Adjusted alignment typical from AAA

I don’t know if Arkansas high school sports will ever have a truly balanced sports alignment. The past two cycles indicates it will likely not happen any time soon.

The Arkansas Activities Association released the classifications, conferences and geographical alignment for the state’s high schools earlier in the school year. That the AAA continues to miss the point of criticisms aimed at its decisions reveals little hope for lasting improvements. The folly of the latest adjustments is further revealed with every passing week.

A major misstep by the AAA in previous cycles was the evolution of blended conferences, which are finally being scrapped ahead of the

2018-19 academic year. The misguided experiment began more than a decade ago with the expansion of the state’s classifications to increase from five divisions to seven.

The split made sense at the time. Enrollment was booming at the largest schools in Northwest Arkansas and far outpacing the growth in other regions of the state. A competitive gap was likely forming as Rogers, Bentonville, Fayetteville and, of course, Springdale grew beyond the competitive reaches of other schools in the largest classifications.

The original mistake, and the one the AAA refuses to address, is the lack of competitive depth in the top two classes, 7A and 6A. A total of

16 schools in a single competitive division in a state with hundreds of school districts and only 3 million residents was always unreasonable and unfair to the rest of the classifications. It allows a limited number of schools in a limited number of geographical - and political - locations to compete for championships at an irrational rate.

First, fans complained about winless teams making the playoffs. That criticism was met with a playoff system that eliminated only the worst teams in a classification.

Criticisms of boring and homogeneous competition were met with blended conferences. The ploy was pitched as a way to save on travel costs as well, a common excuse for many of the AAA’s decisions.

The blended conference concept trickled down to the smaller classifications and has been a resounding failure. Teams compete in “conferences” which have little to no bearing on their postseason standings, let alone their postseason success.

The AAA admittedly dismissed blended conferences for the 2018-20 cycle, only to create an egregious competitive imbalance while still protecting the largest schools in Northwest Arkansas and Little Rock.

In the next school year, Class 7A will remain in place, but only in football. Class 6A will remain will remain in place in football, but everything shifts for all other sports.

The AAA refused to truly blend or expand Class 7A, which becomes Class 6A in baseball, baseball, softball and other sports with the same 16 teams as 7A in football. It is the one criticism the AAA has refused to address, and it likely has little interest in doing so.

My original complaint remains unchanged today. Not only is 16 teams competitively restrictive, but it is egregiously restrictive geographically. The largest 16 schools are made up entirely of teams in Northwest Arkansas and central Arkansas, with the two Fort Smith schools, Conway, Bryant and Cabot traveling the farthest to face their class opponents.

No. 17 in the state’s classification numbers is Jonesboro. No. 18 is West Memphis. The next four are Benton, Russellville, Lake Hamilton and El Do-

rado. Those schools already travel significant distances to face conference opponents in 6A.

Can travel be used to explain the reason why Lake Hamilton travels to Greenwood and Siloam Springs for “conference” games?

I have always asserted extending the top classification to 24 teams would improve geographic representation while preventing the competitive imbalance with the size of the fastest growing high schools.

In the next cycle, Springdale is listed as the largest high school with an enrollment of 2,413. Sister schools Little Rock Catholic and Mount St. Mary are No. 16 in the classification as a private school with weighted numbers. The “smallest” public high school in Class

7A is Van Buren at 1,393.

That is already a difference of 1,020 students. Jonesboro is listed at 1,241, West Memphis has 1,207 and Lake Hamilton has 1,039. Enrollment among the largest high schools does not drop below

1,000 until Marion at No. 25.

Marion and Pine Bluff ranked in the top 24 in previous reports. I think most sports fans in the state would rather see Northwest Arkansas and central Arkansas teams have to face teams such as Jonesboro, West Memphis, Pine Bluff, Marion and El Dorado regularly instead of the all too repetitive conference game rematches in state finals.

While 7A/6A continues to skirt by without additional competitive and geographic challenges, the AAA’s solution to appease criticisms of the blended conferences and weaker classifications was to combine all of Class 6A with the top half of 5A in enrollment and create what may be the most competitive classification this state has ever seen.

This new Class 5A on steroids for sports other than football will include all 16 6A schools plus 5A schools Greene County Tech, Nettleton and Paragould in the East conference; Alma, Beebe, Greenbrier, Little Rock Christian and Vilonia in the “West;” and Little Rock Parkview, Maumelle, Watson Chapel and White Hall in the “Central.”

The 5A-South conference will be Hot Springs, Lakeside, Lake Hamilton, Benton, El Dorado, J.A. Fair, Sheridan and Texarkana.

Every single 5A conference has multiple legitimate state championship contenders in every single sport.

Instead of pushing the state’s largest schools to compete with Russellville or El Dorado in football, Jonesboro or West Memphis in basketball, Sheridan or Benton in softball, or Sheridan or Jonesboro in baseball, the AAA combined most of the best teams from 5A and threw them together with 6A.

Meanwhile, Little Rock Mills gets to drop down to Class 4A in basketball. Might make for a good matchup with Baptist Prep, except the three-time defending Class 4A champion will drop down to 3A.

Fountain Lake will also move down to 3A in other sports and be in the same conference with Jessieville, Perryville, Atkins, Booneville, Lamar, Paris and Two Rivers.

Jessieville will be in 3A in all sports and Cutter Morning Star will be in 2A in all sports. Mountain Pine will drop down to 1A after football into the same conference as Blevins, Caddo Hills, Kirby, Mineral Springs, Oden, Ouachita, Trinity Christian and Umpire.

The new 4A will include 54 schools, 3A will have 64, 2A will have 65 schools and 1A will have 66. They are not even balanced with the same number of teams in each conference.

How long will 16 be the magical number for the state’s protected elite?