Hoopla over fairness

The University Interscholastic League made a huge splash by hosting the 3A, 4A and 5A state championships at Cowboys Stadium in Arlington.

It provided a showcase for Texas High school football, creating the pomp and circumstance for what many fans believe to be the ultimate sporting event. Fox Sports televised all the games — paying a reported $250,000 per year to the UIL.

But the question remains: Was it fair? And that’s the UIL’s primary responsibility, at least according to the constitution.

One team, right here in Galveston County, certainly could make a case that Cowboys Stadium did not provide an equitable location.

La Marque had to travel nearly five hours and 294 miles to get to Arlington. The Cougars’ opponent, Aledo, could make the trip in 35 minutes.

The La Marque team stayed in a hotel the night before. Aledo players got the luxury of sleeping in their own beds and houses.

The distance discrepancy even impacted fans. The announced attendance was more than 27,000, and about 20,000 came from Aledo.

A 10-hour round-trip car drive is difficult to make, especially in a short time frame. Add to that expenses (food, hotel and gas) and the game becomes almost a short vacation.

And since the championship was played on Friday night, many fans could not get to the game because of work responsibilities. They did, at least, have television.

“It would have been nice to play in Austin, where both teams and fans had an even distance to go,” La Marque coach Darrell Jordan said before the state championship game. “But we don’t have a choice.”

This is not to say La Marque would have won if the game was in Austin — though, imagine how Aledo fans would have felt making the trek to the Astrodome — but rather raises an important issue the UIL must face: Is this about fairness or a showcase?

Right now, it feels more like hoopla. That can be a good thing. It also can be a very dangerous path mixing money, television and high school sports.

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