I understand the money aspect of it, but at the same time, how much money would they really be losing out on? Half of the first and probably a fourth of the second round games, aren't good anymore. With almost all of the teams making the playoffs, you see a lot of blowouts or teams that have already played each other in the first round.
Based on the handbook,
- 0-75 miles one way, for the away team gets $270 for food.
- 76-149 miles, $270 for food and .75 per mile.
- 150 miles and up, the away team gets $360 for motel costs if they stay.
Officials for playoffs are $110 - $128 per official depending on round, with rounds 1 & 2 having teams of 5 and rounds 3+ having 7 (I believe that is the correct round it increases).
After those expenses are NCHSAA then gets a percentage of net gate sales.
- 15% for rounds 1 & 2
- 20% for round 3
- 25% for round 4
- 33% for regional games.
I can only image that some of those first round games are losing money for the schools. I could potentially agree on 32 teams per classification, but if you went to 16 teams, you could charge an extra $1 per round (I know, no one wants to pay more, but you would also be going to less games) and increase the percentage (a point or two) per round and NCHSAA would still make plenty of money. With some of these smaller/weaker schools barely funding teams as it is, some of these far 1st and 2nd round games, in which most of these teams don't even belong in, are killing the boosters and will eventually not have support.