NSAA considering proposal to make changes for Class A

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Link: https://journalstar.com/sports/high...cle_b475a06e-d495-5d1d-92be-e5de77827058.html

The NSAA will consider at its Thursday meeting a proposal that will change all of Class A sports outside of football in terms of classification.

The proposal is for Class A to consist of schools with enrollments of 850 or more for all sports with reclassification occurring every two years. It would go into effect for the 2019-20 school year.

Using a firm number of 850, Class A will grow to 33 schools for the next two years in every sport except football.

The link above details the reasoning behind the proposal. It came about after this past winter when Gretna nearly qualified for the Class A boys state tournament despite having a record of 0-1 against Class A competition.

 

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[LooseCannon]

I’d like to see it happen.

 

[TC53]

So...
- A in all sports set at 850+ combined enrollment
- bottom lines of other classes unaffected

Has anyone seen confirmation on:
- will B, C, D enrollments still be counted by gender and not combined?
- are Columbus and North Platte going to be dropped into the Class A 'scheduling matrix" for 2019-2020?

 

[Alum-Ni]

So...
- A in all sports set at 850+ combined enrollment
- bottom lines of other classes unaffected

Has anyone seen confirmation on:
- will B, C, D enrollments still be counted by gender and not combined?
- are Columbus and North Platte going to be dropped into the Class A 'scheduling matrix" for 2019-2020?

B, C and D I believe will still be counted by gender-only for classification.

Using the 2019-20 enrollment data, Gretna, Elkhorn, Elkhorn South, Norfolk, Columbus, North Platte, Lincoln Pius X and South Sioux City would all be Class A next year.

 

[TC53]

Columbus, North Platte and SSC all give the Class A scheduling theory (no games against Bs) trouble, unless they are going to rip up contracts they already have.

It's weird to me that they didn't just solve the Gretna problem last year by swapping games. Elkhorn South and Columbus did a full swap one year. Gretna and Pius could have done that. Or, Gretna could have just swaped 10-14 of their games with Class A schools. Week one, they play Omaha Northwest's opponent and ONorthwest plays the B from Gretna's schedule. Week two another school. The Class A scheduling matrix is supposed to be so organized, but they didn't see that coming?

 

[TC53]

"B, C and D I believe will still be counted by gender-only for classification. "

That's what I believe too, but I haven't seen it in black and white. Normally, I say, well, it has to because no legislation was offered to change the current B-C-D language, but because this went the classification committee-to-Board-of-control route, I think the Board can adjust other statues as needed.

 

[LooseCannon]

North Platte needs to be Class B in all sports. Same with Columbus High.

 

[TC53]

I understand that it's tough to see traditional A teams change to B (Hastings, Columbus, North Platte), but one could make a list of others (Nebraska City, Fairbury, Beatrice) that we have gotten used to in B.

To me the test is, what conference do they belong to? What conference do they want to belong to? What conference thinks they belong?

For Columbus the answers are GNAC, Eastern Midlands and GNAC. For North Platte it is GNAC, GNAC, GNAC. Those are Class B conferences. To me that should be included in our test for placing teams in classifications.

 

[TC53]

I'm hearing that the push to re-legislate class A membership was because Elk South and Pius didn't think they could handle the pressure from parents if they just solved their own problems by opting up whichever gender was placed in B (which they were allowed to do by NSAA rules). Because they didn't think they could handle the heat, they pushed a legislative solution that caught SSC, Columbus and North Platte in the wash.

A better out for them would have been to have both the Heartland and Metro pass by-laws saying all members must opt up to Class A in order to maintain membership. That would have addressed their problem without involving other teams from other conferences and creating classification rules that are now a mish-mash of rules.