BOONE - More boys basketball teams will travel for early-round district games but for shorter distances, thanks to a new proposal adopted at the Iowa High School Athletic Association board meeting Wednesday morning.

The board considered two separate measures from the basketball committee, including one that would introduce doubleheaders at early-round district sites. While more teams will be required to travel, sites will be at more centralized locations in order to cut down on travel time. The early-round doubleheaders will take effect for the upcoming postseason tournament.

The IHSAA hopes the increased early-round attendance, which will feature four fan bases instead of two, will lead to more exciting atmospheres and higher attendance at early-round venues. District championships and all substate contests will not be affected by the change.

Class 4A schools do not play district games, so the new venture will not affect them. The playoffs for Class 4A schools start at the substate level.

In a second measure put forth by the basketball committee, the board denied a recommendation to begin awarding schools the same amount of postseason seeding points for wins over lower-classification opponents.

The proposal would have given a 4A team the same amount of points for beating a 3A squad as it would for winning a 4A matchup, and so on across all classifications. The motion was pushed by the Mississippi Valley and Missouri River Athletic Conferences, which have member schools from multiple classifications.

IHSAA executive director Rick Wulkow offered a compromise to those conferences by bringing forth a separate motion that seeding at state tournaments be decided by winning percentage, thus eliminating the point system beyond district and substate levels. The board voted to approve the measure, effective this season.

In other news Wednesday, the board approved three state golf meet sites for the upcoming season in the spring. Lake Panorama (1A), Spring Valley (2A) and Ames Golf and Country Club (3A) were chosen as host courses.

State championship trophies for all sports will be getting a facelift starting in the 2014-15 sports season. The board voted to move away from the traditional-looking trophies, which were skyrocketing in cost during recent years, in favor of a newer style being used in other states and in the NCAA.