Idaho will change its high school sports classifications. How it affects your school
Idaho high school sports will get a new classification system starting in the fall of 2024 after a summer of back-and-forth decisions by the state’s governing body.
Idaho’s superintendents overrode the Idaho High School Activities Association Board of Directors, with 66% voting in favor of using a new system first proposed in June. The IHSAA announced the vote and rule change Tuesday. It only needed a simple majority to pass.
The new rules will increase the student enrollment numbers for each classification and rename the classifications, starting with 6A as the largest division and 1A as the smallest.
The state will not add a new classification. Idaho will still have six divisions. But the state will no longer have a 1A Division I and 1A Division II. It will rename 5A to 6A and 4A to 5A until ending simply at 1A.
Timberline athletic director Tol Gropp led the classification committee that proposed the new rules. He said the goal was to accommodate growth in Idaho schools and rebalance the number of teams in each classification.
“It’s planning for what inevitably happens at the 5A level and at the 4A level,” Gropp said. “For the lower levels, it doesn’t change a whole lot right away, but it potentially could. But we would have seen 5A blow up to 28 schools next year, and potentially even more after that.”
NEW ENROLLMENT BOUNDARIES
Tuesday’s announcement marks the first major change to Idaho’s classification system in 20 years. No school will face anyone more than twice their size in their classification, a continuation of current rules. But the new rules tweak the enrollment numbers splitting each classification.
The new rules will divide schools based on the following enrollment numbers:
6A: 1,400 or more students (22 schools)
5A: 700 to 1,399 students (25 schools)
4A: 350 to 699 students (20 schools)
3A: 175 to 349 students (28 schools)
2A: 90 to 174 students (35 schools)
1A: 0 to 89 students (36 schools)
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WHO’S MOVING UP? WHO’S GOING DOWN?
The change projects that 24 schools change classifications next fall based on their enrollment. Notable changes include:
Caldwell, Ridgevue and Canyon Ridge moving up to the new 6A
Middleton and Lewiston dropping to the new 5A
Cole Valley Christian and Bear Lake moving up to 4A
Parma and Coeur d’Alene Charter dropping to 3A
Vision Charter moving up to 3A
Council, Kendrick, Clark Fork and Hagerman moving up to 2A
Those changes will leave a record 14 schools in the 5A Southern Idaho Conference in the Treasure Valley. Six will remain in the 4A Southern Idaho Conference.
But some of the largest changes come from schools not moving. Twin Falls, Pocatello, Idaho Falls and Skyline were projected to move up to the largest division under the old rules. They will not because the dividing line between 6A and 5A increased from 1,280 to 1,400 students.
“It accommodates for growth by increasing our numbers,” Kuna athletic director Luke Wolf said. “I can only speak for District Three, but obviously we have a ton of growth in this area. This is more of a proactive approach to our numbers and our member schools, rather than a reactive approach.”
Schools can still petition to move up or down a classification at the Sept. 26 IHSAA board meeting. Schools can no longer petition their entire athletic programs to a lower level. Instead, they must do it by sport and prove their struggles on the field.
Only team sports are eligible to move down. Individual sports, like cross country, golf, wrestling, track and tennis, cannot petition down.
VETO IHSAA DECISION
The superintendent vote served as a check on the IHSAA board’s power. The board initially passed the new classification rules in June on a tiebreaker vote. But it reversed course in August when several new board members took their seats, voting it down 8-6.
That vote went against an IHSAA survey that found strong support for the new classification rules. The survey showed 71% of the state’s athletic directors, principals and superintendents favored the new classification system.
“I’m trying to understand how it makes anything better,” IHSAA board member Burke Davis said at the August meeting. “For me, that’s what I’m held up on. I don’t know how it improves anything or demonstrates that it improves anything.”
IHSAA Executive Director Ty Jones said a school requested what’s known as a “special meeting,” an obscure part of the state governing body’s bylaws. It allows each school one vote to overturn an IHSAA decision. A simple majority could repeal a rule or regulation.
The IHSAA has 168 member schools. Their superintendents voted 100-52 (66%) to adopt the new rules.
That includes a majority of superintendents from each classification, and a majority from four of the state’s six districts.
“I thank you for your time, and I thank you for the process,” Jones said in an online address to Idaho schools. “This doesn’t work without member schools taking part. And hopefully in the future, we can get this kind of feedback from all of our member schools.”
This story was originally published September 5, 2023 at 12:37 PM.
