GETTING TO STATE just got tougher in basketball.

The Washington Interscholastic Activities Association’s executive board voted to change the basketball state tournaments for all classifications Friday.

The traditional 16-team, double-elimination tournament is gone, to be replaced by a new format that trims the main event down to eight teams for 2010-11 and beyond.

WIAA executive director Mike Colbrese pointed to lagging attendance figures at state, especially in the consolation rounds, as the driving force behind the change.

Given the economic hardships currently being placed on high school athletics, it’s hard to think that the main concern wasn’t anything but the dollars.

“We truly believe we can create a better event for kids and fans,” Colbrese told The Seattle Times. “I truly believe that’s what’s driving it.

“The reason for that is, if people really thought what we were providing them right now is the way it should be, our attendance during consolation brackets would be greater.”

Technically, there will still be 16 teams in the state tournament.

But first-round games will now be loser-out contests played at regional sites throughout the state.

The winners then feed into a modified double-elimination eight-team bracket, with six trophies at stake (instead of eight).

Both genders for all six classifications will then play their tournaments on the same weekend (March 3-5), with two classes sharing a venue.

The Class 4A and 3A brackets will be held at the Tacoma Dome, Class 2A and 1A the SunDome in Yakima and 2B and 1B the Spokane Arena.

Obviously, these changes will make the tournament much more exclusive.

Under such an arrangement, only four North Olympic Peninsula teams — ’06 and ’08 Neah Bay boys and the ’08 and ’09 Port Townsend boys — would have reached the eight-team bracket during the last five years. (And just seven in the last 10 years.)

All five of Forks boys basketball coach Scott Justus’ state teams would have been excluded from visiting the SunDome. It’s something that isn’t lost on the longtime coach.

“The WIAA is supposed to be all about the student-athletes,” Justus said. “Are they about the student-athlete in this case? Obviously not.

“It’s a great experience to go to a state tournament. If you cut it down to eight teams, that’s eight less teams that have a chance of doing that.

“Nobody is looking out for the best interest of the kids. The all-mighty dollar speaks again. It’s pathetic.”

The change is something that has been talked about for some time.

In fact, Colbrese spoke at length about it in an interview published in the The Seattle Times earlier this year.

Port Angeles girls coach Mike Knowles said he preferred the traditional format, but was excited to see what the new one might look like next year.

“It’s a tough situation,” Knowles said. “Everything we’re doing these days is getting driven around by money.

“I really enjoyed the old format. It just makes it a little harder [to win the new one]. But if they are going to be able to put two different levels [at the same venue], and make it a big event with eight teams, that’s still an exciting component.

“I knew it was just a matter of time until they got to that point. Hopefully, they don’t take that one step further and just make it a final four.”

Oregon, which recently made a similar decision to go to eight teams, has talked about going to a final-four format with its high school tournaments.

But it doesn’t appear Washington will be doing something as drastic as that anytime soon.

More WIAA stuff

Here’s a few more items regarding votes by the WIAA Representative Assembly this week:

• An amendment to make girls and boys lacrosse a WIAA-sanctioned sport was struck down.

This is probably good news for Peninsula athletes. The Olympic Peninsula Mountaineers, created this year, are a club team without any district affiliation. Thus, that team probably couldn’t have fallen under the umbrella of the WIAA.

• The representative body approved a 40-point mercy rule for boys and girls basketball games.

Under the new rule, there will be a running clock once a team goes ahead by 40 points in the second half.

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Matt Schubert is the outdoors and sports columnist for the Peninsula Daily News. His column regularly appears on Thursdays and Fridays. He can be reached at matt.schubert@peninsuladailynews.com.