Leading off today: The impact of Albany Academy's move to the New England Preparatory School Athletic Council in boys basketball is beginning to be felt.
Firstly, it's been confirmed that the Cadets will no longer be able to schedule NYSPHSAA basketball opponents beginning with the 2025-26 season. Aside from the fact that Albany Academy will be playing in an approved association, the Cadets will be going the route of utilizing post-graduate players. The first among them will be returnee Jamar Macon, a senior post player on the squad that went 22-2 last winter.
Albany Academy played six NYSPHSAA opponents last season.
On another front, the move to NEPSAC is leading to player moves. We mentioned in a previous blog that Niskayuna point guard Daniel Smalls, the school's career scoring leader, will enroll at Albany Academy in the fall. Now, the Times Union reports Antonio Fairley of Canajoharie, coming off a season in which he averaged 25.1 points and 8.2 rebounds to make fourth-team all-state in Class C, is also joining the Cadets.
"When there was the death of the Federation Tournament, it really impacted us," Cadets coach Jim Driggs said. "There are several different parts to it. I will lead with the basketball part. The end of the Federation definitely impacted us. We already had a relationship with NEPSAC with other sports (like hockey, football and lacrosse) and the schools have been talking about making the slow move over. As a basketball guy, it really piqued my interest because it is one of the premier basketball leagues in the country. The opportunity to compete at that level was exciting for us."
Penalized for seeking out better competition?
Mike Dougherty of LoHud.com made a valid point in his wrap-up of the boys lacrosse season, and it also applies to many other Section 1 sports.
In short, Section 1's formula for establishing eligibility for the postseason and determining seedings punishes teams that go outside the section to take on high-end competition.
As far as the section is concerned, all wins are equal when it comes to awarding base seeding points. But there are also points to be had when the team's opponents finish at .500 or better during the regular season. But those bonus points only apply to Section 1 opponents.
In the case of lacrosse, that creates a disincentive to schedule non-leaguers against Long Island schools or opponents from Connecticut. For instance, Mamaroneck and Somers crossed the state line to play New Canaan (18-3 final record). Somers, John Jay Cross River, and Rye played Ridgefield (17-4). Yorktown and Mamaroneck faced Darien (13-8).
The New York schools lost every one of those contests, but they should have been entitled to bonus points based on final records for their opponents. Multiple other schools also lost out because they got better by playing some of the best in the Northeast.
"Getting accurate records was an issue 20 years ago," Dougherty wrote. "Everyone is online now. Make it the rule across every sport in Section 1. At the very least, award bonus points based on the final records of every opponent a team plays to reward strength of schedule.
"It's not difficult to game the system as it's currently set up and the powers that be are very much aware that we have a few programs in various sports where the goal is piling up wins and earning the highest possible seed. The bar needs to be raised."
Extra points
A couple of notes coming out of last month's NYSPHSAA Championship Advisory Committee meeting:
• After two rounds of bidding in which no one offered to host the 2026 outdoor track and field championships, it was left to the NYSPHSAA office to make arrangements. After a months-long process, they've settled upon Webster Schroeder in Section 5. Look for Executive Committee approval at its fall meeting.
• The boys and girls swimming committees are pitching a plan to conduct team championships, presumably on the first day of state meets, perhaps beginning in the 2026 girls season.
Making that happen is going to require sections to develop their own process to determine representatives. More importantly, the swim committees are already dealing with concerns about the number of qualifiers for the individual championships. Coming to a resolution of that issue would seem to be a crucial step.
