Leading off today: Section 5 and the NYSPHSAA have made a necessary change on the fly. Now, the question is whether the rule that necessitated that very rare move will survive. I'm betting the answer is, "No."
In fact, it can't stay on the books as currently written.
Here's the 411:
The Democrat and Chronicle reported this week that Monroe High School in Rochester played football in the wrong class this fall. The Red Jackets belonged in Class B based upon their enrollment number but were assigned to Class A. That's no minor point since Monroe was highly competitive, losing to eventual Section 5 champion Brighton by a 21-20 margin in the Class A semifinals. Had the school remained in Class B, Monroe likely would have been favored to successfully defend its 2023 sectional championship.
With the start of the winter season on the horizon, Monroe and Rochester City School District officials made their case to the section and the NYSPHSAA and were successful in getting their basketball teams and most other sports dropped a notch to Class B for the 2024-25 postseason.
Initial data used by the NYSPHSAA to assign teams to playoff classifications comes from the New York State Education Department. The numbers are examined at the sectional level and then approved for use in the ensuing school year. For instance, the NYSPHSAA Executive Committee voted to approve the BEDS data to be used for the 2025-26 school year when it met this past October.
The lag time takes the pressure off administrators to ram through BEDS data in the spring at the same time that league officials and ADs are trying to set fall sport schedules that are dependent upon knowing the proper classifications for member schools.
However, there's a NYSPHSAA rule deep in its handbook that requires that schools in receivership (a NYSED term for schools performing poorly academically) have the BEDS numbers reviewed just weeks before the start of the new school year.
That appears to have not happened this summer, even though Monroe Principal Jason Muhammad told the paper he has raised classification issues in the past.
"You want to go through the rule book, if you think they are wrong, but not to see if they are right," Muhammad said. "You might not like me (for challenging a ruling), but you don't hurt students and young people because you don't like me.
"You turned a blind eye to your own rules, because you don't like me."
Muhammad has a right to be frustrated, but the NYSPHSAA rule that should have helped Monroe this fall needs a tweak.
Here's why:
With most if not all sections building their schedules for football and/or other fall sports based on the playoff classification cutoffs, discovering a faulty number in August doesn't leave enough time to re-work everything. In Section 5 football this fall, Class A had 15 teams and Class B had five, leaving schools in the smaller class to play some Class B schools twice and then also fill out their schedule with larger or smaller opponents.
Reclassifying Monroe so late would have required a complete reworking of Class B with collateral damage to some Class A and C schedules. In sections facing that same issue but also facing a do-over of schedules in soccer because of bad data, that would be a nightmare on such short notice.
The cutoff for re-examining schools in receivership has to come much sooner in the annual planning calendar, even if it is moved to months before the other 700 or schools have their BEDS numbers confirmed.
Digging deeper into the Monroe mess
I'll see Executive Director Robert Zayas and other NYSPHSAA officials this weekend at the state football finals in Syracuse to ask for verification, but I believe there's a certain irony to this week's news about Monroe's incorrect classification: The rule in question was inspired by a school in receivership that wrongly won a state title in the smallest class.
It's no small matter when the State Education Department puts a school into receivership. The school district is obligated to turn the school around, which typically includes replacing administrators and numerous teachers. It's expensive and time-consuming, and it typically fires up parents rightfully concerned about the qualify of their child's education, introducing emotion and conflict into an already difficult situation.
Now, here's the part that I am pretty certain I have this correct: The NYSPHSAA rule regarding an August verification of BEDS data originated in 2018 after Buffalo East was allowed to play (and win) in the boys Class D state basketball tournament because of outdated enrollment data related to the school being placed in receivership. As part of its action plan, Buffalo City School District officials were in the process of phasing out Buffalo East and rebranding the building as East Community High
On the day the BEDS data for the 2017-18 school year was recorded in October 2016 (for NYSPHSAA approval the following spring), East High had 85 juniors or seniors while East Community had 56 freshmen. That gave the campus a BEDS number of 141 -- a Class D enrollment.
But when school opened in 2017, East Community added far more freshmen than East High lost as graduated seniors. On BEDS day in October, East had 20 students and East Community 254 for a total of 274 students -- easily Class C size -- from which to form a basketball roster.
But because the October 2016 BEDS data dictated classifications for the 2017-18 school year, it was technically correct to place East in Class D, and the team ended up beating Moriah in the state final.
That situation -- a school playing down a class rather than one incorrectly being forced to move up a class -- inspired the rule that Monroe's principal cited as being ignored.
Now, it's Monroe's BEDS number that is bouncing all over the place during its receivership residency:
• 510 in 2021-22.
• 581 in 2022-23.
• 659 in 2023-24.
• 575 (approved as 639 originally) in 2024-25.
• 573 in 2025-26.
In a not-so-insignificant sidenote, the NYSPHSAA Executive Committee had already approved a change shortly before the tainted basketball tournament to begin using two-year-old BEDS data beginning with the 2019-20 school year.
That has made it much easier for ADs and league chairmen to book fall schedules in the spring. Had that approval come a year sooner, Moriah likely would have won that 2018 championship.
