Other action from today's NSAA meeting:
- Class A will move to a two-year classification cycle for all sports beginning with the 2020-21 school year. That move was approved unanimously. All other classes will continue to reclassify all sports on an annual basis except for football. Last month the NSAA approved a measure effective for the upcoming 2019-20 school calendar that schools with total enrollments of 850 or larger will be in Class A in all sports but football (Class A in football is defined as schools with boys-only enrollments of 425 or more).
- North Platte officials asked for a two-year waiver that would allow the Bulldogs to compete in Class B. They cited the three-hour drive to Lincoln and four-hour drive to Omaha to compete against other Class A schools and the class time their student-athletes miss to make those trips as the main reason for the request. North Platte's enrollment next year is 905, well above the 850 cutoff for Class A, and larger than Lincoln Pius X (897) and South Sioux City (860), who will also be Class A across the board beginning next August. The NSAA did not take any action on the request.
- The board unveiled two class caucus proposals that were ratified by the schools. One mirrored the approved ruling passed by the Board in April that will give Class C1 through Class D2 boys basketball teams the option to play their district final games on either Saturday (Feb. 29 in the 2019-20 season), Monday (March 2) or Tuesday (March 3), with one exception: In April, the board stripped language out of the proposal that only district finals involving schools 125 miles or closer to each other could play on Monday or Tuesday. The measure that made it through the class caucus for the schools to vote on had the 125-mile limit in it since it was sent out before April’s board meeting. Even though supporters of the proposal favored what the board did in April, NSAA counsel Rex Schultze told the board Thursday that the class caucus proposal takes precedent over last month’s approved ruling, and that it’s something they can amend next year.
The other class caucus measure to pass allows the seven Class A soccer districts to be played Saturday through Wednesday (May 2-6 in 2020) or Saturday through Thursday.
- This was the final NSAA meeting for District 5 representative Alan Garey of Medicine Valley, who is stepping down. He will be replaced by Dundy County-Stratton superintendent Jim Kent.
