Football classes may see shake-up

The Iowa High School Athletic Association is getting closer and closer to adding a new criteria to the way it classifies its prep football teams.

In December, the IHSAA held a vote on an amendment to the Articles of Incorporation regarding the classification of the sport of football. Voting for the issue opened on Dec. 16 and was closed on Thursday, Dec. 22.

The amendment, if passed would include socioeconomic factors into the classification process. Right now, the IHSAA considers BEDS reports and BEDS reports alone (number of students between 9-11) to break up teams into different football classes. If the amendment is passed, a school district’s free and reduced lunch numbers would be part of the new number.

The proposed change, which was announced earlier in the month, would reduce a school’s BEDS enrollment by 40 percent of its district’s free and reduced lunch percentage.

“I want to commend the IHSAA classification committee, the board of control, and the IHSAA staff for their important work on this study and resulting recommendation,” IHSAA executive director Tom Keating said in a press release. “Our schools have asked us to consider socioeconomic factors in classification and the IHSAA, after much study and discussion, is pleased to offer such a strategy.”

The example given is that if a school’s BEDS enrollment is 1,000, and the FRL percentage is 37%, the classification number would boil down like this …

1,000 — (0.40 x [1,000 x 0.37])

1,000 — 0.40 x 370

1,000 — 148

IHSAA classification number: 852

According to projections by number-crunchers across the internet, most public schools in Southeast Iowa will have a similar FRL number. Most are somewhere between 40 percent and 60 percent, based on previous numbers and trends in the past few years.

The move may move around some of the private schools, as private school FRL numbers tend to be lower than those of public schools, but there’s a lot of speculation and math to do in order to figure out whether the local private schools will see classification changes.

One major class change two years ago saw the IHSAA add one class, giving us Class 8-Player through Class 5A, as opposed to the old Class 8-Player to Class 4A spread.

That shake-up really sent the Southeast Conference teams through a whirlwind, as Mt. Pleasant and Fort Madison joined Burlington in Class 4A, while Washington, Fairfield and Keokuk all stayed in Class 3A.

Along with the potential change with the FRL numbers, Mt. Pleasant also will see its football BEDS number go down due to the ending of a sharing agreement with Danville, although all things considered, that doesn’t necessarily mean the Panthers will go back down to Class 3A.

Mt. Pleasant is expected to be among the biggest Class 3A schools or the smallest Class 4A schools. If the Panthers can dip back into Class 3A, there’s a pretty good chance they would get back into the same district as the rival Demons and Trojans.

The vote tallies, which were released on Dec. 23, were very favorable toward the change. Out of the 263 votes, 211 voted yes to move the amendment forward, while only 52 voted no. Just 50 percent of the total membership or 60 percent of those voting was required to pass.

According to the release, IHSAA legal counsel Brian Humke will develop and updated version of the IHSAA Articles of Incorporation, which will be submitted to the Iowa State Board of Education for consideration.

The updated version was due to the Board by Dec. 27, so it can be placed on the State Board of Education agenda on Jan. 12.

Pending the changes going through, the IHSAA also will take a look at the current Class 8-Player enrollment cap, which is currently at 120 or permitted by exception. Changes would likely come to that cap in order to readjust for the new BEDS numbers.

Either way, the BEDS numbers and classifications for the sport of football will be released later on this winter. While the changes may delay that release, the new numbers are usually known before the end of winter sports season, and district groupings soon follow.