By Ben Thomas
MONTGOMERY, Ala. — The Alabama High School Athletic Association Central Board of Control unanimously approved the current seven-classification system for championship play for the 2024-25 and 2025-26 school years. The seven-class system, which began in 2014-15, was approved once again for all sports.
In accordance with the AHSAA constitution and by-laws, the AHSAA Central Board of Control manages championship play and classification. Member schools are reclassified every two years. The high schools are currently divided into seven classifications (1A, 2A, 3A, 4A, 5A, 6A and 7A) for competition in championship programs.
Classification is based on Average Daily Member- ship (ADM) figures furnished by the State Department of Education for public schools for grades 9 through 11 plus eighth-grade hold-back students. Member private schools report that same data directly to the AHSAA. An index of 1.35 is used to determine the enrollment figure for classifying private school members. Each private school student counts 1.35 for classification purposes. A competitive balance success factor is also applied to private school sports teams which affects approximately 10% of private school teams.
The new classification lists 32 schools in Class 7A. The other classes break down as follows: Class 6A (57); Class 5A (62); Class 4A (66); Class 3A 65); Class 2A (62); and Class 1A (76); plus two associate members for a total of 420 total.
Alignments were also released for fall sports, which recently completed championship play for the current school year, based on the number of schools declaring to participate in a sport for the upcoming 2023-24 school year. Also included for the first time are alignments for Girls’ Flag Football as a championship sport.
Alignments for winter and spring sports will be determined following completion of those championship seasons.
While most alignments are for seven classes, some sports programs may include two or more classes in a division. The alignments for each sport in a class are published in the online AHSAA Sports Book each year.
Reclassification, according to the AHSAA Constitution and By-Laws, is conducted every two years by the AHSAA Central Board of Control.
Central Bord of Control president Mike Welsh, Superintend of Cherokee County Schools, added, “This new classification and fall sport recommendations came after many hours of study and discus- sion. Everyone involved gave of their valuable time to evaluate our classification system thoroughly and provided input in ways to improve that system.
The reclassification alignment data for each sport and the private school competitive balance chart can be found at the following link located at www.ahsaa.com. Reclassification by enrollment data is located on the home page of www.ahsaa. com.
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