NC lawmakers drop language that would limit the number of high school athletic divisions
State lawmakers dropped wording Monday that could have prevented North Carolina high schools from expanding to seven athletic divisions and changed where charter schools and private schools compete.
The Senate Education Committee backed legislation that weakens the authority of the N.C. High School Athletic Association’s governance of high school sports.
But in a change made on Monday, the committee removed language from Senate Bill 636 that would have required high school sports to remain grouped into four divisions, or classifications, based on factors such as enrollment size.
The bill came amid a recent vote by N.C. high schools that was in favor of expanding to seven classes beginning in the 2024-25 season.
“I talked to several ADs (athletic directors),” said Sen. Vickie Sawyer, an Iredell County Republican and one of the bill’s primary sponsors. “They are very happy from my understanding with the newest classifications, where there are seven classifications that they all voted on, so that was amended out of this bill.”
The amendment also removed language that would required charter schools and private schools to play in a division higher than the one they’d normally be assigned.
Another change from the amendment removed details of new “biological participation requirements” that would be implemented to keep transgender females from playing on girls teams. Sawyer said that language would be handled in another bill.
Limits on NCHSAA
Under Senate Bill 636, a non-profit, like the NCHSAA, would be allowed 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.
The NCHSAA is currently in a “memorandum of understanding” with the State Board of Education that allows it to continue in its role of governing public school athletics in the state. That agreement went into effect last July and was set to run for four years. It came after House Bill 91 was proposed and would’ve potentially disbanded the NCHSAA.
Eventually state lawmakers and NCHSAA representatives agreed on a version of the bill that ultimately allowed the NCHSAA to remain in place.
Sawyer said the new bill is needed because not all the changes they wanted were implemented in the memorandum. As in prior meetings, Sawyer pointed to issues such as the association’s large endowment, use of single-source contracts and requirement that schools share playoff gate receipts with the NCHSAA.
“This is round 2 in a commitment to stand up for student-athletes and schools who participate in high school athletics,” Sawyer said.
Closing ‘gaps’ in original agreement
During public comments, Rob Jackson asked lawmakers to give the NCHSAA more time. Jackson is superintendent of Buncombe County Schools and president of the NCHSAA board of directors.
“Perhaps some amount of time should be allowed to pass and then to take a look at governance of the High School Athletic Association to determine if change is merited,” Jackson asked the committee. “It is my understanding that we have operated with fidelity in all the requirements in the memorandum of understanding.”
But Sawyer said they need to act now because lawmakers were left out of the conversations with the NCHSAA and the state board when the agreement was developed.
“There were gaps there that we are closing now that we feel like are very important,” Sawyer said. “This is nothing more than just following through on promises to make sure we are transparent with high school athletics in North Carolina.”
This story was originally published May 1, 2023 at 5:44 PM.
