Arkansas Activities Association denies Fort Smith appeal.

The Arkansas Activities Association denied the appeal of the Fort Smith Public School District to have its two high schools, Northside and Southside, placed in the same conference for the 2020-22 classification cycle Thursday.

The AAA Board of Directors voted 11-5 against Northside and Southside joining the 7A-West Conference for football and 9-8 against for going to the 6A-West for other sports across the state.

If the measure had passed, the state’s largest classification would have had nine members in one conference and seven in the other.

The AAA announced the 2020 and 2021 football classifications in June at its summer workshop in Little Rock, which had Northside in the 7A-Central Conference and Southside in the 7A-West.

Mike Beaumont, athletic director for the Fort Smith Public School District, said he was disappointed for the children of the district. The appeal, he said, had full support of both the principals at Northside (Keri Rathbun) and Southside (Lisa Miller). Beaumont, Rathbun and Miller attended the AAA meeting Thursday.

“It was a hand-in-hand effort trying to get it done,” Beaumont said. “Our superintendent called every superintendent in the state. Our principals called every principal. I called every athletic director I could.”

As of the fall of 2020, Northside will be in the 7A-Central for football and 6A-Central for other sports, and Southside moves to the 7A-West for football and 6A-West for other sports.

The 7A-Central football members in 2020 and 2021 will be Northside, Bryant, Cabot, Conway, Little Rock Catholic, Little Rock Central, North Little Rock and the new high school in southwest Little Rock. Southside joins Bentonville, Bentonville West, Fayetteville, Rogers, Rogers Heritage, Springdale and Springdale Har-Ber in the 7A-West for football.

Southside returns to the

7A-West for the first time since the 2015 football season. Both Northside and Southside were longtime members of the West before both joined the 7A-Central for a two-season span in 2012 and 2013.

The last time the two Fort Smith schools — which are less than 3 miles apart — were not in the same conference was 1980 when Northside played in the then-AAAAA and Southside was in the AAAA-West. Northside and Southside are currently in the 7A-Central Conference.

Northside is the state’s 12th largest high school, according to the 2020-22 classification

cycle, with 1,688.33 students. Southside is 13th at 1,583.67.

Beaumont said the schools will still compete against each other in nonconference play.

“This rivalry will still happen, brother,” Beaumont said. “We’re still going to play the Northside-Southside game. We just won’t play that last game of the season. But my mind has been turning. My dreams have been turning to see how we can blow this thing up.”

In other business Thursday, the AAA board of directors approved the use of instant replay for the final shot in each state basketball championship game, effective for the 2019-20 season.

The final shot of a game, which would be either a two- or a three-point attempt, could be reviewed by officials with cameras from the AETN television broadcast. Officials will determine if a play needs to be reviewed. AETN began broadcasting football and basketball state championship games during the 2018-19 academic year.

Arkansas will be the 17th state that uses replay at some level in state basketball tournaments, according to National Federation of State High School Associations communications director Bruce Howard. Nine states — Alabama, Arizona, Connecticut, Indiana, Nebraska, New York, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and West Virginia — use replay for the state championship game only. Michigan, Ohio, Texas and Wisconsin use replay for the state finals and semifinals, while Hawaii, New Mexico and North Dakota have replay for the finals, semifinals and early round games.

This season’s state basketball championship games will be held March 12-14 at Bank OZK Arena in Hot Springs.

Other items from Thursday’s meeting:

m The weight classifications for girls wrestling were approved. The 10 weight classes are 100, 108, 116, 124, 132, 140, 150, 165, 185 and 235 pounds. There are 27 schools approved for girls wrestling. The state wrestling championships will be held Feb. 2022 at the Jack Stephens Center in Little Rock.

m West Memphis Superintendent Jon Collins’ resignation from his post on the AAA board of directors was accepted. Collins was involved in an incident with an officiating crew Sept. 20 after West Memphis’ 21-14 loss at Wynne. Those on the crew in Wynne accused Collins of spitting on one of the game’s officials. A petition signed by officials in the state called for Collins to resign from the AAA board of directors because of the incident. Collins resigned from the AAA on Oct. 1.