Most Nevada Interscholastic Activities Association Board of Control meetings pass without a whole lot of hoopla. The NIAA's next quarterly meeting, set for Tuesday and Wednesday, may be an exception.

With a controversial cost-cutting proposal — which includes new lower sport-by-sport game limits and a classification realignment — on the agenda as an action item, the meeting is likely to garner more attention than most.

Last week, NIAA Executive Director Eddie Bonine said he would recommend the board pass the game-limit reduction for the upcoming 2009-2010 school year. He also said he'd recommend holding off on the classification realignment to give the board and individual school districts more time to study options.

“We'll find out on Tuesday. That will all be discussed. Realignment and the whole game-limit issue will be discussed,” NIAA Assistant Director Donnie Nelson said. “That will probably be the hottest topic of the board meeting. I don't know if there will be a large group show up or a small group. We don't take a reservation list.”

Coaches across the Silver State will be closely watching the outcome of a vote on an immediate game-limit reduction. Nevada's prep football coaches, who start preseason workouts in mid-August, may be watching the measure even closer than others.

A vote to cut most sport schedules by 10 percent would leave Nevada's prep football programs a game limit of nine rather than 10. That could leave coaches from Elko to Reno to Las Vegas scrambling to make scheduling changes less than three months before the upcoming season's initial kickoff.

Spanish Springs football coach Scott Hare is one of the most concerned.

“It's the timing of it. There are a lot of things. If I had known ahead of time, then I could have done things differently,” the Cougars' fourth-year coach said of a potential scheduling nightmare.

Hare seems to have a legitimate concern. Hare, whose Cougars play in the seven-team High Desert League, were given eight master schedule games. Six of those are HDL contests and two are non-league cross-over games against schools from the Sierra League, northern Nevada's other large school conference.

The Sierra League, which houses eight schools, has nine master schedule games, seven SL contests and two cross-over games against the HDL. Since the HDL has one less school, each league member has a bye week on its master schedule. The bye week for SSHS falls in late October. The later the the bye week for HDL schools, the tougher it is to fill with a non-league opponent as Sierra League schools and potential opponents in Las Vegas and California are already well into their respective league campaigns.

In addition to its eight master schedule games, Spanish Springs has set up a non-league game against Sierra League foe Carson on opening night of the 2009 season, Aug. 28. That leaves Spanish Springs with nine games and Carson with 10. If the NIAA's game-limit reduction measure passes next week, Carson would be forced to break that scheduling commitment with Spanish Springs.

"We wouldn't get the 10 games like we've had after the game-limit change, but we wouldn't even get nine. We'd only have eight games," Hare said. "If the schedule worked, where we all had no byes, that would be fine. The bottom lime is we're cheating the kids. We go from late May (with offseason conditioning) to November. To only get eight games is cheating the kids.

"They (NIAA officials) make it sound like we'll just cut that tenth game and it will affect everybody evenly across the board and that's not the case."

Hare said he has tried contacting schools across the West to find his Cougars club an opponent during its October bye week but that he has had no luck. He is still working to find a scheduling solution.

Hare then pointed out that Sierra League schools already have nine master schedule games, so they are not in danger of playing only eight games. However, schools like his in the High Desert League face that reality, especially those with late bye weeks who are left with fewer scheduling options.

The Rail City's other 4A HDL member, Reed High School, currently has only nine games on its schedule, as well. However, because both of Reed's games against Sierra League foes are master schedule games, Raiders coach Ernie Howren is not fearful of either team backing out on him if the game-limit reduction goes through. In addition to its six HDL games and two cross-over games, Reed is also playing Lincoln High of central California. The Raiders also have a bye the first weekend in September that Howren would like to fill if schools are allowed to keep 10 games.

Howren is a staunch supporter of a 10-game schedule and is against any game reduction.

"Our teams have always been big on trying to get as many games as we can," Howren said. "When you look at baseball, they get a school spring season and a summer offseason schedule. Basketball gets its winter school schedule and sometimes a spring and summer offseason schedule. In football, we get the fall. That's it. We love to compete. We want to get all the weeks we can."

Reed is not in as dire a scheduling scenario as Spanish Springs because it has an earlier league bye week. Still, Howren understands Hare's predicament and knows his Reed program could be in a similar situation under future master schedules.

At Sparks High, Railroaders football coach Rob Kittrell has nine games on his schedule with two of those being against northern 4A foes: Wooster and Fallon. He said there is a chance Wooster could be forced to back out of that scheduling commitment if the game-limit reduction passes. The veteran Sparks coach is not worried about losing the right to play a tenth game or any other speculation at this point. Still, he recognizes potential changes could have a trickle-down effect.

"We've never been able to fill the tenth game. It's been hard enough for us to fill nine," said Kittrell, who also doubles as the SHS athletic director. "Then again, if in the future, they take away the extra Hall of Fame week, we'd have to fill a different bye week. That might be tough to fill in late September."

All three local coaches said they would like to see other cost-cutting options explored before reducing game limits. For instance, the trio agreed they'd have no problem with a mandate that called for schools to play a day game or two, which would in turn save the expenditure of lighting a football field on a Friday night.

"That would not be a problem at all," Kittrell said. "We've hosted Saturday (afternoon) games before. I like it. We've even talked about in October playing all our home games on Saturday afternoons because the weather would be better and more conducive."

Howren and Hare had similar sentiments. Howren said he'd rather see each school be asked to pick up the expenses for an optional tenth game. He said that would alleviate expenses for school districts and not cut the game opportunity for student athletes. Hare also pointed out that unlike other sports, football is a revenue-producing sport. He said Spanish Springs brings in more than $4,000 per home game each fall.

"Each year our boosters give all of our sports a check. If we cut a home football game, that hurts all of our sports because that's less money the boosters make and then less money they give to each sport," Hare said.

Tuesday's NIAA Board of Control meeting begins at 9 a.m. at Aces Ballpark in Reno.