Classification change proposal put to a vote
Posted on Wednesday, August 6, 2008
BENTONVILLE - Two years ago the state's largest 32 high schools were divided into two classifications for athletic play.
Those schools will be getting back together in two more years if a proposal is passed by the governing body of the Arkansas Activities Association Tuesday in Little Rock.
Representatives from the 499 AAAmember schools will meet at at the Statehouse Convention Center to vote on the proposals.
Two of the six proposals on the table would change the organization for conference and / or postseason play for the state's largest schools.
Proposal No. 2, championed by Siloam Springs, would divide the 32 schools in Class 6 A and 7 A into four conferences based on geographic locations for regularseason play in volleyball, basketball, soccer, baseball and softball. Those teams would then return to their classifications for the postseason.
Similar to a proposal it presented in 2006, Siloam Springs hopes the change would help teams - including the Panthers if the district moves from Class 5 A to 6 A - avoid long travel and lost classroom time.
The Siloam Springs teams travel about 2, 100 miles round-trip for seven 5 A-West conference games, said athletic director Kerwin Dees, and that would increase to 3, 800 total miles to face current 6 A teams in southern or eastern Arkansas.
Dees believes the proposal would also give the smaller of these schools a fair chance to win state championships by playing only against their class in the playoffs.
"We think there's such a gap there in manpower issues that all sports ought to come back and play in their own classification," Dees said. "What you would be giving up there is as pure of a seeding process in the playoffs because you're not playing each other necessarily (during the regular season. )"
The proposal leaves football out of potential changes because of the "manpower issues "and because football teams only travel three or four times each year for league games.
Leaving football out of the mix is one reason why the proposal, which requires a majority vote from 6 A and 7 A schools, was not supported by the AAA Board of Directors, said AAA executive director Lance Taylor.
The board does recommend the approval of Proposal No. 5, which would also combine the state's largest 32 schools.
Those schools would be divided into four conferences, the way athletics were operated before 2006. The only difference would be having two divisions of football playoffs.
"Football is a manpower sport and... it's just hard to compete when you have (a large differential of students )," Taylor said. "That's why we went to 6 A and 7 A (in 2006 )."
Taylor said how those football playoffs would work would be up to the classification if this proposal is passed. Proposal No. 5 was supported by the AAA Board of Directors and requires a two-thirds vote. All member schools may vote.
Dees and Bentonville football coach Barry Lunney, whose team plays in Class 7 A, disagree with the proposal for different reasons.
Dees said all sports should have the opportunity for a leveled postseason, not just football.
"I think we'd be disappointed if that were the final outcome because it does not carve out all sports for classification playoffs," Dees said. "We do see this is a solution for geographical play and eliminating travel expenses and travel times for students.
"I think the only way to keep (the playoffs ) equitable is to draw a line and do the same for every sport."
Lunney, who would like to see the largest 32 teams in the same classification, doesn't like the idea of having two football divisions because he doesn't think the size of a district factors that largely into athletic success in football or any sport.
"Being the biggest doesn't always mean you're going to be the best," he said. "They're saying (the 6 A schools ) can compete in all of the other sports, but we're not going to try to compete in football. To me it would be an insult as a coach in another classification."
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