Are prep national championships in the near future?

Here's an interesting thought: What if some organization got its members together and decided to make high school national championships a reality, rather than the "mythical" titles bestowed by Parade and USA Today?

Well, it could come to fruition in the near future as IMG Academies and the National High School Coaches Association unveiled plans on January 25 to host championship tournaments in Florida this summer for 7-on-7 football, 7-on-7 lacrosse, team tennis and team golf.

The organization says that most athletes will compete on All-Star teams from their home states.

Aside from the observation that these aren't exactly typical school-sponsored sports, let's see...an independent organization selecting the best athletes for an arbitrary contest to determine a national championship? Sounds a little like B(C)S.

An article appearing on SI.com says that athletes will be encouraged to "explore the various programs offered by IMG Academies."

This idea seems less like it's in the best interest of high school athletes and more like it's in the best interest of IMG Academies, which, according to its website, is "the most advanced, state-of-the-art, multi-sport training and educational facility ever created for athletes.  With two private academic schools on campus and students from over 46 states and 80 countries, IMGA is the largest and most successful school ever created for devoted athletes."

It sounds like the kind of place where Ivan Drago trained in "Rocky IV." Turns out it is the place Mike Agassi sent his son Andre and Richard Williams sent daughters Serena and Venus.

If teams are compiled of All-Star players from each state, how is this "national championship" any different than the U-16 Olympic Development Program soccer team from Virginia beating its California counterpart? When the baseball team representing American Legion Post 165 from Midland, Mich., beat the team from Post 15 in Medford, Ore., this August, the Midland team didn't claim to be the national high school baseball champion. Midland's title is what it is: the championship of American Legion baseball.

Teenage athletes have every possible opportunity to compete at the national level if they are good enough. The people in charge of this operation should stop calling it a "high school national championship" and call it what it is: a national showcase tournament for elite athletes.

The beauty of high school competition is that schools draw from a local area. Not every kid on a high school state championship team is an "elite" athlete and that's a good thing. It teaches athletes the necessity of role players and kids can have a meaningful experience while participating in an event they will remember the rest of their lives.

But let's just say IMG Academies takes this aim seriously and actually endeavors to create a true high school national champion. The time, money and commitments necessary to make this happen make it unfeasible.

How would the field be determined? The easy answer is that all the state champions in a particular state would have to have a mini playoff to determine that state's representative. That gives you a 50-team field (even more if you include Guam, American Samoa, Puerto Rico and D.C.). But who is to say the Wyoming state baseball champion is better than the 15th best team in California?

The only relatively fair way to portion out berths is to do it the same way Congress does: by population. So California gets 53 entries while Wyoming gets one. Now we're talking at least a 435-team field which isn't even close to doable.

And lest we get too caught up in the madness, we are talking about kids. Very few high school athletes will go on to the college ranks, let alone reach the heights to which the IMG Academies purports to elevate its students.

High school athletes are already under enough pressure to specialize on travel teams by the time they are 10 years old. Let's let the kids be kids and keep the championships to the state level, where they belong.