05/09/24 – Board of Control Approves Final Football Alignment for 2025, 2026; Sets Tentative Season Parameters for Lacrosse, Boys’ Volleyball for 2025

May 9, 2024 2023-2024 News Releases

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: MAY 9, 2024

The KHSAA Board of Control conducted its final regularly scheduled meeting of the 2023-24 academic year on Wednesday in Lexington, adopting a football alignment effective for the 2025 and 2026 playing seasons. A draft was approved at last February’s regularly scheduled meeting with an allowance for six weeks of feedback from the membership that was shared and publicly available.

The Board reviewed each of the concerns and suggestions brought forth by member schools and approved the following logistically and geographically verifiable moves:

• Breckinridge County to move from District 2 to District 3 in Class 4A;
• Taylor County to move from District 7 to District 2 in Class 4A;
• Grant County to move from District 5 to District 4 in Class 4A;
• Bardstown to move from District 3 to District 4 in Class 3A; and
• LaRue County to move from District 4 to District 2 in Class 3A.

Additionally, requests by both Jenkins and Phelps to withdraw from postseason play (and required district play) in 2025 and 2026 were accepted.

“The process of getting an alignment approved is a challenge each time, especially in these times when school enrollments are changing each year with different education initiatives and options,” said KHSAA Commissioner Julian Tackett. “At the end of the day, the membership had significantly greater time and opportunity for feedback than the past alignment, all of which was fully disclosed to the public and the membership throughout the process. A few requests for logistically geographically supported moves were adopted, but there were also requests denied as each request was considered independently.”

The Board also adopted a draft timeline of the Bylaw 23 parameters around boys’ and girls’ lacrosse and boys’ volleyball, which will begin play in 2024-25. These timelines will be distributed to member schools for consideration of final adoption at the July meeting.

Those season drafts are:

Lacrosse

• Practice start–Monday of Week 31;
• Contests start–Monday of Week 35;
• Match limit–18;
• Postseason–Two rounds;
• Postseason start–Monday of Week 45; and
• Postseason finish–Saturday/Sunday of Week 46.

Boys’ volleyball

• Practice start–Monday of Week 31;
• Contests start–Monday of Week 35;
• Match limit–18;
• Postseason–Two rounds for 2025;
• Postseason start–Monday of Week 45; and
• Postseason finish–Saturday/Sunday of Week 46.

The Board also rescinded its February approval of scoring adjustments in golf designed to address the pace of play and will continue to provide recommendations and resources to ensure that this issue is minimized without changing scoring parameters at this time.

Without taking any formal action, the Board discussed the continued technology advancements utilized by staff to assist membership. Reviews of the successful transition of the organization’s partnership with ArbiterSports and the staff’s continued use of artificial intelligence and other technology for various aspects of the management of 290 schools with varying needs, wants and priorities were held. The Board looked at alignment samples using technology used by the staff, as well as one submitted as a football suggestion in one specific class, and will continue to look at alternatives for appropriate use in the future as it considers alignments in its sports.

“This association and its staff have long been viewed as industry leaders in the use of technology to allow us to do things that most states our size can only try and envision doing,” said Tackett. “Our three years or more of using AI with our various tasks and other long-used techniques of using technology to manage our many undertakings position us to take the next steps if we can get some agreement on specifics. Our Board is very interested in techniques that can make things such as alignment more automatic with less subjectivity, but they are very aware that first, there must be very public parameters and priorities. Clearly, the feedback on both the WEB DuBois placement and the football alignment show us that our member schools do not all think alike, are not all similarly geographically situated, don’t have the same priority and constraints on travel–especially on the weekend–and even at times, allow competitive history and ability to enter into their thought process on things like alignment. Without the pressure of an impending deadline, I believe the Board members are further energized to consider these parameters without the knowledge of specific school names and perhaps develop a model that we can use a third-party technology solution to help the process. It will be challenging but not impossible, but undoubtedly needs to consider a myriad of factors.”

Wednesday’s meeting also included the election of 2024-25 Board of Control President Matt Wilhoite of Kenton County Schools, who previously served in the role during the 2022-23 academic year. Greg Howard of Warren County Public Schools will serve as Board of Control President-Elect for the 2024-25 school year. The Board also recognized the service of three outgoing Board members: eight-year member appointed by the Kentucky Department of Education and two-term Board of Control President Darrell Billings; outgoing Region 15 and 16 member Larry Coldiron of Raceland-Worthington Independent Schools who served as President-Elect during 2023-24; and outgoing Region 1 and 2 member Joe Henderson of Mayfield Independent Schools.

The Board also approved the following items:

• A revision of the wrestling competition starting date for the next three years to align with its contracted championship dates  for the venue of the state final tournaments and maintain the length of the season as per Bylaw 23;
• A revision of the swimming & diving competition starting date to an earlier date to further enable local options for start dates of postseason;
• Presentation of a boys’ and girls’ combined state championship trophy in swimming & diving;
• An agreement with FloSports to provide necessary data services in cross country and indoor and outdoor track & field;
• An educational and athletic exception to Bylaw 23 for University Heights to begin soccer practice and competition early in Summer 2025 during an approved trip to a foreign country with a corresponding reduction in the competition season;
• The placement of WEB DuBois in Region 7, District 26, for the 2024-25 seasons with consideration of further placement based on the results of ongoing meetings with schools in the district;
• The development of a pilot alternative soccer postseason format for Region 1 as per the competition rules when regions have 15 or fewer schools; 
• A request for authorization to select an alternative site for the 2024 Clark’s Pump-N-Shop Baseball State Tournament if necessary; and
• Several operational reports required by statute, regulation and Board policy, including the evaluation required in 702 KAR 7:065.

 

– KHSAA –

About the Kentucky High School Athletic Association

The Kentucky High School Athletic Association was organized in 1917 and is the agency designated by the Kentucky Department of Education to manage high school athletics in the Commonwealth. The Association is a voluntary nonprofit 501(c)3 organization made up of 290 member schools, both public and non-public. The KHSAA awards 229 state championships to 59 teams and 178 individuals in 13 sports and six sport-activities, funds catastrophic insurance coverage for its more than 109,000 rostered member school student-athletes, provides coaching education and sports safety programs for more than 12,000 coaches and licenses and facilitates the distribution of training material for over 4,000 contest officials.

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