Landmark decision: Multiplier rule OK’d for SC high school sports. What it means

The South Carolina High School League executive committee approved a plan Wednesday that will try to alleviate competitive balance concerns among high school sports.

The committee voted 12-4 to approve an out-of-zone multiplier, a formula that will take each student who lives outside of a school’s assigned attendance zone and count them as three for total enrollment purposes. Such a move is expected to inflate a school’s official enrollment figure and — in some cases — raise that school up a level or two in classification for athletics.

The landmark decision to add a multiplier is largely in response to fair play concerns in the state’s Class A and 2A classifications, where charter and private schools have had an arguably disproportionate amount of success in winning state championships in recent years.

“This is the most easily applied, cleanest and consistently can be applied across the board,” committee member and outgoing Fairfield Central Superintendent JR Green said of the multiplier.

As an example, an out-of-zone multiplier is expected to move Gray Collegiate Academy — a public charter school in West Columbia that currently competes in Class 2A for sports — up to 3A or 4A based on the number of students who attend Gray from outside its designated Lexington 2 attendance zone.

The out-of-zone multiplier will apply to all schools, not just the league’s charter and private members. It won’t impact schools in Class 5A because those teams already compete in the state’s largest classification.

The proposal approved Wednesday will go in effect for the 2024-25 school year and immediately factor into the in-progress realignment process that’ll wrap up in the next two months. Realignment happens every two years in South Carolina and organizes schools into classifications based on their latest enrollment figures.

Exactly which schools are moved up in classification because of the out-of-zone multiplier won’t be known until the S.C. High School League releases its realignment plan, likely in mid-December. Schools that are unhappy with their classification placement can appeal. Once the appeals process wraps up in January, the new classifications would go into effect for the 2024-26 school years.

Wednesday’s decision represents the first major change among the SCHSL’s competitive balance approach since the league moved from four to five classifications in 2016.

The SCHSL executive committee listened to six different proposals on the matter last week. Those ideas were trimmed down from 12 discussed by the league’s competitive balance committee that met over the past two months.

This fall, private or charter schools have won state titles in Class A and 2A girls volleyball, Class A and 2A girls tennis, Class A and 2A boys cross country and Class A, 4A girls cross country, Class 3A boys and girls swimming, and Class 4A boys volleyball, which was a championship sanctioned sport for the first time with just two classifications.

Some schools in the Midlands made a very public statement of their disdain for how the sports-focused charter schools build their athletic rosters. Last spring and then again this fall, schools in Gray Collegiate’s assigned region in Class 2A began to forfeit games against the War Eagles. Those schools eventually decided not to play Gray in any sport during the 2023-24 school year.

Gray principal Brian Newsome, in a statement provided to The State, said he didn’t necessarily agree with the outcome but does support the process. A separate subcommittee that Newsome formed will continue to discuss competitive balance, he said, along with such topics a “forfeitures, appropriate governance and representation for all schools to have equity with votes and amendments.”

“I understand the fact that we have to do something to improve competitiveness for all sports and applaud the committee for putting in many hours of research to find a solution,” Newsome said in the statement. “Nothing is going to be perfect for everyone. However, we respect the process.”

Amendments fail

Two amendments to the multiplier plan failed Wednesday. One proposal suggested the multiplier wouldn’t apply to any student who had been part of a school or feeder system since the start of the seventh grade. Another amendment sought to lower the multiplier to two instead of three.

Another proposal was discussed or mentioned several times — separate playoffs for private and charter schools — but no vote was taken because of the belief it could violate a state law that says charters and privates have to be treated the same as traditional public schools.

After the multiplier plan was approved, discussion turned to reporting attendance numbers and out-of-zone totals and what penalties would be applied if a school reports incorrect figures. SCHSL commissioner Jerome Singleton said the league will enforce any penalties that the membership puts in place.

There will be a big trust factor in the numbers that are reported, Singleton said, similar to how the league currently accepts that athletes’ academic eligibility is accurate and truthful.

“We accept that unless we know something different,” he said. “My assumption is every district has a mechanism in place to determine those numbers. That will be the part we would audit if we felt like it was something we need to look into.”

Committee members Rallie Liston and Carlos Cave voiced their opinions that penalties should be harsh and include such things as penalties from fines, forfeiting games or even losing membership to the league.

“I don’t know what it looks like, but it needs to be stern and forthright so thoughts of trying to get around it or fudging numbers — that is discouraged,” Cave said.

Also voted on in Wednesday’s meeting:

▪ The committee approved 9-7 that Mountain View Prep can join the SCHSL beginning in the 2024-25 school year. It’s not yet known what classification they will be in. Mountain View is a public charter school located in Spartanburg County. Leaders had requested the school be place in Class 3A, but that might change now with the new multiplier in effect.