Want to solve the "private school" issue?

The solution is so simple, so obvious. But the New Mexico Activities doesn't have the courage to do it.

It's time to say that the five-class system does not work, not the way the majority of the NMAA members want it to.

On one hand, the five-class system opens up opportunities for smaller schools to prevail. Problem is, the balance of power -- in the power sports, football and basketball, at least -- is in the hands of the private schools.

But to dig deeper into this tricky issue, it really comes down to the "Private Seven." If your name is Albuquerque Academy, St. Pius X, Hope Christian, Sandia Prep, St. Michael's, Santa Fe Indian School and Mesilla Valley, then you are the problem.

You win too much.

Your programs are too stable.

You offer too much to prospective students.

You're too good for the rest of the state.

Oh, and you recruit, to boot.

And those "poor" underfunded, uncompetitive public schools that you routinely stomp on as you collect your hardware are tired of it.

Just like 14 years ago, when those same schools cried they couldn't compete with the bigger schools and needed a fairer system. Ta-da! Five classes were born.

But guess what? When playing up a class -- an option the NMAA Commission has suggested giving the private schools for individual sports -- makes the bigger schools whine that they can't compete, they'll put the private schools in a separate class.

And guess what? When the smaller private schools cry they can't compete with the "Private Seven?" They'll get a separate class, too.

And when those have-nots become the haves? The new have-nots will cry for a separate class.

And guess what? Pretty soon, we'll have 170 separate classes with every school getting a blue trophy.

We won't need to play the games because everyone wins!

Actually, the answer isn't more classes. Go back to four classes.

It's apparent this state doesn't the numbers for five. Districts are stretched too thin (see the three-team districts of 4AAAAA, 4AAAA, 4AAA, and how about the two-team 5A?) and schools are too spread out geographically for it to happen.

Yes, the disparity of large schools is great, but the alternative -- where some schools are penalized for their success -- makes those who hold a grudge against those seven schools look petty. When the NMAA tried to fast-track its multiplier system in September, it only showed how desperate some factions are to try to "even the playing field."

But the playing field was never even. To try to fool the rest of us with that notion is silly.

The only true way to do it is to make competition irrelevant.

Wait a minute. That might actually be a novel approach. Take winning away, and we bring athletics to its purest ideal -- to play.

Wasn't that what we did when we were kids?

Contact James Barron at 986-3045 or jbarron@sfnewmexican.com.