BY JIM MISUNAS

All things considered, the executive directors and board which helps govern the operations of the KSHSAA have made tremendous progress over the years.

Virtually every change the KSHSAA executive board has adopted has been productive.

Substate basketball 3A through 1A has adopted geographic seeding to allow the top two teams to avoid playing for a state berth.

Football districts have improved greatly from a smaller district grouping into more reasonable qualifying and seeding. Minor changes like shifting home sites has helped the better teams play home games especially in a rematch.

A past 3-way tiebreaker based on district point differential was changed when it calculated a 3-way tie (point differential) to shifting to a 2-way tie (head-to-head). That misguided tiebreaker was eventually changed.

State volleyball has improved its postseason format and adopted an effective tiebreaker.  A past tiebreaker (least points allowed) was the worst tiebreaker I've ever seen.

State tennis has improved its qualifying process and seeding from the early days.

State wrestling has been streamlined with bigger class regional qualifying higher quality wrestlers.

State golf has expanded to 36 holes.

However, one major glitch still exists — awarding "fake wins" to 1A basketball teams for byes.

Virtually every 1A Division 1 and Division 2 state qualifying team in Kansas has been awarded a "phantom victory" for a bye.

The Central Plains girls are 18-3, not 19-3. The Oilers didn't win 19 games.

St. John's girls are 17-5, not 18-5. The Tigers didn't win 18 games.

The Central Plains boys are 18-4, not 19-4. The Oilers didn't win 18 games.

The "official" explanation is 1A teams are awarded "fake wins" for byes for seeding purposes. 

It's a silly explanation. 

If a bye victory is required as a tiebreaker for state seeding because a team hasn't played a game, then mark it with an asterisk in the program. Team "A" is awarded a particular seed based on a bye tiebreaker.

The "fake victories" awarded to 1A teams wasn't an issue until Little River's girls put together a state-record 91-game winning streak from 1995-1998.

Again, those "fake victories," didn't matter until the Redskins' winning streak was incorrectly interpreted as 28-0 records when they were actually 27-0 records.

I confirmed Little River's record with research after several media outlets inadvertently reported an inaccurate winning streak for Little River.

Every KSHSAA basketball program and the "official" record books since Little River compiled a trio of unbeaten records is still inaccurate. 

That's why a bye "not being a win" is important.

Let's say good-bye to fake wins.