07/25/22- Reminders About Realignment/Reclassification Processes for 2023-24 and beyond (FB, TR, XC)

July 25, 2022 2022-2023 News Releases

As discussed at the 7/22/22 Board of Control meeting, the process for realignment in the classified sports remains unchanged from various updates since 2021. The new alignments will be completed during the 2022-23 school year, to be implemented for 2023-24 and beyond.

Enrollment

The KHSAA receives from KDE electronically, the by-grade membership numbers of all common schools. These numbers are submitted as part of the “second-month” report, and these numbers are subject to audit for accuracy. These numbers are usually received in the last part of October or the first part of November.

During the pandemic, there has been no collection of this data by KDE for 2020-21 or 2021-22 as the districts were permitted to use 2018-19 or 2019-20 numbers for that key report which forms part of the ADA equation and is considered by KDE to be the most accurate. The same data (second month) is collected from all other schools.

The Board policy on classification has been to use a four-year average. In football, it is the four-year average of boys enrolled in the school. In track and cross country, it is the four-year average of all students (with single-gender schools having this number doubled).

The Board’s current practice includes only the enrollment data with no other factor involved in the calculations. As members will find upon review of other states’ information, there is a myriad of factors that different states used and differences in cycles of discussion. And no state using any other factor appears to stay with that factor for very long, so it is ever-changing.

With no data for 2020-21 or 2021-22, a four-year average of those prior four years (2016-2017 to 2019-2020) would likely be an unrealistic predictor or long out-of-date value for an average to be used for the 2023 competition. As such, the Board concurred during 2021-22 with the collaborative answer developed in consultation with KDE that we will use a different group of numbers for this alignment cycle.

Once the 2022-23 second month data is collected, schools will be ranked (for both football and track and cross country) by the average of the 2019-20 school year combined with 2022-23 numbers doubled (used twice). It is predicted from the data available that while 2019-20 is somewhat predictive, the most likely predictor of school size will be 2022-23 so those numbers will be doubled.

Football

In football, once the averages are determined, per the Competition Rules and unless otherwise revised by the Board, the following will be used to divide the schools –

• The top 32 ranked schools will be assigned to Class 6A
• The lowest 32 ranked schools will be assigned to Class 1A
• The remaining four classes will be evenly divided with the uneven remainders from the division being placed in lower class.
• No Board action is necessary on this initial ranking of teams.
• The current alignment is not a factor in these divisions.

Once these are determined, the Competition rules call for the schools to be given an option to “play up” for the four-year cycle, that being to play into a higher classification.

• Many times this is due to geography, but the current rules do not stipulate a required reason.
• NOTE: These decisions are made BEFORE any district groupings are determined. No Board action is necessary on these requests.
• The options allowed in the competition rules for the lines to be redrawn for the class boundaries after the playing up decisions is to be continued.

After these decisions are made by the schools, staff will then place the schools in geographic districts and bring this information to the Board of Control as a draft alignment.

• The draft alignment does not place weight on the present alignment, it is a total re-shaping of the alignment.
• While the new results may end up similar, it is not part of the process to “start” with the current.

Past practice has been to:

• Review the draft making any obvious and necessary changes, and then submit the draft to the membership for feedback prior to the next meeting. This is not a required step and may be skipped by the Board (sending out for additional feedback).
• At that next meeting, final discussion has held regarding the alignment and final approval given.

Next Steps

• If things go well with KDE and data collection from the schools, this process could be started in November with the draft alignment presented in January, 2023 with final adoption in February, 2023.
• The Board could consider adopting the alignment without further feedback from the schools in January if desired by the Board.

Only at this point (final adoption), will game contracts be valid.

Track and Field (and Cross Country)

• In track (and cross country), once the average enrollments are determined, per the Competition Rules and unless otherwise revised by the Board, the following will be used to divide the schools –
• Initial class divisions place fewer teams in Class 3A, a few more in Class 2A, and the remainder in Class 1A.
• The purpose of this division has been to attempt to balance the number of teams and individuals in each region meet solely for logistic reasons.
• The at-large state qualifiers in all events balance out any issues with perceived competitive equity if the numbers in the regions are not identical.
• No Board action is necessary on this initial ranking of teams.
• The current alignment is not a factor in these divisions, however facilities may be a point of review during the process.

Once these are determined, the Competition rules call for the schools to be given an option to “play up” for the four-year cycle, that being to play into a higher classification.

• Many times this is due to geography, but the current rules do not stipulate a required reason. NOTE: These decisions are made BEFORE any district groupings are determined.
• No Board action is necessary on these requests.

After these decisions are made by the schools, staff will then place the schools in geographic districts and bring this information to the Board of Control as a draft alignment.

• The draft alignment does not place weight on the present alignment, it is a total re-shaping of the alignment.
• While the new results may end up similar, it is not part of the process to “start” with the current.
• Past practice has been to review the draft making any obvious and necessary changes, and then submit the draft to the membership for feedback prior to the next meeting.
• At that next meeting, final discussion is held regarding the alignment and final approval given.

If things go well with KDE and data collection from the schools, this process could be started in November with the draft alignment presented in January, 2023 with final adoption in February, 2023.