IHSAA rejects new high school sports classification system. What it means for your school

Idaho’s high school sports governing body voted down the most significant overhaul of its classification system in 20 years Wednesday, leaving the state’s current rules in place for the 2024-25 and 2025-26 school years.

The new plan would have renamed the state’s classifications and redrawn the enrollment limits separating them. It passed a first reading from the Idaho High School Activities Association’s board in June, and 71% of the state’s athletic directors, principals and superintendents said they favored the new system in an IHSAA survey.

But the IHSAA board rejected the new rules 8-6 on the second and final vote Wednesday.

“I’m trying to understand how it makes anything better,” said IHSAA board member Burke Davis, the principal of Shelley High, during Wednesday’s board meeting. “For me, that’s what I’m held up on. I don’t know how it improves anything or demonstrates that it improves anything.”

The vote won’t prevent changes, though. A litany of schools will still change classifications in the fall of 2024 under the existing rules. But which schools are moving up and which are heading down changes with the IHSAA board’s back-and-forth.

Here’s what to expect from the next classification cycle.

LARGER 5A CLASSIFICATION

The biggest change comes in 5A. Seven schools will move up from the 4A level to the state’s largest division due to their increasing enrollments. Those seven schools are Ridgevue, Caldwell, Canyon Ridge, Pocatello, Idaho Falls, Skyline and Twin Falls.

Their additions will create a 28-team 5A classification with 19 schools remaining in 4A. The new rule sought to rebalance 5A and 4A by raising the dividing line from 1,280 students to 1,399. That would have left 22 teams in 5A with 25 in 4A.

“It’s disappointing, but we knew it was going to be close after the last meeting came down to a tiebreaker vote,” said IHSAA board member Tim Perrigot, the superintendent of Wendell. “Life goes on. The reality is that it wasn’t that big of a change.

“… The system that we’ve had in place has worked for a long time. Hopefully, it continues.”

Ridgevue (1,571 students) and Caldwell (1,441) will push the 5A Southern Idaho Conference to a record 15 teams. The two have remained at the 4A level for years despite 5A-level enrollment numbers. They can no longer petition their entire athletic program down to 4A. But expect them to ask to keep several struggling programs, like their football teams, at the lower level.

Their departure leaves a diminished 4A SIC. Bishop Kelly, Columbia, Emmett, Skyview and Vallivue are the only remaining teams in the league before the IHSAA grants any potential requests to move down.

Meanwhile, Canyon Ridge (1,436.5), Pocatello (1,329.5), Idaho Falls (1,326.5), Skyline (1,315) and Twin Falls (1,290) will join a new, nine-team 5A conference in East Idaho that stretches from Twin Falls to Rexburg north of Idaho Falls.

Canyon Ridge was the only one of those five projected to move up under the new classification rules.

FIVE NEW 3A PROGRAMS

Cole Valley Christian, Bear Lake, Wendell, Kellogg and Priest River will move up a division after the IHSAA’s board vote. Three of those five — Wendell, Kellogg and Priest River — would have stayed put in the proposed new system.

The move comes as little surprise for Cole Valley Christian. The fast-growing, Meridian private school plans to open a new campus in two years that can hold up to 600 high school students. The campus will include the Chargers’ own dedicated sports fields for the first time.

MORE PROJECTED MOVEMENT

Changes for Idaho’s smaller schools are tougher to predict as many petition up or down to reduce travel with little pushback. But based on the enrollment numbers alone, the following schools will change classifications in 2024-25.

• Vision Charter and Grace will move up to 2A

• Clark Fork, Kendrick, Council and Hagerman will move up to 1A Division I

• Carey, Castleford and Genesee will drop to 1A Division II

UNCERTAINTY STILL LOOMS

Wednesday’s vote reverts Idaho back to its current classification rules as a baseline. But final decisions for each sport and league won’t come until the IHSAA’s Sept. 26 board meeting in Pocatello.

The state governing body will rule on any school’s requests to move up or down a classification at that meeting. That process comes with a new wrinkle as schools can no longer ask to move their entire athletic program down a classification. They must do it sport by sport.

For example, a school could play most of its sports in the 5A division but ask to move its struggling football and softball teams to 4A. Teams in individual sports like wrestling, cross country and track cannot move down.

How many schools will pursue that option remains a mystery as Idaho has never tried it before. But classification and league sizes will likely vary by sport.

SURVEY: SCHOOLS WANTED CHANGE

An IHSAA survey showed strong support for the new classification rules across the state. Athletic directors, principals and superintendents in five of the state’s six districts voted in favor of the new rules. The Coeur d’Alene-based District One was the only region opposed.

The support extended across classifications, too. The 5A schools voted 76% in favor of the new rules, and the combined 3A, 2A and 1A vote was also 76% in favor.

Only 4A showed tepid support with 52% of its athletic directors, principals and superintendents voting in favor.

Timberline Athletic Director Tol Gropp chaired the classification committee that proposed the new rules. He pointed to the survey results and implored the board members to vote in their constituents’ interests, not their own.

“Change is not going to be good for everybody,” the former IHSAA board member said. “The current system isn’t good for everybody. That’s been voiced regularly for years.

“The only one I can see is Region 1 voting against it. I don’t understand any other reasoning. It’s time for a change.”