The IHSAA released their classifications for the next two school seasons in all its team sports, and immediately there was some angst pushing across social media. We'll get to that in a minute.
Here is what we know, there wasn't any reshuffling of how schools were divided up. Each class has about 100 teams in it. There were discussions about having 4A be just 64 teams, but that didn't happen. There was one theory passed that there would be a 5th class, but that appeared DOA.
4A had the least amount of movement. Kankakee Valley moves up to 4A. Highland moves down to 3A. That won't create many waves in terms of sectional realignment. Sectional 1 was a seven team sectional, down to six losing Highland. Sectional 2, a six team sectional, could easily absorb KV, which is just 30 minutes south of Valparaiso.
Moving on...
Ten teams move from 2A to 3A, ranging from Fairfield's enrollment of 563 to Heritage Christian to 496. Should Myles Colvin remain at Heritage Christian for his senior year, winning a sectional just got harder.
The biggest impact in the state tournament, the teams dropping down to 2A and the teams moving up to 2A. Eight teams dropped from 3A to 2A, most notably Brownstown Central, featuring 2024 scoring phenom, Jack Benter, and Sullivan.
Moving up from 1A to 2A, both 1A state finalists, North Daviess (more on them later) and Lafayette Central Catholic, as well as Gary 21st Century. That's a lot of talent leaving the 1A field. It also means Loogootee and Barr-Reeve lost their love triangle partner in North Daviess.
Moving down to 1A? Rossville seems to be the most intriguing, but Cambridge City could make some waves next year with their returning talent.
The squeakiest wheel so far? Comes from North Daviess boys basketball Twitter account...
Not sure what the issue is beyond disappointment. Unless there is questioning on how the IHSAA handles enrollment, there really isn't an issue. The most recent alignment, which was extended by a year due to COVID, the cutoff between 2A and 1A was at team 302. That didn't change. That included Fort Wayne Blackhawk at 2A due to the success factor. The smallest 2A enrollment in the previous alignment, outside of Blackhawk, was 299. This time around, outside of Blackhawk, which is still in 2A due to the success factor, the smallest 2A enrollment is 285.
So even though North Daviess enrollment dropped from 296 to 286, they still were above the 1A cutoff.
A comment was made on another platform, speculating the issue was with private schools pushing teams into 2A. Perhaps, but all of the teams going from 2A to 1A were public schools, including Rossville and Tecumseh, which each have 1A state titles under their belt.
This does kind of ruin Sectional 63, but it means we're definitely getting a new 1A state champ next year.