The N.C. High School Athletic Association will undergo significant revisions to its realignment process in the coming two years. The association is seeking feedback from member schools regarding the future changes.

The previous year, the members made the decision to change the bylaws, mandating that the NCHSAA have four divisions. According to the updated bylaws, the divisions cannot exceed 64 schools. In December, the NCHSAA Board of Directors chose to increase the number of divisions to eight, starting in the 2025-2026 academic year.

On Monday, the NCHSAA sent out surveys to all schools that are members, requesting their opinions on possible realignment strategies that use eight categories. The NCHSAA Bylaw Task Force Committee has been examining different models as the organization plans to progress with eight classifications.

Three options were presented for member schools to consider. The first option consisted of eight classes, each with either 54 or 55 schools. In the second option, 8A had the largest 32 schools while the other seven classes were divided equally. The third option placed the 32 smallest schools in 1A and evenly divided the remaining classes.

Besides the eight classification models, the NCHSAA inquired about schools’ preferred method for determining conferences in the upcoming realignment.

There were two choices for schools when it came to preferences: either attending conferences with schools of similar size and classification, which may require more travel during the regular season, or attending conferences with multiple classifications that are closer in distance.

The NCHSAA mentioned that the range of school sizes within each classification will be narrower, with a maximum of 64 schools in each class, instead of the current four classifications.

In addition, schools were inquired about their preference for realigning every two years instead of every four years.

In January of 2020, schools were given the opportunity to vote on a proposed amendment to the bylaws that would have altered the frequency of the realignment procedure. However, this amendment did not pass. The suggested change was to realign every two years, instead of every four years, which could potentially avoid schools with significant shifts in enrollment numbers from being confined to a specific classification.

The NCHSAA states that schools must complete the electronic survey by 4 p.m. on Feb. 13.

Source: highschoolot.com