Should a state association accomodate a religious school for the playoffs?

[bgtg19]

Originally Posted by Texas Aggie

What the school is asking for here is not a reasonable accommodation. In BYU's case, the only time it becomes even remotely problematic is for the NCAA basketball tournament. Further, BYU wants Sunday's off. If they wanted Saturday's off and made the final four, I can assure you the NCAA wouldn't be accommodating.

Aggie, you mention that in BYU's case, the only time it becomes even remotely problematic is for the NCAA basketball tournament. That's also true for Portland Adventist Academy. The only time it becomes problematic is during the playoffs.

Also, if some school in the NCAA tourney wanted Saturdays completely "off," that might be problematic for the semifinals, but if BYU or a Seventh-day Adventist university wanted its beliefs (no playing sundown Friday to sundown Saturday) to be accommodated, what would be the big deal about making sure the requesting school played the second game Saturday night (beginning well after sundown)?

I'm inclined to agree with the kind of sentiment expressed by Jimgolf. Promising that a state/tournament will change for a school "no matter what" seems unreasonable, but requiring the state/tournament to consider ways to accommodate the schools in ways that are reasonable makes a lot of sense. The NCAA is making a good faith effort to enable BYU to participate; why can't the OHSAA make a good faith effort to enable Portland Adventist Academy to participate?

I know that in Maine, the Maine Principals Association has accommodated a Seventh-day Adventist school during tournament scheduling. There's no controversy there, that I'm aware of.

Anyway, as the whole issue pertains to us officials, our scheduling issues should not influence this at all. We just serve the game. If they schedule a game when one of us cannot do it, some other official will serve that game.