GHSA reclassification: Observations, opinions, background

As decided earlier this year, Class 7A will cease to exist. The highest classification will be Class 6A. Classes 6A to 4A can have public and private schools competing for the same championships.

In early November, the GHSA will divide its 457 member schools into six classifications (really seven when Class A is split into Division I and Division II).

Here are some opinions, observations and background on what happened Monday.

*Despite what cynics might say on social media, public schools are not afraid of competition. They have legitimate competitive-balance complaints that most private schools concede. And it’s not about “everybody gets a trophy.” There will be eight state football champions next year, just like this year.

*And private schools don’t recruit (any more than public schools do). Illegal recruiting is not the real issue.

*Public schools believe that private schools have an unfair advantage because private schools have no school district boundaries, can admit students regardless of where they live and can deny admission. By contrast, public schools are generally obliged to take all students in their school districts.

*Private schools are willing to play higher than their enrollment numbers would place them in concession to perceived advantages but want to compete for state championships against public schools. They feel bullied by the public majority.

*While it wasn’t the main news Monday, the GHSA also voted that all reclassification proposals in the future must be presented in writing to the GHSA office one week prior to when the proposals will be considered. That’s a moot point this year. But in short, the private schools are disturbed that the 3A-A private plan was presented without their prior knowledge on Tuesday and approved six days later, not enough time for them to argue an alternative or stir up opposition.

*The 3A-A division is divisive but not radical. All private schools currently in classes 3A to A were in Class A Private and playing for private-only championships as recently as 2022-23. Small private schools competed in that environment for 10 years without seriously challenging it.

*The catalyst for change was the failure of the 3.0 multiplier, put in place last year, to throttle the success of smaller private schools that were released from Class A Private last year to face public schools again. The 3.0 multiplier counted out-of-zone students three times when determining statistics the GHSA used for reclass. The nine largest private schools, all playing above Class 4A, won about 40% fewer titles (to 24 from 41), but the smaller private schools freed from Class A Private won more than twice as many state titles (37 instead of 17), prompting the public schools to cordon them off again for the next cycle.

*There are only 23 football-playing private schools in classes 3A to A currently. Several others, such as Lovett, Westminster, Greater Atlanta Christian, Pace Academy, Holy Innocents’ and Trinity Christian, could fall into Class 3A when the dust settles next month. Some smaller private schools may leave the GHSA rather than compete in a 3A-A private division. Some larger 3A-A privates almost certainly will petition to play in 4A, although the GHSA is not obliged to let them.

*Tennessee is the closest state to Georgia that segregates public and private schools entirely. The Volunteer State does it for all schools, not just those in the lower half, and the private schools also play in their own regions during the regular season. Tennessee has three private classes of 17, 21 and 11 football teams this year. Chattanooga’s Baylor School won a 12-team private classification in football last year.

*The GHSA is eliminating Class 7A starting in 2024-25 and will have seven classes (six if Class A’s divisions I and II are considered one). One reason for the contraction was to ease the GHSA’s administrative burden. However, the new 3A-A private will bring the number of championships back to the same eight as now. And going forward, the GHSA is charged with maintaining power ratings to seed the playoffs for five of those championships – 3A, 2A, A D-I, A D-II and 3A-A private – in every sport. Curiously, the Class A Division II is scheduled to use power ratings despite having only public schools.

*These power ratings will be problematic. Somebody must ensure that every score from every sporting event is reported accurately and in a timely way. And they’re overly simplistic and frankly not great at ranking teams. They were adequate for Class A alone from 2012-13 to 2019-20, but when applied to schools playing from classes 3A to A, they are not sophisticated enough to account well for strength of schedule.

*The GHSA also voted Monday to form a committee to study a competitive-balance model for future reclassification cycles. This is what private schools hope is the solution that allows them to compete with public schools in all classes again. It could allow, for example, Westminster’s tennis teams to play in the highest classification while the basketball and football teams played in lower classes. Or it could consider other factors such as geography, which Florida now does, or financial resources.

*The GHSA’s new highest classification, Class 6A, was ratified Monday as the largest 14% of the membership. That’s 457 member schools times 14%. It comes to 64 schools. There are 45 currently in 7A. The highest class is about to take in about 20 new ones. Houston County, Gainesville, Rome and Douglas County are those with good football teams but sub-2,000 enrollment that are tilted in that direction, but so are others that are less capable of competing against schools with 3,500-plus students. Even Woodward Academy and St. Pius, private schools with much smaller enrollments, fell into 7A in 2021 but appealed out of it.

*This process is far from over. The GHSA will have all the schools’ enrollment data later this month (or early next) to begin placing schools into classifications. Schools go into regions about a week later. During the most recent reclass, the GHSA had to start over and reclassify 3A to A after 15 small and largely fed-up private schools abruptly left for the GIAA. Reclassification won’t be ratified until January.