How many high school classifications does your state have?

[Johnny Chase]

I've always been curious to see how many classifications each state has for high school athletics. Here in Illinois, there were always two for every sport except football (and smaller sports like bowling had, and still have one), but the IHSA went to four a few years ago and that was a huge deal. In football, there were six up until 2001 when they went to eight.

I hated the four-class system at first, but it's kind of grown on me. But the eight-class system completely sucks.

That being said, having applied for a number of jobs, I'd do some research on the schools in the area, and it seems like four classes is basically the minimum, and some states have six or seven for nearly every sport, which just seems ridiculous.

So, how many does your state have, and do you like it that way?

 

[Rhody31]

Brilliantly, Rhode Island doesn't have classifications; we have divisions that are broken down by a 60-40 rule - 60 percent school size, 40 percent success rate.
In some sports, there are as many as four divisions; in others, there are three.
The state took a huge step with the last realignment - it happens every four years - by cutting divisions to three per most sports and having an open state basketball tournament.
However, there is a serious push for the state to go to a regionalized regular-season schedule, then have an open tournament at the end of the season in nearly every sport.

 

[MartinonMTV2]

I've always been curious to see how many classifications each state has for high school athletics. Here in Illinois, there were always two for every sport except football (and smaller sports like bowling had, and still have one), but the IHSA went to four a few years ago and that was a huge deal. In football, there were six up until 2001 when they went to eight.

I hated the four-class system at first, but it's kind of grown on me. But the eight-class system completely sucks.

That being said, having applied for a number of jobs, I'd do some research on the schools in the area, and it seems like four classes is basically the minimum, and some states have six or seven for nearly every sport, which just seems ridiculous.

So, how many does your state have, and do you like it that way?

The biggest problem in Illinois is not the number of classes. It's the Catholic schools that recruit some players and still stay in the lower classes of competition. In basketball, it's 2A.

That system also leads to Chicago-area schools playing smaller schools early in the sectional round of Class 2A.

 

[HanSenSE]

California's always a hodgepodge. In most team sports where there are state championships (boys and girls basketball, girls volleyball and boys and girls soccer in SoCal), there's five divisions. Most are enrollment based, but some sections are going to a ranking system much like in soccer, where teams move up and down in divisions depending on past performance. Football is still being worked out, since there's no statewide playoff system. Instead there's a five-division bowl system in a North vs. South format, four enrollment divisions and an "open" division for the power schools. Teams are selected by committee. Wrestling and track and field have one division, but cross country is five divisions. Boys and girls golf is a single division as well, but that's run by the state amateur golf association, not the CIF.

In all the other sports, it's left up to the sections.

 

[TrooperBari]

For the most part, Nebraska breaks its classes into A (the largest, which includes the 28 schools with the highest enrollment), B, C and D. Football, volleyball and basketball are further broken into A, B, C-1, C-2, D-1 and D-2, with both D classes playing eight-man football. Alas, six-man football is no longer NSAA-sanctioned. Sports with less participation have just two or three classes, and swimming has just one, leading to a bunch of co-ops.

Hawaii has just two classes — Division 1 and Division 2. Enrollment, facilities and location have nothing to do with which division you're in. The AD (presumably consulting with each sport's coaches, but not always) tells the HHSAA prior to the season in which division they want to compete, and it can vary from sport to sport. This can result in two Oahu schools with 1,000-plus enrollments playing for the state title in Division 2, which is mostly populated by rural and parochial schools.

 

[trifectarich]

For the most part, Nebraska breaks its classes into A (the largest, which includes the 28 schools with the highest enrollment), B, C and D. Football, volleyball and basketball are further broken into A, B, C-1, C-2, D-1 and D-2, with both D classes playing eight-man football. Alas, six-man football is no longer NSAA-sanctioned. Sports with less participation have just two or three classes, and swimming has just one, leading to a bunch of co-ops.

Hawaii has just two classes — Division 1 and Division 2. Enrollment, facilities and location have nothing to do with which division you're in. The AD (presumably consulting with each sport's coaches, but not always) tells the HHSAA prior to the season in which division they want to compete, and it can vary from sport to sport. This can result in two Oahu schools with 1,000-plus enrollments playing for the state title in Division 2, which is mostly populated by rural and parochial schools.

This surprises me. Following the need to be PC, I would have thought states by now would have done away with Class B, C, etc., and used A through AAAAAAAAAAAAAA.

 

[MileHigh]

California's always a hodgepodge. In most team sports where there are state championships (boys and girls basketball, girls volleyball and boys and girls soccer in SoCal), there's five divisions. Most are enrollment based, but some sections are going to a ranking system much like in soccer, where teams move up and down in divisions depending on past performance. Football is still being worked out, since there's no statewide playoff system. Instead there's a five-division bowl system in a North vs. South format, four enrollment divisions and an "open" division for the power schools. Teams are selected by committee. Wrestling and track and field have one division, but cross country is five divisions. Boys and girls golf is a single division as well, but that's run by the state amateur golf association, not the CIF.

In all the other sports, it's left up to the sections.

And section titles carry a bit more prestige, especially in SoCal. In football in SoCal, I think it's up to 13 sections. Boys and girls basketball, there are 12. It's actually kind of insane, but there are also 600-plus schools just in the Southern Section.

 

[WolvEagle]

Michigan has four for most sports; three for some like swimming. Football, though, is eight, though a standalone division for eight-man football recently was added.

 

[MidwestSportsGuy]

Minnesota just decided to add a Class 6-A for football, so there's seven classifications for that sport (including 9 Man). I'm pretty sure there are four classes for the majority of the other sports, except for hockey, which has two. The new football classification will feature the 28 (I believe) largest schools.

In New Mexico, I know five classes was the norm. Each class had between 25 and 35 schools, and for most sports, 16 would make the state tournament. So you'd have teams that went 9-13 qualify for state, which always seemed preposterous. But at least more student-athletes felt good about themselves.

 

[Shoeless Joe]

Ohhhhhh what a mess.
In Tennessee, the simple answer is 3 - AAA, AA, A (AAA being the largest, and it's all enrollment based), but it's not simple at all.
For football, you have three during the regular season, then it's broken into six classifications for the playoffs. A becomes 1A and 2A, AA becomes 3A and 4A, AAA becomes 5A and 6A.
Basketball and baseball are straight forward - three classifications all the time.
Some sports, because of the number of participants there are two - A/AA and AAA.
Still others are only one all-inclusive classification.
THEN, throw in the public (Division I) and private (Division II) divide. In football, DII is broken down further by enrollment to two groups.

 

[fourcorners]

Pennsylvania uses mostly four classes per sports (A, AA, AAA, AAAA) but some, such as wrestling, use just two classifications, AA and AAA.

 

[gregcrews]

I have actually written columns at two different newspapers about there being too many classes (Kentucky and Oklahoma). In Kentucky there is just one state champ in basketball, which is awesome. It makes the entire postseason noteworthy, and just being one of the 16 teams in the state tournament (played at Rupp Arena) is a lifelong memory. In football, they recently went from four to six classes and it has made the sport worse.

In Oklahoma, meanwhile, there are seven classes (A-6A and B) in just about every sport (football also has eight-man, which it lists as Class C), and it is overwhelming.

According to Maxpreps.com there were 228 teams that won boys' state basketball championships in 2010 and 322 football teams.

State-by-state football champs
http://www.maxpreps.com/news/AYljVt8VEd6UswAcxJTdpg/football-state-champions-and-all-state-teams.htm

State-by-state basketball champs
http://www.maxpreps.com/news/TSCGRUj5EeCkhgAcxJSkrA/2010-11-boys-basketball-state-champions.htm

 

[JayFarrar]

If I recall correctly, Tennessee also breaks its private schools down by aid giving and non aid giving. So if the private school doesn't give scholarships it competes with the public schools but they also use a multiplier to determine enrollment. The multiplier being 1.5 or something. So if the school had 300 students, it would have 450 to determine its classification.

What most people don't ever seem to get is that enrollment is no predictor of success in high school sports. Very rarely are the state's largest enrollment schools also sports powerhouses anywhere in the country.

 

[Cubbiebum]

North Dakota is funky with football. They have AAA, AA, A and 9-Man. 2/3's of schools co-op with at least one other school with some having an alliance with as many as four other schools. It has to do with many North Dakota high schools having less than 100 kids total.

In basketball it is just A and B.

 

[jr/shotglass]

Pennsylvania uses mostly four classes per sports (A, AA, AAA, AAAA) but some, such as wrestling, use just two classifications, AA and AAA.

We also have widely divergent districts. The largest (i.e., District 3) might have eight times as many students as the smallest (i.e., District 5).

This map is outdated only in that the state has added District 12 -- the city of Philadelphia's Public and Catholic leagues.

 

[BrianGriffin]

Louisiana has seven classes: Five football-playing classes (5A, 4A, 3A, 2A, 1A) with 5A being the largest. Small, non-football schools are divided into Classes B and C. So seven total.

That's probably one class too many in Louisiana. There are 50-something teams in each class and 32 make the post-season.

In Texas, there are five classes, then there's a division for six-man football. But over there they subdivide in football to Division I and Division II in each class. Four teams from each district make the football playoffs. The two larger schools of your district's qualifiers go to the D-I playoffs and the two smaller ones go to the D-II playoffs.

So it's possible to go to the D-I playoffs one year then, because the teams who qualified changed, you can end up in D-II the next. Or, you can be in the D-I playoffs but have a smaller enrollment than some teams in the D-II playoffs just because of the way the numbers fell in your district.

I could be wrong on those last two graphs though. I didn't spend enough time in Texas to really get all the details down, but that was my understanding.

I'll add that in Louisiana, public and private schools compete in one organization (which is controversial, given the dominance of a handful of sports factory private schools).

In Texas, publics and privates are split and publics and generally much stronger at sports, mostly because of what most non-Texans would probably consider to be an overemphasis on sports in public schools. Texas 5A schools (enrollments of about 2,200 and up) often have facilities that rival those of, say, a Sun Belt Conference or FCS university. They have funding through the ears, huge coaching staffs, etc.

So it's very hard for a private school sports factory to find a niche in Texas. Why go to one of those when the local public school IS a sports factory too?

 

[jr/shotglass]

Also in Pennsylvania, I believe it's only been a few years that the Philadelphia Public and Catholic League teams have competed with the rest of the state. I always laughed when the state basketball playoffs came and none of the great city teams (and there were some GREAT ones) were in the tourney.

Agreed. However, this year began to show the imbalance of basketball power now that the Philly schools are in the mix. They're beginning to show absolute dominance.

And the one area that still doesn't belong to the PIAA -- the Philadelphia area prep schools, or Inter-Ac League -- have created an uneven playing field because of its ability to recruit. And the Catholic League is doing some heavy recruiting, too. Great story here.

http://www.phillymag.com/health/articles/the_prized_recruits_of_prep_school_sports/

 

[Cosmo]

Three "classes" in Virginia, but six divisions for football, and five divisions for some other sports, like basketball and volleyball.

The big schools -- AAA -- are in one group for basketball, but there's a Division 5 and Division 6 for football.

AA has Divisions 3 and 4

A has Divisions 1 and 2

The private schools do not compete against VHSL members for championships, and there are several divisions of private school leagues ranging from largest to smallest enrollment.

Dumbest thing this state ever did was split into divisions for basketball. The enrollment difference isn't large enough to justify it. Maybe in football, where the big schools absolutely should be separated because of the difference in participation and depth. But in hoops, it's just watered down. In one region in Division 4 this year, three of the four semifinalists had losing records, ensuring a team with a losing mark made it to the state quarterfinals. Total joke. It was a lot more exciting when there were just Group A, AA and AAA champion. Five state champs in basketball/baseball/softball/volleyball is a total joke.

 

[dirtybird]

California's always a hodgepodge. In most team sports where there are state championships (boys and girls basketball, girls volleyball and boys and girls soccer in SoCal), there's five divisions. Most are enrollment based, but some sections are going to a ranking system much like in soccer, where teams move up and down in divisions depending on past performance. Football is still being worked out, since there's no statewide playoff system. Instead there's a five-division bowl system in a North vs. South format, four enrollment divisions and an "open" division for the power schools. Teams are selected by committee. Wrestling and track and field have one division, but cross country is five divisions. Boys and girls golf is a single division as well, but that's run by the state amateur golf association, not the CIF.

In all the other sports, it's left up to the sections.

And section titles carry a bit more prestige, especially in SoCal. In football in SoCal, I think it's up to 13 sections. Boys and girls basketball, there are 12. It's actually kind of insane, but there are also 600-plus schools just in the Southern Section.

Wow, I forgot how convoluted the CA system was. I know for the North Coast Section they go five divisions for football, six for basketball. Football divisions are enrollment based, with the ability to appeal to move up a division. They also have leagues that include teams from as many as three divisions which makes things even more hectic.

Then you have the two small sections, Oakland with six and San Francisco with eight. I know Oakland is considered Division 2 for Football, with school enrollments going from 250-2000+. Not sure about the other sports.

 

[Stitch]

Minnesota's system is screwed up. The divisions change per sports with six for football, four for basketball, two for hockey, and two for most other sports.