7A sticks with 12 in playoffs

Fayetteville’s Austin Allen passes through the Bentonville defense Saturday during the championship game at War Memorial Stadium in Little Rock.
Fayetteville’s Austin Allen passes through the Bentonville defense Saturday during the championship game at War Memorial Stadium in Little Rock.

— A year after Class 6A voted to certify all 16 of its members to the postseason, the state’s largest athletic classification said no to the same proposal.

The Class 7A Principals Association voted 9-8 against sending all of its schools to the playoffs in all sports, beginning with the 2012-2013 academic year.

The vote Wednesday morning at the Statehouse Convention Center in Little Rock preceded the annual meeting of the Arkansas Activities Association’s governing body.

The governing body, made up of AAA-member schools, voted on seven proposals, including eligibility for Class 7A freshmen in all sports and eligibility of home-schooled students.

Both proposals passed.

It once appeared the 7A proposal to send all schools to the playoffs would pass, too, especially after football coaches endorsed that format late last year, said Ellis “Scooter” Register of Little Rock Central.The proposal was pushed by schools that had traditionally been members of the 7A-West, the state’s most powerful conference.

Football has been the focal point in the well chronicled debate between competitive equity and size since 2006, when the state’s largest 32 schools in enrollment - previously grouped in one class - split evenly to compete for separate state championships in what is now 7A and 6A.

“The coaches voted for everybody to go,” Register said earlier this year. “We left there as a group saying we’re all in favor of that.”

Even Barry Lunney of Bentonville, a vocal critic of the original 7A/6A split, favored sending all teams to the playoffs because he wanted to eliminate first-round playoff byes.

Ultimately, the decision was placed in the hands of school principals, whose 9-8 vote essentially went along traditional conference lines.

Fort Smith Southside, Bryant, Rogers Heritage, Van Buren, Bentonville, Fort Smith Northside, Fayetteville and Rogers voted for the proposal.

Voting against the proposal were Springdale Har-Ber, Conway, North Little Rock, Springdale, Little Rock Catholic, Mount St. Mary, West Memphis, Cabot, and Central.

Catholic, an all-boys school, and Mount St. Mary, an all-girls school in Little Rock, are treated as one for classification purposes, but had separate votes Wednesday.

Their tone, at times, Wednesday was clearly quality over quantity.

Class 7A certifies 12 of 16 teams or, with help of a power rating system, the top six from two conferences, to the postseason in all sports.

“I think taking everybody dilutes the playoff system substantially,” West Memphis Principal Jon Collins said. “I think it compromises the integrity of all our programs.”

Collins said his preference is to return to the traditionalformat in the state’s largest classification - 32 schools in four, eight-team conferences and certify the top four finishers in each conference to the playoffs.

Until then, Collins said, there’s not going to be a perfect system.

“But I think diluting the playoffs by taking everybody is just a total compromise of everything we stand for,” Collins said.

Junious Babbs, interim athletic director of the LittleRock School District, agreed with Collins, adding that further diluting the playoffs represents “an act of futility” in some instances.

Fair, one of five traditional high schools in the LRSD, advanced to the Class 6A football playoffs last season, despite finishing 0-10 in the regular season and being outscored 429-100.

Not surprisingly, Fair exited the playoffs in the first round with a 42-6 mercy-rule loss at Jonesboro.

Steve Straessle, principal at Little Rock Catholic, said taking all 16 schools doesn’t bring 7A any closer to perfection.

Another proposal backed by traditional members of the 7A-West, to adopt a different power rating system for playoff seeding, was overwhelmingly defeated by 7A principals.

The system mirrored one used in Louisiana, but contained a strength-of-schedule component that some 7A administrators deemed too complex because of competition against schools, particularly in basketball, baseball and softball, outside of Arkansas.

The proposal was also drafted to address increased conference blending of 7A and 6A schools in the 2012-2014 cycle.

Its defeat means the power rating system that 7A-Central has used to certify playoff seeds will remain in place.

AAA voting on proposals

Outcome of voting Wednesday at the Arkansas Activities Association’s governing body meeting at the Statehouse Convention Center in Little Rock: PASSED PROPOSAL 1 Give schools three consecutive weeks to conduct 10 days of football spring practice in full pads. Do pass recommendation from AAA board of directors (19-0). Passed (120-1).

PROPOSAL 2 Schools failing to schedule a conference opponent or refusing to play a conference opponent during the regular season or in district tournament play without just cause will forfeit that game and not be eligible to compete for a championship in that sport. Any school refusing to play in a regional tournament without just cause will forfeit the game and not be allowed to advance to the next round of championship play. Do pass recommendation (19-0). Passed (169-0).

PROPOSAL 3 State volleyball finals will be played in Week 17 on the AAA calendar, even if they conflict with national ACT testing. In those years, coaches, counselors and administrators from member schools should schedule the ACT for volleyball players duringearlier and later testing dates to avoid the conflict. Do pass recommendation (19-0). Passed (161-2).

PROPOSAL 4 Allow ninth-graders in Class 7A to participate in all sports, with the final decision on participation left to each school. Do pass recommendation (19-0). Passed (11-5).

PROPOSAL 7 Home-schooled students can participate in interscholastic activities in their assigned district if they can provide documentation that the parent’s domicile is in that district, they’ve met AAA eligibility guidelines for the appropriate grade level and been cleared by the district superintendent. Do pass recommendation (19-0). Passed (155-82) DID NOT PASS PROPOSAL 5 Give the AAA’s 19-member board of directors the power to assign 7, 8 or 9 schools to a conference in all classifications in all sports (what is now done in smaller classifications). Do not pass recommendation (19-0). Failed (136-32).

PROPOSAL 6 Set all classifications based on enrollment so that no school must play an opponent more than twice its size. Do not pass recommendation (19-0). Failed (146-17).

Sports, Pages 17 on 08/02/2012

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