GHSA places teams in classifications for next cycle
After finally deciding to reclassify using a 3.0 multiplier, the Georgia High School Association (GHSA) placed members school in classifications for the next two-year cycle (2022-23, 2023-24) on Tuesday, Nov. 1.
The GHSA recently voted to bump up the multiplier from 2.0 to 3.0, meaning any student not from the district in which they are geographically zoned will count as three students for the school in which they are currently attending.
The multiplier was increased to combat what many public schools around the state felt were unfair advantages by city schools and larger private schools, which have led to those schools, especially the larger private ones, winning a bigger percentage of recent state championships.
Some of the larger private schools disagreed with increasing the multiplier and had offered the GHSA an alternative plan that involved placing each schools’ individual sports teams into classifications based solely on their levels of success, but that plan was not approved.
Some critics have also argued that some students attend out-of-district schools for academics reasons only. They say that those schools’ athletic programs are being unfairly penalized by being made to play in higher classifications where their athletic participation numbers are not on an equal level with bigger schools in those classifications.
Class 7A, the highest classification, had 49 schools placed into it by the GHSA for the next cycle based on adjusted enrollment counts with the 3.0 multiplier in place. Brookwood is at the top of the classification. The school’s 2021 FTE count was 3,850 students, but with 180 students out of zone, their reclassification count is 4,210.
At the bottom end of the classification is East
Paulding, who was moved up from Class 6A after 305 out-of-zone students gave it an adjusted count of 2,503. Among the notable schools forced to move up are two large private schools, St. Pius X and Woodward Academy, who are currently in Class 5A.
St. Pius has a 2021 FTE count of 1,096 students, 1,060 of which do not live in the schools’ very small geographic district, giving them an adjusted count of 3,216 and making them the 10th largest school in the GHSA, according to adjusted numbers. Woodward (1.076 FTE) has 1,020 out of district, giving them an adjusted total of 3,116, making them 15th-highest on the list.
Carrollton, Buford and Valdosta are some of the biggestname city schools that will now have to play in the state’s largest classification.
Blessed Trinity, another large private school in Roswell with an enrollment of 978, is going from Class 5A to the very top of Class 6A with an adjusted count of 2,478. Marist, another large private school sports powerhouse with a Class 2A-sized enrollment (800 FTE), that has elected to play up to Class 4A for the past several years for competition purposes, will also be moving into Class 6A with an adjusted count of 1,962.
The very last school on the Class 6A list will be Cartersville, who is moving up from Class 5A.
Greater Atlanta Christian (634 FTE) will now be reclassified at Class 5A (1,874 adjusted), up from Class 3A. Dalton is dropping from Class 6A to Class 5A. Benedictine will remain in Class 4A, but will be joined there by both Westminster and Lovett. Calhoun remains in Class 5A, while another city school athletic stalwart, Jefferson, has been placed in Class 5A. Jefferson was a Class 1A school as recently as 2008.
All seven teams currently in Region 7-AAAA — Cedartown, Central-carroll, Heritage, Northwest Whitfield, Pickens, Ridgeland and Southeast Whitfield — stayed in Class 4A. They could be joined in the region by Sonoraville, who was moved up from Class 3A and is showing as tied with Pickens for the lowest adjusted student count (1,266) in the new Class 4A.
Sonoraville’s possible departure from Class 3A, along with Rockmart dropping back to Class 2A, could leave Region 6-AAA with just eight teams — Ringgold, Adairsville, Coahulla Creek, Lafayette, LFO, Murray County and North Murray. However, it remains to be seen what the GHSA does with Bremen, who was placed back into Class 3A after spending the past two school years in Class 2A.
Model will be the largest school in Class 2A in terms of adjusted enrollment (998), while current Region 7-AA schools — Gordon Central, Fannin County, Pepperell, Coosa, Chattooga and Dade County — all remained in the classification. Rockmart could be placed in that region, though it is also plausible that Rockmart could take Bremen’s place in Region 5, which already includes Callaway, Haralson County, Heard County and Temple.
Football- playing schools in Region 6-A Public — Armuchee, Bowdon, Gordon Lee, Trion, Mt. Zion and B. E. S. T. Academy — remained in Class 1A, though Dalton Academy (formerly Morris Innovative), who play other sports in the region, were bumped to Class 2A after reporting a 617 FTE with four out-of-zone students.
The next step is for the GHSA’S Reclassification Committee to hear appeals regarding placement and requests of schools to play in a higher classification. Those appeals had to be heard on Wednesday, Nov. 10, 2021 at 10 a.m. Teams can elect to play up in classification, but not down, though the GHSA can elect to drop a school in classification due to geographic and travel concerns (i.e., the isolation rule).
The GHSA can also move teams at the top or bottom of each classification list up or down in order to try and balance the numbers of teams in each class.
Once appeals are heard and ruled upon, the Reclassification Committee will begin the process of drawing up regions for each classification. Once those regions are released, there will be another opportunity for schools to ask for lateral transfers (one region to another in the same classification).
After all of those lateral transfer appeals are heard and decided upon, the regions will be finalized and ratified by the GHSA Executive Committee early in 2022.