GMC stuck between a rock and a hard place on boys’ quarterfinals, Super Bowl

Among major sports this Super Bowl Sunday, there are 71 games on the schedule.

That’s two in the NBA, four in the NHL, and 65 in Division 1 NCAA basketball, with 15 on the men’s side and 50 on the women’s.

There are also four high school boys’ basketball games being played on Super Bowl Sunday, in the Greater Middlesex Conference Tournament quarterfinals at Middlesex County College in Edison.

Of those 75 contests, only one should still be going on by the time the Eagles and Chiefs kick off in Glendale: a 5 pm women’s hoops tip-off in Tuscaloosa between Alabama and Auburn.

But the 1/8 game at MCC will be cutting it close.

But did the GMC really have another choice?

Last year, the NJSIAA shortened sports seasons to allow for “breaks” between seasons for multi-sport athletes to have some time off, both physically and mentally, a noble cause to be sure.

But it wound up compressing the seasons. And it forced the GMC Tournament a week earlier.

GMC officials say division schedules had already been made, and already in a compressed format. Even at that, the GMC Gold never finished divisional play before the seeding meeting on February 3rd, costing their eventual division winners one of the guaranteed top eight seeds (though whether that should be a guarantee is another story altogether).

Why not move the quarterfinal games earlier by a couple hours? Nice try, but the first of four games at MCC already starts at 11. You want to play at 9 am and get on that team bus at 7:30? I don’t think so.

Play some on Sunday and the others on Saturday? Where? There are already four girls’ semifinals at the County College on Saturday. Move them, you say? Then two teams have a quicker turnaround after the first round, and get an extra day of rest before the semifinals Tuesday. No coach would go for that.

Move some to Monday? Same issue with the boys’ semifinals on Wednesday.

Play at higher seeds? To begin with, good luck getting a public school to open on a Sunday. Mostly only big showcases take place on Sundays. And there is also a feeling – especially among the middle-high seeds – of wanting to “make it to Middlesex.” It’s a goal for a lot of teams, and a long-standing tradition. It’s also the big floor, a full 94-feet. Many high school gyms don’t have that.

Some school has to want to host it. And it’s not easy: there’s cost, getting bus drivers, and even officials – tougher as you look for the best officials – if it came to playing all eight games on Saturday.

Moving the tournament earlier in the calendar – yet again – is something that may be considered by the GMC for next season. They have more time to plan around the NJSIAA calendar.

Until then, a true basketball player and schools’ fans will show up on Sunday. Seriously, you’ve got Super Bowl options. Go to someone else’s party. Have someone else pick up the subs. You’re just going to root against the Iggles anyway.

And if all else fails, just man up. To paraphrase a former News Director of mine: “That’s why (insert your chosen deity, or none, here) invented the DVR.”