Executive Committee Amends Four-Class Proposal, Adjusts Tournament Success Factor

The IHSAA will maintain a percentage-based classification system in four-class sports.

INDIANAPOLIS – The IHSAA Executive Committee has approved a rule that changes the way schools are classified in four-class sports.

On Thursday, the executive committee voted to amend the original rule proposal from the Indiana Interscholastic Athletic Administrators Association (IIAAA) that would have changed how schools were classified in four-class sports by using fixed enrollment figures.

Instead, a vote of 13-4-1 passed a plan to maintain a percentage-based classification system, which has been adjusted to a 20-25-25-30 ratio.

The next two-year reclassification cycle begins with the 2024-25 school year with the certified enrollment figures reported to the Indiana Department of Education from the upcoming school year being used.

The new classifications will be released next winter for basketball, softball, baseball, and volleyball.

Additionally, classifying the four-class sports will be based on the entire membership total and not only those schools participating in a given sport effectively keeping sectional alignments similar across each sport.

“The Board of Directors recognized the concerns brought to us by the IIAAA which were the enrollment gap in Class 4A and the smaller schools that were being moved up to a larger class without a significant enrollment change due to new member schools joining the Association,” said IHSAA Commissioner Paul Neidig. “This change also addresses a desire for schools to be in the same class in baseball, basketball, softball, and volleyball but it also give us an opportunity to adjust those percentages in the future if necessary.”

In regards to tournament success factor, two proposals that were tabled in May were brought back to action. One proposal that was approved requires that a school's performance and points accumulated in a two-year span will be looked at annually beginning in 2024-25. Currently, points accumulated in a specific two-year window determine whether a team moves up or stays up one or more classes. 

A proposal that called for schools that were playing in a higher class to drop down a class if they accumulated three points or less and those scoring four or more points to remain in the higher class, failed to receive support.