ROPSSAA: Get ready for cuts

Go to the ROPSSAA Website and click on the various sports. Then click on the playoff match-ups. Do you notice any differences from last year?

In case you're not sure, note the number of teams in the playoffs compared to Fall, 2010. Here are a few examples:

Football: Last year, the top 8 teams made the tier 1 playoffs; this year their are only 6. In Junior football, the difference was even more pronounced. Last year, the top 16 made the tier 1 playoffs and the other 4 teams made the tier 2 playoffs. This year, only the top 8 made the tier 1 playoffs and there is no tier 2.

Boys Volleyball: Last year, the top 16 made the tier 1 playoffs and the next 16 made the tier 2 playoffs in both senior and junior. This year, it is top 16 and next 8 in both levels.

Girls Basketball: Last year, the top 16 in senior girls made the tier 1 playoffs and the next 16 made the tier 2 playoffs. This year, it is 12 and 8, respectively. In junior, it's an even bigger reduction; going from 16 and 16 to 8 and 8.

These are just three examples but you can be sure there will be more of them as the year progresses.

Why?

You can blame the Ontario School Food and Beverage Policy. As you may already know, many high fat foods and sugar-filled drinks have been banned from Ontario school cafeterias and vending machines. While this is an admirable goal, lost in this move was the amount of money companies like Coke and Pepsi provided for schools. This also included a significant amount of funding for ROPSSAA expenses.

Now there is a large hole in the budget. How large? Enough that there was a special general meeting held earlier in the Fall to discuss options. Some proposed options included, eliminating medals and playoffs for tier 2; cutting back on the number of sports; requiring volunteer coaches to carry more of the weight in administration; severely cutting back the number of games; and many sports-specific proposals. One thing that was not on the table was increased funding from each school. Many of them are already tapped out after dealing with enrollment drops and cuts to funding,

It looks like cutting back on the playoffs is the first step of what might be any more cutbacks. It will be interesting to track if the cuts are spread fairly evenly or if some sports feel the brunt more than others.