When Clark County School District principals voted last week to withdraw 30 football programs from the Nevada Interscholastic Activities Association, they effectively eliminated postseason play for those teams for the next two years. The move, aimed at isolating perennial powerhouse Bishop Gorman, instead punishes hundreds of student-athletes across Southern Nevada.

Bishop Gorman has dominated Nevada high school football, winning state titles year after year. CCSD’s frustration has mounted, leading to increasingly aggressive tactics. Last year, some schools were accused of tanking to avoid facing the Gaels in the playoffs. Then came a proposed rule change that would have severely limited Gorman’s program, prompting a legal response from the school that one observer likened to a Supreme Court brief.

Now CCSD has gone further, pulling its schools out of the NIAA entirely. But as one critic noted, “This doesn’t seem to be it.” The solution, if one exists, requires diplomacy, not unilateral action. “The parties need to get together for a summit where ideas are brainstormed and presented with all options on the table,” the critic said. “That seems like the only thing that hasn’t been tried.”

Any lasting compromise would need to address underlying issues: CCSD’s ban on open enrollment, the holdback rule for age-appropriate placement, and NIAA transfer rules that treat public and private schools differently. Only then can creative postseason solutions be explored.

The bottom line: the current path punishes the wrong people. “The majority of high school football players in Southern Nevada will have no postseason for the next two school years,” the critic said. “That’s silly.”