Proposal seeks to add Class 6A to football in 2016

Kai Casey/CHSAANow.com

AURORA — High school sports in this state are destined to expand to Class 6A at some point. But a proposal headed for the April Legislative Council meeting wants football to get there before any other sport — in 2016.

The proposal, which came from the Union Pacific League, wants to change football’s enrollment splits — just approved at January’s Legislative Council meeting — to allow for the addition of an eighth classification.

As it would change the Classification and League Organizing Committee’s report which has already been passed, the proposal will require two-thirds approval from the Legislative Council in order to pass. That, typically, is a tall task.

The football committee, for its part, does not support the proposal. They are working on an alternative plan to balance classifications. The CHSAA office would like to see that plan have an opportunity to formulate.

“This would create another way for football to be different than everyone else, and that’s something we don’t want to further,” said Harry Waterman, CHSAA assistant commissioner in charge of football. “Not taken into account are Title IX implications and geography.”

“Football is already out of sync with all of our other sanctioned sports in terms of the number of classes it has,” said CHSAA commissioner Paul Angelico. “To add another football-only classification furthers the imbalance of equity that currently exists between boys and girls sports.”

Aside from the addition 6A, the biggest change from the proposal would come in 2A, where the enrollment cap would drop from the current 729 students to a proposed 550. The minimum would also change from 340 to 266.

(It is worth noting that some members of the Union Pacific play 1A football. Under the proposal, some of them would move from the very bottom of the current 1A cutoff to the middle of the new one.)

The 6A split would be from 1,941 students and above. Currently, 5A is the largest classification with 1,799 students and above. 4A is the next largest at 1,250-1,798. Under the proposal, 5A’s split would be 1,361-1,940 and 4A’s would be 1,000-1,360.

Schools’ enrollment numbers used to determine their classification for the 2016-18 two-year cycle won’t be counted until October 2015. However, currently there are 26 schools that fall above the proposed threshold for 6A. (Find current enrollment numbers here.)

Some other programs may choose to play up, but the proposal indicates 34 schools that would fall into 6A. It is not clear where the other eight come from, especially considering that the Union Pacific has not reached out to schools to ask them about their plans of playing up or playing down.

Here’s a chart of the current enrollment splits compared to the ones proposed by the Union Pacific League:

If this proposal is approved, a number of questions would remain, the most important of which would be the postseason field and qualifying procedures. Additionally, current state championship sites would be affected. There’s also league alignment to consider.

These questions would fall to the football committee, if the proposal passes.