NJSIAA Putting an End to Tournament of Champions After This Season
PISCATAWAY, NJ—On the eve of State Championship Weekend in high school boys and girls basketball, GMC Hoops begins to think about the upcoming Tournament of Champions, the state tournament between all of the group champions in boys and girls basketball created by the NJSIAA back in 1989. However, this year, the thoughts aren’t the usual thoughts of past years. Instead, it is about the TOC’s last run.
Earlier this season, the NJSIAA announced that the 2022 Tournament of Champions would be the last one. In other words, once the state finals are done next year, basketball season will be officially over. Thinking about the TOC’s last ride, made me think of that ESPN 30 for 30 Documentary from 2014 called, “Requiem for the Big East,” which discussed the unraveling of the original edition of the Big East Conference.
There are some similarities between the two. Like the Big East, the Tournament of Champions was originally a great idea since it brought together all of the state champions, and made one. It was something that most people wanted back in the late 1980s. It was like of like the college football playoff, you didn’t need to have a bunch of people in some office decide who was the best team in the state a year’s end.
Instead, it was decided on the court. What a concept right? Well, the idea is going back into the filing cabinet. The genie is going back into the bottle. Why? The NJSIAA indicated at the time of its announcement that it was to revamp the seasons by reducing the length of them, and give athletes a longer break between them. More importantly, the change would provide a longer regular season and give ”more teams a chance to play” instead of just a select few according to an article from NJ.com on December 8, 2021.
The proposal passed by a vote of 33-4 with two abstentions. According to one of the NJSIAA’s executives interviewed for the NJ.com article, it was supported by the basketball coaches by two to one margin. The idea of a few elite teams getting another opportunity to play does make sense. If you look at the history of the event, the non-public schools, particularly those in the Non-Public B Group, have dominated the T of C since 2000.
One of the ironies of this last Tournament of Champions on the boys side is that, Camden, the current No. 1 team in the state of New Jersey led by D.J. Wagner, is in the running. The Panthers were the last public school team to win the Boys Basketball T of C in 2000. Led by D.J. Wagner’s father, Dajuan Wagner and teammate Arthur Barclay, Camden won the title by defeating St. Patrick’s in a thrilling semifinal at the Dunn Center in Elizabeth and then two team defending T of C champ, Seton Hall Prep led by Marcus Toney-El.
It would become a recurring theme on the message boards over the last 10 to 15 years that when the Boys T of C ended, and with a Non-Public Group Champ ending up with the crown, the folks in Camden would get up on their soap box and remind everyone about The High, and what it had done some 22 years ago. Today, it is looked upon as a monumental feat. Back then, maybe not as much.
From 1989 to 2000, the public schools were able to hold their own better against the non-publics. The public schools won 4 titles during that time, and appeared in 9 of the first 12 finals. There were also no repeat winners among that group: Elizabeth (1990), Shawnee (1992), Orange (1994), and Camden (2000). All were either Group 3 or Group 4. None in Group 1 or 2. Everything changed after Camden’s win in 2000.
From 2000 to the last TOC in 2019, the non-publics won every year with the Non-Public B state champion going on to win 17 titles, or 85 percent of the TOC’s during that time. On top of that, the public schools have made it to the final in 11 of those seasons with an all non-public TOC Final occurring in 5 of the last 7 years of the event. Publics such as Newark Science and Plainfield did manage to make back to back appearances though.
Football is not the only sport where there has been an increasing disparity between the publics and non-publics. Although, the divide between the publics and non-publics on the gridiron resulted in the super conferences and multipliers in football, the problem is also very real in boys and girls hoops as demonstrated with the recent history of the Boys TOC.
It is yet another example of the widening chasm between the publics and the non-publics, which may also be a reflection of the 2 to 1 vote margin among NJ high school basketball coaches approving the measure. Yet another similarity with the theme of the Requiem for the Big East. One of the things that brought about the demise of the Big East was the member schools looking out for themselves rather than the better of the conference.
The first Big East Commissioner, Dave Gavitt, who had previously coached at Providence, and guided them to an NCAA Final Four in 1973, had a unique gift of getting all of the coaches and ADs in the conference to look past their differences for the best interests of the conference.
By the end though, schools particularly those playing football began to look out for themselves, and jumped to other conferences like the ACC. The divisions that have existed and festered between the publics and the non-publics are just as obvious in boys and girls basketball.
If you look at the scores around not only the GMC, but many other conferences in Central Jersey, was the wide disparity in margins of victory in numerous games this season. Some of it may have resulted from COVID, or certain divisional realignments, but that only contributed to a part of the problem.
It was the growing disparity and the growth of players transfers that made many of the public schools vote to separate themselves from the non-publics for football and wrestling back in December 2015. By the end of that month, the then New Jersey Education Commissioner, David Hespe, had decided to overturn the result, which ultimately led to the rise of the Super Football Conference in North Jersey, and the multiplier used for public schools playing non-public schools in football for power points.
These measures were taken in order to remedy the crisis that existed between the two sides by the fall and early winter of 2015. It is an uneasy peace though since there are many who follow public school teams, who still insist there needs to be a complete break, or some sort of remedy for basketball similar to that for football. Perhaps ending the T of C was one of the remedies to the public/non-public chasm in boys and girls hoops.
Regardless of what may have led to this decision, and despite some protest from those opposed to it, the Tournament of Champions will be no more after this year. Enjoy it now. Savor it. Once it is over, it will be a relic to history much like that of Ebbets Field and the Polo Grounds in New York Baseball. It will only be a memory.