IHSAA Proposes Football Realignment Based on Socioeconomic Status

Socioeconomic factors may decide how Iowa High School Athletic Association (IHSAA) football teams schedule their seasons next year.

The IHSAA proposed a realignment of roughly 40 schools using a metric that involves school enrollment size and the percentage of students who receive free or reduced lunch.

The proposal will be voted on by athletic directors from the state in an upcoming meeting.

A recent story from KCCI.com detailed the proposal for football realignment. Below is an excerpt from the KCCI.com story.

“Based on kind of where teams are at right now with beds for football, I could see Hoover maybe going into the 3A area which we are currently 4A,” said Hoover athletic director Jacob Burke.

Burke says this is something he’s been advocating for, for a while and the change could work in favor of student-athletes.

“If you look at football scores, oftentimes the scores are very lopsided. Some schools have even not been able to complete seasons due to injuries and low numbers,” Burke said.

A formula has been created to configure what classification a school may fall into.

Each school will factor in how many kids are enrolled at a school, this is also called their BED enrollment, and they will take the percentage of those kids that receive free or reduced lunch and multiply that by forty percent.

That number is then subtracted from their BED enrollment and that will give them their classification number.

An athletic director for one of the largest schools in the state says the formula may not be foolproof but it’s a good start.

“There’s definitely a happy medium,” says Brad Rose, the athletic director for Valley High School.

Athletic directors all across the state still have to vote on this proposal and the final decision would be made by the Iowa Board of Education.

You can find more information on the IHSAA proposal here. And to read the full story, click here.