is, with a regional format. Schools compete for playoff spots within their division (or class) inside their own region, so each area is going to be represented somehow in the state playoffs.

Regional representation by itself is a horrible way by which to determine a playoff field. But when regional play is combined with a system that rewards regular-season performance within the context of the entire state ... well, now you're on to something.

The recent revamping of the basketball tournament format has given just about each team with any legitimate claim to a State Tournament berth that very opportunity.

If Grace, Paden City Athletic Director Fred King and their backers want a better chance at reaching the playoffs in football, they would receive a better response by suggesting a regional plan.

It would spare everyone the chaos of divisional realignment for the sake of two sports, it would save the SSAC a headache in trying to figure out how to stage yet another championship game during the final weekend of postseason playoffs and, face it, such a suggestion would allow Grace to save a little bit of face.

As it is, Paden City has - by the actions of its administrators - become the current patron school of the whining class.

By adopting a regional playoff format, the state could keep its three-class formula in football and create greater interest for the first round of the playoffs, at the very least.

How would it work and look?

Carve the state into four reasonably equal regions. Class AA regions in the south and Class A regions in the north would be slightly larger than their counterparts due to the higher number of schools of those respective sizes in those areas.

Using the same formula by which the SSAC currently determines playoff teams, simply take the top four finishers in each class from each region as playoff qualifiers. Within the region, the first round would consist of games between the No. 1 seed and No. 4 seed as well as a pairing of the Nos. 2 and 3 schools.

The second week would be the regional final round. From there, the two regional winners in the north would play as would the two southern regional winners in the state semifinals.

A top-four finish within a field of approximately 10 schools in a local area could put more emphasis on the importance of regular-season games and give smaller schools a better ability to qualify for the postseason. Since most teams in a region are familiar with one another, it would create more drama for the first and second rounds of the playoffs.

Rematches of regular-season games in the playoffs are often the stuff of legend.

St. Albans' shootout win over Nitro in the 2008 playoffs, after being blown out by the Wildcats in the regular season, is a perfect example. So are Capital's two dramatic wins over Riverside in consecutive weeks last fall.

As another side effect, you'd always have a North-South final in all three classes, thus eliminating such talk of Wayne playing Tolsia for the Class AA title in Huntington, or James Monroe playing Bluefield in Princeton instead of Wheeling.

SSAC Executive Director Gary Ray hinted on Wednesday that such a change in playoff format could be closer on the horizon than many might think.

"We're going that way," Ray said. "With gas prices making travel so expensive we've really got to. It's coming."

Ray pointed to the commission's adoption of the Bill Gillispie-designed basketball redesign as proof of the organization's intentions.

"We've already done it with basketball. Now with the new basketball format instead of traveling 100 miles for a regional game, the higher seeded teams will be playing at home," Ray said. "Those are the kinds of things we need to look at doing."

There are, of course, liabilities to this plan.

Certain regions would have more than four playoff-caliber teams and their protests would be vocal. Also, a No. 1 seed in a competitive region isn't going to take kindly to playing perhaps the eighth or ninth-best team in the state in the first round of the playoffs, even if that team is just the fourth and final playoff qualifier within its region.

No format will ever make ever participant happy. If competition and a level playing field are the guiding principles to create a method everyone can at least accept, a regional format may be the best way to go.