‘Competitive equity’ at root of MHSAA classification change
The Michigan High School Athletic Association believes it has a plan to fix division disparities created when schools aren’t able to sponsor teams as planned.
The association has for years divided the number of teams in a sport by the number of championships up for grabs and then created divisions with equal or near-equal numbers of teams.
But time sometimes created problems.
Schools that in March, when divisions are determined for the next academic year, intend to sponsor, say, a boys soccer team or a softball team might not be able to put those teams on the field when the time comes.
And when such schools are included in the classification process, the number actually playing a sport can be lower than the total in other divisions — an occurrence that happened too frequently, especially in lower divisions, for the association’s liking.
In baseball in 2021, there are 158 teams in Division 1, 158 in Division 2, 155 in Division 3 and
152 in Division 4, according to the MHSAA web site. Respective softball numbers are 154, 147, 153 and 147.
The association wants the figures from D1 to D4 to be closer to identical.
“Our new process allows us to give a truer representation of which schools will actually
have teams playing in our tournaments,” said Geoff Kimmerly, communications director for the MHSAA.
During alignment for the 202223 school year, a school that said it would have a team in a given sport but hadn’t competed in that sport for two consecutive years was not included in the classification process.
“They can still opt back in and play and be put in the division where their enrollment falls,” Kimmerly said.
With fewer teams considered among the total expected to play, the association expects to lessen the discrepancy in numbers of teams across divisions.
“It evens out the number of schools that will eventually compete in the tournament,” Kimmerly said.
“It is all about fairness, competitive equity. We have a system that’s designed to put an equal number of teams in each division, and by reclassifying with this process, it takes us back toward that original mission to have equal divisions.”
Kimmerly said it was not unusual for 20 to 25 teams in some sports to be planned in March but then not come to fruition the next school year.