Leading off today: I was getting ready to mock the Section 6 basketball committees this morning for their tiebreaker policy on seeding teams, but then I stumbled across something even sillier: The Section 5 basketball seeding tie-breaker policy.

   Here's where I'm coming from: Keith McShea of The Buffalo News reported this morning on the seeding meeting held yesterday to set up the brackets for the Section 6 boys and girls basketball tournaments that begin this week.

   The boys committee had to flip coins seven times to break ties in seeding standings, including a combination blind draw and flip to hash out the top three in Class D. The girls committee had to flip coins six times, including once to settle a three-way logjam.

   Thirteen coin flips is a lot of random decision-making, even for a large section like the Western New York area. It makes me wonder how they couldn't resolve more issues with an 18-game regular season plus a reasonable set of tie-breakers.

   Seeds are determined by power ratings pegged to league records, with the size of the opposing schools factored in. Ties are settled by (1) most league wins, (2) least league losses, (3) winning percentage. If all else fails, they flip a coin.

   In a world of 18-game seasons and divisions determined by school size (or close to it), it's not a shocker that steps 1 through 3 wouldn't settle very many ties. I have to admit to being surprised that head-to-head results were nowhere to be found in the criteria, though I suspect that wouldn't have helped too much.

   So I decided to look up the corresponding Section 5 data for the 2011 tournament in order to point out to the Buffalo folks the right way to go things. And sure enough, Section 5's boys had a bunch of first-level ties, too. Five of them to be exact.

   That sent me to the boys handbook to look up the tie-breaker rules in the event that teams finished with an equal number of seeding points: (1) overall record, (2) "team with the best winning percentage within its own league will receive the higher seed. In the event that a non league independent team is tied with a league team, the advantage of the higher seed will go to the league member team."

   Are you freaking kidding me? Admittedly, the odds of that tie-breaker ever coming into effect are remote, given the fact that there are rarely more than a couple of independents in any given year. But what does a team's league status have to do with anything? The whole reason you play a sectional tournament is to settle on a champion because teams go in a variety of directions during the regular season.

   Anyway, I was going to let the whole thing go. But before I did, I decided I should check on Wellsville, the only school designated as an independent in the section this winter.

   And, sure enough, there it was. Wellsville and LeRoy, a Livingston County League school, each finished 10-8 with minus-3 seeding points in Class B2. So LeRoy was seeded fourth, giving the Oatkan Knights a home game vs. No. 5 Wellsville on Friday in the quarterfinals.

   Flat-out ludicrous.

   The future of hockey: Will Montgomery did a solid piece of reporting today in the Times Herald-Record, laying out an issue that is going to be discussed time and time again this spring as school districts finalize their budget proposals.

   In short, ice hockey is an expensive sport -- both for the schools that sponsor teams and the parents of the players. Ice time costs money, the district has to run extra buses to and from practices and equipment is also very pricey.

   The James I. O'Neill program was folded before the season because of district budget issues, leaving Section 9 with just three teams (compared to 28 for neighboring Section 1). As Montgomery writes, it's becoming more difficult for schools to justify the cost of ice hockey when some districts are going to far as to consider shutting down buildings.

   Many sports are going to take a hit once again this year -- school boards love holding them hostage to squeeze a little more money out of taxpayers -- but it strikes me as a particularly bad time to be a hockey player or a gymnast.

Road To Glens Falls boys hoops site

   Rumblings: I've heard talk recently that Section 3 is pushing to host the NYSPHSAA football Western Region semifinals that have been anchored in Rochester in recent years.

   The big drawback in Rochester -- even bigger than the fact that they change the name of the damn stadium every other year -- has been the lack of permanent locker rooms and shower facilities. That should to be resolved this year because plans have been approved and construction is supposed to commence in the spring. Those of us who worked in the unfinished press box there for three years before it was finally completed last summer will believe it when we see it.

   Having said that, here's the big hang-up with having Section 3 host the semifinals: The games would be at a high school facility rather than the very expensive Carrier Dome.

   And as a sportswriter, I want no part of that. There are few, if any, high school press boxes large enough to accommodate the number of people who would need access. It'll never work, and I encourage the state committee to leave the semis in Rochester if it comes to a vote next month.

   Catching up on stuff I: Bob Sprance, the longtime soccer coach at Forest Hills, was named the interim boys basketball coach after Ben Chobhaphand was suspended by the PSAL last week for recruiting infractions.

   Sprance also coaches boys basketball at Clara Barton, which played in the Brooklyn West 'B' division.

   Catching up on stuff II: Poly Prep's Faton Bauta, a first-team all-state linebacker in Class A who is highly regarded as a quarterback prospect, has transferred out of Poly Prep and moved to Florida.

   Bauta will attend Dwyer High following a job-related move by his family this month. Dwyer won a Florida state championship in 2009 and had a game televised by ESPN last fall.

   At 6-foot-3 and 225 pounds with a 4.54 clocking in the 40, he has verbal offers from Maryland and Pittsburgh.

   Catching up on stuff III: Add two more New York seniors to the list of major-college football recruits, with both committing to Army. The U.S. Military Academy is among the handful of schools that doesn't release lists of player signings on national letter of intent day, so the news doesn't always circulate quickly.

   But Joe Drummond, a fullback/linebacker at C.G. Finney in Penfield revealed his decision recently, as did Harrison's Steve Ricciardi, a running back/defensive back.

   They add to what has been a banner year for New York football with 33 players signing with major-college schools.