Best Classification format in Missouri?

[MOsportsStaff]

What was the best classification format?

Obviously if you are older you go back to S,M,L
We dropped A several years back, but many insist on tossing an A on the end of their 2 or 3 or 4....4A SMH

Working on districts this past couples weeks it seems downright goofy to have districts with 1, 3, and 4 teams.

6 classes now...where does it stop? 100 classes, everyone gets a trophy.

I'd have to say, I felt 4 classes was fair and worked well...I miss the good ole days of 2 classes at state, 8 am games, midnight games.
4 classes, 8 teams in most districts.

What are your thoughts? What is the best format?

I'm sure in Indiana they are still lamenting the end of the 1 class system....Illinois has 2....what works best for Missouri?

 

[dtowner]

At current are there about 80 schools or so in each class? If that is the case, being the best out of 80 teams seems to be a worthy accomplishment. The NBA only has 30 teams or so, granted those teams are staffed with the best players in the world, not Kyle who is failing chemistry. Five classes was fine, but I am fine with 6 as well. Back when we had four classes, a school with 950 kids could be playing a school with over 2000 for the title. That is a pretty big advantage in my opinion.

In my opinion, the districts did seem more fair in terms of school size this year. I particularly noticed this for small Class 3 and small Class 4 schools. Each district seemed to have about 6 teams, so I get those who would argue that such a district can be a little watered down.

 

[DOGFATHER1]

IMOHO...... FOUR classes was the best of all.........C =|~

I've attached links to the school enrollments and class breaks..
There is most likely a good reason, but wondering why they count only grades 9-10-11 now..?
I'm a transplant from a very small town in Illinois where we had only ONE class which meant our lil school of 90 would have to play the big Chicago schools to win a championship, nearly impossible..!
I've been following Show-Me State basketball since 1964 and the four class system was by far the best.!
Now with the new 6 class system Mexico with an enrollment of 531 is the smallest in class 5 where teams with 1,000+ in same class...

MSHSAA Untitled Page

Missouri State High School Sports Activities

www.mshsaa.org

MSHSAA Untitled Page

Missouri State High School Sports Activities

www.mshsaa.org

 

[mike37]

My vote is 4. I think it is becoming to watered down

 

[msubearssuperfan1]

Whatever makes it easier for Glendale to FINALLY cut down the nets in March. I don't care about anything else!!

 

[BearsCountry]

This year I think Class 1, 2, 3 districts are perfect. I think 4 is almost perfect, Class 5 and 6 are silly. I think the 5 classes is the best due to the number of schools in the state. I would go back to 5 classes. Merge Class 5 and 6 into one, have a few of the Class 5 move down to even Class 4 and Class 5 up.

 

[kaskaskiakid]

I like the new system simply because it is the fairest it has ever been for my school with an enrollment of about 600 students. We have been stuck as one of the smallest schools in class 4 in the 5 class system, and before that one of the smallest in class 3 with the 4 class system. We have been stuck in classes with schools twice our size forever, not to mention some big privates.

 

[EdmundBlackadder]

Whatever makes it easier for Glendale to FINALLY cut down the nets in March. I don't care about anything else!!

This may require placing Glendale in a class all by itself.

 

[3Rfan]

What was the best classification format?

Obviously if you are older you go back to S,M,L
We dropped A several years back, but many insist on tossing an A on the end of their 2 or 3 or 4....4A SMH

Working on districts this past couples weeks it seems downright goofy to have districts with 1, 3, and 4 teams.

6 classes now...where does it stop? 100 classes, everyone gets a trophy.

I'd have to say, I felt 4 classes was fair and worked well...I miss the good ole days of 2 classes at state, 8 am games, midnight games.
4 classes, 8 teams in most districts.

What are your thoughts? What is the best format?

I'm sure in Indiana they are still lamenting the end of the 1 class system....Illinois has 2....what works best for Missouri?

4 was by far the best/most fair!

 

[msubearssuperfan1]

This may require placing Glendale in a class all by itself.

Well, we've got problems now, but we'll be back.

 

[wahoolives]

I am probably in the minority but I think that 6 classes is actually not terrible. I would be in favor of having 8 districts of 8 teams each in class 5 and class 6 so that winning a district would be more meaningful and it would probably mean at least 6 teams in every district class 4 ( I didn't actually do the math.) Still might have a little more then 2 to 1 from the top of class 4 to the bottom which is what they tried to eliminate with the new system.

 

[mizzourahfan]

I would be fine with 4-5 classes again but they need to seed by region. Teams travel all year to play, they don't have to play their neighbor. In many cases, 1 team is traveling really far anyway. There shouldn't be such an imbalance of competition amongst the districts.

 

[Grip it and Rip it]

I like 5 classes. I'd rather see better Geographical breakdowns per district though. Doesn't matter to me if there's 6-16 teams in a district/regional bracket as long as the geography works out better. Schools shouldn't have to worry about driving 100+ miles on a Monday-Thursday night for games. MSHSAA needs to work something out with colleges/town civic centers for better geographic locations or make the boundaries better. Don't focus on the matchups, let the teams meet where they meet. Focus on the location/distance schools have to travel.

Total enrollment 9-12 grade. Total number of teams in each class doesn't have to match either. Enrollment is enrollment.
Class 1 up to 150
Class 2 150-350
Class 3 350-600
Class 4 600-1,000
Class 5 1,000+

 

[hinklehouse]

4 classes was best. We get caught up in numbers so much but this year was no exception where talented small schools show they can compete with the larger ones. TALENT WILL WIN. Enrollment does not have that big of impact. Some schools great at team sports and others are great at the country club sports. The biggest problem with more classes is you take away the excitement of a district and even a sectional win! Those don't seem special anymore because if you make it to sectionals and lose, people are mad because they lost to a bigger enrollment instead of celebrating your success to make it that far. Look at those 4 class brackets those years, those were an accomplishment, and that playoff week was awesome. Totally watered down now. District championship is way less of an accomplishment. I would even be in favor of 4 classes with double elimination starting at the district championship to help even out those loaded districts. IMO.

 

[Comeagle]

4 classes would be the best

 

[HSBballLovr]

I'm sorry that some class 4 schools had to play teams with 500 more students, but complicating things usually doesn't make them better. Five classes wasn't broke, was no need to "fix" it.

I agree. I think 5 classes worked just fine, possibly even 4. 6 classes is too many. Scott County Central girls didn't even have to play a game to win their district. As I look around the state championship brackets there are just so many below average teams moving on to sectionals with 6 classes.

 

[3Rfan]

I like 5 classes. I'd rather see better Geographical breakdowns per district though. Doesn't matter to me if there's 6-16 teams in a district/regional bracket as long as the geography works out better. Schools shouldn't have to worry about driving 100+ miles on a Monday-Thursday night for games. MSHSAA needs to work something out with colleges/town civic centers for better geographic locations or make the boundaries better. Don't focus on the matchups, let the teams meet where they meet. Focus on the location/distance schools have to travel.

Total enrollment 9-12 grade. Total number of teams in each class doesn't have to match either. Enrollment is enrollment.
Class 1 up to 150
Class 2 150-350
Class 3 350-600
Class 4 600-1,000
Class 5 1,000+

Tonight Poplar Bluff beat Seckman in P.B. and Jackson beat Northwest in Jackson. Now they will both travel 2 hours Thursday night to Northwest HS to play each other for the district title. At least they didn't have to make that trip twice this week.

 

[mizzourahfan]

Tonight Poplar Bluff beat Seckman in P.B. and Jackson beat Northwest in Jackson. Now they will both travel 2 hours Thursday night to Northwest HS to play each other for the district title. At least they didn't have to make that trip twice this week.

Why do they have to travel to a neutral site? What are your suggestions for making travel easier for PB and Jackson during districts when they are so far away from other Class 6 schools? A high school in between would be nice (cheaper than going to a center/arena/college). This year, it is added stress to host games with the streaming situation that MSHSAA has created and dealing with ticket vouchers.

 

[MOsportsStaff]

Thoughts on a 6-class system that would be as follows

Public 1
Public 2
Public 3
Public 4
Private 1
Private 2

Other states have gone this route....is this a better "6 class" system? Just curious your thoughts.
Lots of good discussion on this strand.

 

[wahoolives]

Considering 5 of the 8 boys teams left in class 3 are privates this might be the way to go. I also think there are a lot of small private mainly religious schools that currently are only affiliated members or not a member of MSHSAA that might be interested in joining the smaller class of privates if it was separate. If the privates and publics were split how many schools would that leave per class?

 

[MoBucketsMo]

MSHSAA’s rationale (after input from wherever they get it) was the new classification system was done to prevent a school from having a playoff game against a school with double it’s enrollment (although Class 1 deals with it every year). That’s it.

Private schools didn’t like the multiplier for sports they weren’t as successful at, so the championship factor was rammed through. It will take some time to see if it works how it was designed.

 

[3Rfan]

Why do they have to travel to a neutral site? What are your suggestions for making travel easier for PB and Jackson during districts when they are so far away from other Class 6 schools? A high school in between would be nice (cheaper than going to a center/arena/college). This year, it is added stress to host games with the streaming situation that MSHSAA has created and dealing with ticket vouchers.

Well I guess if things were normal all of the district games would have been Northwest since they the chosen spot this year. It's always been a possibility to have the championship game without the home team being in it no matter what class to who was hosting.