NCHSAA member schools vote to go from four to seven classifications
North Carolina High School Athletic Association commissioner Que Tucker sent a letter to more than 400 member schools on Tuesday, signaling a change that could have lasting effect on the state’s public school athletic programs.
Beginning in the 2025-26 school year, the NCHSAA will expand from four classifications to seven. To make the change, an amendment to adjust a long-standing rule needed 324 of 432 principals to vote in favor.
It’ll be the first time the NCHSAA has expanded since the 1969-70 school year.
“I think the seven classes is great,” South Mecklenburg football coach Joe Evans said. “I honestly think it’s amazing. It’s for the greater good.”
Currently, 432 schools are divided into four classes. Under the new rules, each class will be capped at 64 teams. That will bring North Carolina more in line with surrounding states, former A.L. Brown football coach Mike Newsome said.
Newsome ended his term as president of the N.C. Football Coaches Association in February, and he was part of a group that wrote the proposal to change the rules. In doing research for his proposal, Newsome discovered just how much different North Carolina was versus surrounding states:
▪ Alabama has 386 schools in seven classes.
▪ Georgia has 458 schools in eight classifications.
▪ South Carolina has 229 schools in five classes.
▪ Tennessee has 294 schools in six classes.
▪ Virginia has 320 schools in six classes.
“Our bylaws,” Newsome explained, “were written in the 1950s, and if you look at the population in the state, it’s increased ten-fold. This has been needed for a long while.”
New rules allow for growth
Newsome said the new amendment would allow the state to continue to grow its classes as its population grows, and said he thinks it will help level the playing field for most schools in the state. Teams will be grouped into classifications based on school size alone.
Newsome does think that adding additional classes could create some travel issues, both for conference play and in the postseason.
“Right now,” Newsome said, “you may be at a school that has 1,000 kids and you may have to play a school in the playoffs that has 1,800. But I think these schools may want to travel to play schools more of their size. I think a way to solve some of that is split conferences (that include teams from multiple classifications). But I think the playoffs being fair is what most people in the state are looking for.”
Newsome said Brown has about 1,700 students. In the 4A playoffs, it could regularly faces schools that have 3,000 or more.
“That’s almost twice my enrollment,” he said. “And then you might have a 1A school with 100 students playing a school with 400. That’s four times the enrollment. But now, you could maybe have a much smaller difference (with seven classes). There could be a 100-student difference between the largest and smallest.”
Senate Bill could change everything
As many N.C. coaches were celebrating change Tuesday, there is a bill in the Senate that could derail everything.
Senate Bill 636 includes a provision that would require whatever entity administers athletics in North Carolina — and that may or may not be the NCHSAA — to be limited to four classes.
If passed as written, that bill — called “An Act To Revise Oversight of High School Interscholastic Athletics” — could limit the power of the state association.
Among its provisions, the bill calls for:
▪ Any student who does not live in a school district that student is attending will not be allowed to play sports “if the student’s enrollment in that unit is solely for athletic participation purposes.” A student found ineligible could not participate in postseason play for one year after discovery of the violation.
▪ A student who receives priority enrollment as child of a full-time charter school employee could be subject to a one-year ban of postseason participation if the Office of Charter Schools determines the priority enrollment was awarded for athletic purposes.
▪ Teams will be based on biological sex, determined by biology at birth.
▪ There would be four classifications, based on enrollment, with charter and non-boarding parochial schools playing up. Also, conferences would be based solely on geography, division classification and enrollment figures.
▪ The new bill would allow a non-profit, like the NCHSAA, to run high school athletics but much more tightly governed by the state. The NCHSAA would be asked to reduce fees for member schools, take fewer monies from state tournament games, agree to annual audits, not be allowed to solicit grant funding and sponsorships from third parties as well as be restricted in providing scholarships or grants to players and schools.
Newsome is optimistic, regardless of what happens with the bill, that N.C. lawmakers will allow the seven classes change to stand.
“What I’ve told coaches is bills are what they are,” he said. “They can be amended over time to change before they are voted into law.”
South Meck’s Evans is similarly hopeful.
“Why would they take it away?” he said. “We’re in this because we’re about what’s best for the kids and the schools. When was the last time anybody in Raleigh played a high school football game? Truthfully, what do they know about it, to say it would be a bad thing for us to have seven classifications. I don’t know. I think it’s a great thing to have 64 teams per class. That’s awesome.”
‘It opens doors’
Myers Park girls basketball coach Barbara Nelson is one of the winningest coaches — in any sport — in state history. Like Evans, Nelson would like to see seven classes stand.
“I never liked mixing politics and education,” said Nelson who has won more than 700 games and nine state championships. “Unfortunately, it gets done a lot. I think we should all stay in our lanes. I think educators and people in this business should be the ones making decisions that affect students. I don’t know that a politician in the middle of Raleigh or Washington, D.C., knows what’s going on in the trenches as much as principals, athletic directors and coaches. My preference would be for politicians to let educators make decisions they believe are in the best interest of student-athletes.”
Nelson believes adding seven classes is definitely one of those.
“It opens doors for other people to have some opportunities and it not be the same group all the time,” she said. “My initial concern is what will it do for travel for some schools. But look around. In (Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools), you’ve got Rocky River with 1,600 students competing with Ardrey Kell with 3,800. (At Myers Park), we definitely have a competitive advantage, especially in sports where numbers are huge. So I do think this gives more opportunity for schools to play (schools of similar size) and to build teams. And these kids having more positive opportunities is important for this generation.”
So what’s next?
Tucker, the NCHSAA commissioner, said she will discuss the vote and its potential changes with the board and member schools during the NCHSAA annual meeting, May 2-3.
The meetings will be streamed and followed by a Q&A session for media members May 3.
Tucker said she had not spoken to any legislators about the Senate Bill and how it might impact this NCHSAA bylaw change. But the general sentiment among coaches The Observer spoke with was this:
Change was needed, and they are glad it “could” be here.
“I think it’s good,” Ardrey Kell football coach Greg Jachym said. “It gives more student-athletes a chance to play more playoff games. With us being as big a state as we are, four state championships just isn’t enough.”
This story was originally published April 18, 2023 at 5:48 PM with the headline "NCHSAA member schools vote to go from four to seven classifications."
