FRANKLIN – MIAA Executive Director Bob Baldwin knows full well many of the sports committees under his watch are almost unanimously in favor of exploring the prospects of a Division 1A tournament. Rather than wait until July 1, Baldwin felt it was important to broach the hot topic in length at Wednesday’s MIAA Board of Directors meeting. Baldwin spoke at length about what needs to be done to establish a Division 1A component. He said any prospects for such a tournament would have to be gender equitable (if there is a boys soccer Div. 1A tournament, then there needs to be one for the girls as well). The Div. 1A tournament was in place for boys hockey and baseball for years, but the Board, acting on the recommendation of a Blue Ribbon Committee established by the organization, voted in 2021 to have a four-year pause on the tournament. The four years are coming to a close and many staunchly in favor of a return to the Div. 1A tournament are counting the days until July 1 when the MIAA can resume discussions on the matter. Baldwin said it’s important to make sure the criteria used to select teams are the same power ranking system used to seed the current tournament, making sure objectivity plays no part in the selection process. More than one school complained about the procedure to select teams for the Div. 1A hockey and baseball tournament, several going as far as suggesting favoritism toward certain teams and leagues played a part in their selection. He closed by saying venues selected for the Div. 1A tournament should be no better than though used by regular tournament teams. “The reason we went to the Div. 1A format in hockey 30 years is a lot different than today,” said Arlington Catholic athletic director Dan Shine, who coached hockey for 43 years and won a Div. 1A title before stepping down in May 2022. “I think it’s a great thing to talk about, but what we have now is fabulous. We’re going to have dig deeps into the weeds to see how the 1A tournament would benefit the organization.” Baldwin also talked about a standardized annual calendar for interscholastic athletics. In the cycle from 2026-28, fall start dates are Aug. 24, 2026, Aug. 23, 2027 and Aug. 21, 2028, with end dates of June 20, 2027, June 18, 2028 and June 16, 2029. One concern brought up by committee members was the spring and the several obstacles athletic directors face starting with poor early season weather and school events such as graduation which tend to run during the tournament, forcing schools to move dates around. In other news, Barnstable’s appeal to move from the Cape and Islands to the Southeast Conference was approved unanimously.