Leading off today: It's possible to drown in a river with an average depth of just three feet, so I don't get distracted by pure numbers. Along those lines, the agenda for next week's NYSPHSAA Executive Committee seems busy with nearly two dozen votes scheduled ... but there's only one headliner.
After studying numerous approaches, the ad hoc committee charged with addressing private and charter schools in sectional and state championship competitions voted 10-1 earlier this year to codify sectional classification criteria and tweak an existing appeal procedure. The Executive Committee has had the recommendation in its hands since the NYSPHSAA Central Committee meeting this summer in Schenectady.
Final approval is likely when the two voting members from each of the 11 sections gather on Oct. 21 in Albany for their quarterly meeting.
Expect more consistency across the 11 sections
Until now, it's been left to the 11 sections to determine how private and charter schools should be assigned to sectional and state playoff classifications. A NYSPHSAA Classification Oversight Committee (COC) has been meeting three times a year to review those decisions, but that body's role has been limited to remanding some class assignments back to the section for further review.
Now, both phases of the classification process are set to change beginning next fall if the proposal is adopted next week.
All sections would have to evaluate a private or charter school team for possible promotion to a higher class if they meet one of four criteria:
- A .750 winning percentage in their league, in games within their state class, or overall.
- Winning a league's season or playoff championship.
- Reaching their sectional semifinals.
- Winning a NYSPHSAA championship.
It works in the other direction as well. Teams previously moved up in class will be considered for a move down if they do not post a winning record as outlined in No. 1 above or don't win a first-round sectional contest.
The local committees will consider sectional results and the effects of known transfers.
Schools affected by a local decision can appeal through the process in place in their section. If that fails, they can appeal to the COC.
This time, however, the COC will not merely have the option of sending decisions back to the section for more review. Instead, the COC will be the final arbiter. The presumption is that the COC will have a grasp of all decisions and appeals across the state and can make decisions that more or less create a rubric that results in consistency across the state.
(Side note: The COC consists of one representative each from the six classifications and a seventh member from a private or charter school. They are appointed by the NYSPHSAA president, and the association's executive director serves as the non-voting chairperson.)
Easy decisions on future championship sites
It's becoming increasing rare for the NYSPHSAA to receive multiple bids for hosting future state championships. The lack of competition contributes to the higher costs that led the organization to
raise ticket prices this summer.
It also leaves the Executive Committee with little choice but to rubber-stamp the recommendations from the office staff and sports committees. As such, the following future championship venues should be approved:
Cross country -- Queensbury High School, 2027-29.
Football finals -- JMA Wireless Dome, 2026-28.
Football East finals -- Middletown H.S., 2026-28.
Football West finals -- Vestal H.S. (2026, '28) and Cicero-North Syracuse H.S. (2027).
Indoor track -- Ocean Breeze Athletic Complex, 2027-29.
There were no other bidders in any of the five.
More items scheduled for votes
Most of the rest of the Oct. 21 agenda is pretty run-of-the-mill, though signing off on the enrollment data to be used for the 2026-27 school year and setting the classification cutoff numbers for soccer, basketball, baseball, softball, and girls volleyball will be of particular interest to coaches and ADs.
Two more significant proposals to be voted on:
• The girls wrestling committee is seeking to allow girls to compete in a
maximum of seven matches per day to allow tournaments to wrap up without extending to a second day. The committee is also asking for more latitude in conducting multi-team meets (not to be confused with weekend invitationals) to give smaller teams more opportunities to compete.
• The boys wrestling committee has put forth a proposal to clean up the wording on the penalty for exceeding the maximum number of tournaments in a season. The revision is consistent with how other sports are treated and addresses the last-minute appeals that took place late last season.
For future reference ...
I summarized the minutes from a couple of other committee meetings in a
previous blog, but what the Championship Philosophy Committee (CPC) is currently examining is shaping up as the next big topic for the NYSPHSAA.
Concerns about the size of state meets in individual sports such as track and field and swimming began bubbling up at recent Executive Committee meetings, so the CPC has been digging into how we got to where we are.
At the heart of the discussion is the guideline calling for 5-8% participation at state meets for individual sports, and it has become increasingly apparent that a new approach is probably needed:
• Tennis would need to triple the number of entrants to reach the 5% minimum, which would make a two- or three-day state tournament completely unworkable.
• The size of the state skiing championships field, which really isn't unreasonable in terms of logistics, could be slashed in half and still not get below the 8% goal.
The swimming and track and field committees have already been looking at structural changes out of necessity; the sizes of their recent meets have been taxing facilities to the max. It's a start, but the 5-8% guideline may have to go by the wayside in all sports as the NYSPHSAA figures out if consistency in all sports can be achieved while maintaining fairness/equity goals.
It's going to be a complicated discussion, maybe even trickier than recent major undertakings like the conversion to the Three-Region Concept or the proposal for properly classifying private and charter schools. But with those major undertakings seemingly out of the way, the NYSPHSAA will have the time and resources to do the necessary overhaul.
