VHSL Executive Committee Changes
- Thread starter EPJr1947
- Start date
The executive committee voted to approve classes 1–4, but also decided to send the Class 5 and Class 6 realignments back to the drawing board. The two alignment committees are to come up with a solution before the next board meeting in January.
https://www.fredericksburg.com/spor...cle_75d29fa9-18ff-580e-a087-ce2d307b8430.html
https://www.fredericksburg.com/spor...cle_75d29fa9-18ff-580e-a087-ce2d307b8430.html
Six classes is too many. With five classes or four I feel like this stuff sorts itself out much better.
I would say 1 and 2 and 3 and 4. The population variance is huge with some of the class 6 schools anyways. Some have over 1000 more kids than others is the same "class 6"
but the problem is with 5 and 6; in fact they haven't even been approved yet.
just decide whether we will have 5 or 4 divisions, then divide everybody by that number.
we will end up with more than 52 schools in each division (too lazy to actually do the math)
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but the problem is with 5 and 6; in fact they haven't even been approved yet.
just decide whether we will have 5 or 4 divisions, then divide everybody by that number.
we will end up with more than 52 schools in each division (too lazy to actually do the math)
Yes but this has nothing to do with competition or population. Only travel time. This also only matters if you make a playoff run. If they want to join Region B just realize it is a crowded playoff field and 2-3 really good teams won’t make the playoffs. I personally think 6 classes waters down the field especially at the lower classifications. 6 state champions is too many in my view.
you cannot have it both ways
if you compact the schools into less classes you will have more than 2-3 teams not making the playoffs
Those particular teams have an issue with their region assignment. It has nothing to do with what I think. They want to keep 6 classifications just move into a new region to help with travel time. Their "new" region will be the one with a few good teams missing the playoffs while other regions will potentially be a cake walk. Unless they want to extend their playoff week in that particular region then everyone can make it. I personally think they should stay in the region they are in currently to keep the competitive balance
Regarding the whole set up:
I am personally in favor of going back to four classifications and yes I realize that there maybe some good teams that don't advance as far. But I also think that if there are only 4 classes each state champion can be truly worthy of that title every year.
Yeah, hold up guys. This decision has nothing to do with reducing the number of classes. This was simply buying a little time to reconsider the request of a few schools. Consolidating classes is not even under consideration.
we know
that is just on his wish list
having said that I am wondering why they did not approve Class 5
Class 6 seems to be the only class with issues
If I am incorrect my mistake when I was playing we were in the same playoff brackets with schools that had waaaay higher enrollments so I assumed that was the case. I was told before that originally it was only 3 class A, AA, and triple AAA and they broke AAA into 5 and 6. You seem to be trying to be witty at my expense. Was just trying to add something to the thread but it doesn’t seem to be appreciated so I’ll leave it alone.
Posters - good stuff re alignment! For some weird reason, I have always found VHSL alignment a good brain teaser so I find any discussion about this interesting. I have tried quite a few times to figure out a utopian solution but cannot.
Class 5 appeals were turned down because it would have left only 4 schools in 5D which could possibly be down to 2 or 3 by the time the next 4 year cycle is over (Harrisonburg is due to open a 2nd high school in '22 or '23; W. Fleming seems to be on the cusp between Class 4 & Class 5 (If I remember right). I can understand the Stafford schools desire to be in 5C but I think they might be better off remaining in 5D. I believe that 5D uses a sub-region format for non-football post-season to reduce travel anyway but there is still obviously some between "west" and "east." Besides, it wouldn't be a picnic travel or athletic-wise with multiple Stafford and Loudoun schools going back and forth in NOVA traffic to compete in all sports especially with the all-in playoff format for non-football sports. It would be some great competition though - very deep region across the board in all sports! All that said, there should be another look at how they do this - there is no reason that the Stafford schools should perpetually have to be in with Albemarle and points west especially when those western schools would actually have a shorter trip to the western-edge Richmond area schools (Google it). I think its time that other regions can share the travel burden too.
As far as Class 6, I do think that the 3 Commonwealth schools (1 in Stafford, 2 in Spotsylvania) should've been aligned with the "Prince William" region to begin with. These localities are contiguous to each other and Stafford and Spotsylvania are in "northern Virginia" (whether they like it or not!). I think it is ridiculous when the Prince William schools use the argument that they don't want to have to travel on I-95 but it's okay that the other schools would have to do much longer traveling to places far outside their area; besides, the Prince William schools play each of the these schools during the regular season multiple times in multiple sports. Even if they are gone, 6A would still have 11 schools (Franklin County will always be an outlier in Class 6 but is closer to the Richmond area 6A's than it is to Stafford).
The overall issue that I have is that Alignment Committee (past and present) can never stray to far from the long-time norms so the same issues that date back to the start of this in about 1970 are essentially the same whether we have 3 classes, or 3 divided into 2 divisions, or 6 standalone classes.
Class 5 appeals were turned down because it would have left only 4 schools in 5D which could possibly be down to 2 or 3 by the time the next 4 year cycle is over (Harrisonburg is due to open a 2nd high school in '22 or '23; W. Fleming seems to be on the cusp between Class 4 & Class 5 (If I remember right). I can understand the Stafford schools desire to be in 5C but I think they might be better off remaining in 5D. I believe that 5D uses a sub-region format for non-football post-season to reduce travel anyway but there is still obviously some between "west" and "east." Besides, it wouldn't be a picnic travel or athletic-wise with multiple Stafford and Loudoun schools going back and forth in NOVA traffic to compete in all sports especially with the all-in playoff format for non-football sports. It would be some great competition though - very deep region across the board in all sports! All that said, there should be another look at how they do this - there is no reason that the Stafford schools should perpetually have to be in with Albemarle and points west especially when those western schools would actually have a shorter trip to the western-edge Richmond area schools (Google it). I think its time that other regions can share the travel burden too.
As far as Class 6, I do think that the 3 Commonwealth schools (1 in Stafford, 2 in Spotsylvania) should've been aligned with the "Prince William" region to begin with. These localities are contiguous to each other and Stafford and Spotsylvania are in "northern Virginia" (whether they like it or not!). I think it is ridiculous when the Prince William schools use the argument that they don't want to have to travel on I-95 but it's okay that the other schools would have to do much longer traveling to places far outside their area; besides, the Prince William schools play each of the these schools during the regular season multiple times in multiple sports. Even if they are gone, 6A would still have 11 schools (Franklin County will always be an outlier in Class 6 but is closer to the Richmond area 6A's than it is to Stafford).
The overall issue that I have is that Alignment Committee (past and present) can never stray to far from the long-time norms so the same issues that date back to the start of this in about 1970 are essentially the same whether we have 3 classes, or 3 divided into 2 divisions, or 6 standalone classes.
The VHSL gives regions a gigantic amount of lee-way for how to arrange their playoffs. For some regions, sub-regions is a nice solution. 5D definitely does sub-regions everywhere but cross country (where it makes a gigantic amount of sense to have sub-regions, but whatever).
It was A Divisions 1/2, AA Divisions 3/4, AAA Divisions 5/6. To my knowledge it was always 2 Divisions in each AAA/AA/A.
Pre 1970 (no playoffs of any kind for the vast majority of the time). There Group I, Group 2 and Group 3 schools.
When the modern playoff era began there were three classes in all sports.
A (1-500 students)
AA (501-1000 students)
AAA (1001 or more students)
Eventually enrollements began climbing and they went to equal thirds, but AAA had quite a bit more schools than AA or A because so many schools (particularly around Richmond) played up.
This system lasted for a while and eventually they divided football into divisions. The first season was a disaster (for reasons I won't get into), but then tweaks were made and for a long time we had Divisions 1 and 2 in single A, 3 and 4 in AA and 5 and 6 in AAA. Basketball soon joined in splitting the smaller classes, but not AAA.
Then about five years ago, we realigned into six classes like we have now.
When the modern playoff era began there were three classes in all sports.
A (1-500 students)
AA (501-1000 students)
AAA (1001 or more students)
Eventually enrollements began climbing and they went to equal thirds, but AAA had quite a bit more schools than AA or A because so many schools (particularly around Richmond) played up.
This system lasted for a while and eventually they divided football into divisions. The first season was a disaster (for reasons I won't get into), but then tweaks were made and for a long time we had Divisions 1 and 2 in single A, 3 and 4 in AA and 5 and 6 in AAA. Basketball soon joined in splitting the smaller classes, but not AAA.
Then about five years ago, we realigned into six classes like we have now.