On April 29, 1996, everything changed in the state of Indiana. And the division that was spawned on North Meridian Street in Indianapolis has yet to fully heal.

On that day, 25 newspapers, 13 television stations and 11 radio stations went to a news conference at the Indiana High School Athletic Association's office.

MORE: High school ADs may offer 3-class basketball plan.

MORE: Timeline of class basketball initiatives.

Jim Russell, IHSAA sports information director, announced Indiana's cherished "all comers" basketball tournament, which was 85 years old on the boys side, was being divided into four classes based on enrollment. By a 12-5 vote, the IHSAA board of directors approved the proposal of its Class Sports Study Committee.

"It's a different path, but the game is bigger than the system. The game is bigger than the path," said Bob Gardner, then the IHSAA commissioner.

Gardner said class sports would be on a two-year trial run.

At the gate and in the pocketbooks, it appears the change to class hoops hasn't worked.

The attendance and money from the last single-class, "all comers" basketball tournament in 1996-97 to the first four-class system in 1997-98 dropped by 50 percent, and those numbers have continued below what used to be the average.

This basketball season marks the 10th anniversary of the first class tournaments. While most critics know Indiana will not revert to a one-class format, they still believe the IHSAA conspired to market an idea Hoosier basketball fans didn't want.

Joe Otis, a 1970 Valparaiso graduate and former coach at LaPorte, was one of the state's loudest voices against sports enrollment divisions. He coached the LaPorte Slicers to the last one-class Final Four in 1997. He has a copy of a letter sent by Gardner to former LaPorte baseball coach Ken Schreiber that said, "It is not the wish of a single person on our staff to make this move."

Yet, Otis believes every move before the vote was orchestrated for a single purpose.

"If nobody wanted it, then how did this happen?" Otis said.

It began in 1993, with principals from small schools around the state presenting a resolution to the executive committee asking for a subcommittee to research a multisport tournament format in sports other than football. The Class Sports Study Committee was formed and selected by current IHSAA Commissioner Blake Ress, then the principal at Martinsville.

"I appointed people who deep down didn't want it," Ress said, although most of the members were from Class A or Class 2A schools. The group studied states all around the country and came to the following conclusion on basketball.

Like Kentucky, a mid-season multiclass tournament would be held, followed by a one-class tourney at the end of the season. But many believed that idea -- which never happened -- was thrown out there simply to fail, because no one wanted to host a sectional game on Christmas Eve.

"I believe they wanted it to fail so they could say they tried, no one wanted it so here's class," Otis said.

Whether you are absolutely in favor of classes, or diametrically opposed, the way it was handled by the IHSAA still needs to be looked at, Otis said.

"All athletics came about from the broad shoulders of boys basketball," he said. "There is a lot of secrecy with the IHSAA, and the way we went to class is no different."