Schools must approve change to bylaws if Class 5A part of next realignment
By CHRIS HOBBS
HobbsDailyReport.com
CHAPEL HILL – The North Carolina High School Athletic Association (NCHSAA) will ask its member schools to vote on a proposal that would allow it to move to more than four classifications.
The decision was made by the NCHSAA Board of Directors on Thursday at its annual meeting.
The information about and request of votes will go out early next year, NCHSAA officials said.
There are currently 418 members schools and at least 306 must vote “yes” for the NCHSAA to move forward and look at a fifth classification.
If it passes and language in the bylaws faces changes, those would come after first being reviewed by NCHSAA lawyers.
Eventually determining the schools headed to Class 5A — and if it would be for all sports or just, for instance, football – would be determined in the next statewide realignment process.
The NCHSAA had previously said the next realignment process would be delayed by one year. Realignment has been on a four-year basis, with the current one running from through 2016-17 through 2019-20.
The current conferences and classifications will remain in place for 2020-21, while the NCHSAA will be preparing for a realignment that begins in August of the 2021-22 school year.
If there’s a change to five classes, the NCHSAA may have to review all of its policies on how teams reach the state playoffs, seeding processes and anything else that comes up by adding another classification.
The NCHSAA went to having four classes in 1960, and its realignment, playoff bracketing and numbers of schools in each classification – among other things – have changed dramatically through the years.
The state playoffs used to be teams from conferences being predetermined but has moved now to seeding method that uses average daily membership (ADMs) of schools – which are available prior to seeding – and final MaxPreps.com rankings.
Those rankings are updated weekly but the true idea of where a team might be ranked by MaxPreps.com is not, as the NCHSAA then has a set of them redone by MaxPreps that takes away win margins, etc. That set is used on seeding day.
Also, the entire MaxPreps.com formula for how it calculates rankings is not shared publically.
In other key decisions by the NCHSAA Board of Director on Thursday:
PKs results remain live: Rejected by a 19-0 vote to eliminate penalty kicks to determine winners of soccer matches.
In a proposal by the North Carolina Soccer Coaches Association (NCSCA), they wanted two 10-minute overtimes and the match declared a draw if the teams were tied after those overtimes.
7-on-7s and administrators: Approved requirement of a Game Day Administrator for every 7-on-7 football site.
Part-timer added: Approved a joint venture between the NCHSAA and Special Olympics of North Carolina to add a part-time coordinator position for Unified Track programs
Boys’ golf qualifying: Approved a change to how boys’ golfer qualify for the state championships.
Fines added: Approved addition of a monetary fine for failing to provide appropriate Athletic Event Medical Care Requirement(s).
7-on-7s and administrators: Approved requirement of a Game Day Administrator for every 7-on-7 football site.
MORE COVERAGE: https://www.citizen-times.com/story/sports/high-school/hshuddle/2019/12/05/nchsaa-opens-door-5-a-classification/2617741001/
MORE COVERAGE: https://www.newsobserver.com/sports/high-school/preps-now-blog/article238081229.html