COLUMN: What does the future of the AHSAA look like? Stay tuned on Friday
AHSAA executive director Heath Harmon and the Central Board are expected to release the new classifications for the 2026-27 and 2027-28 Fall seasons on Friday. Major changes are anticipated with the new schedules. (File Photo)
BY TIM GAYLE
It’s quite possible that the future of the Alabama High School Athletic Association is at stake.
At least, that’s the rampant speculation that’s being distributed over social media in anticipation of Friday’s classification release and potential legislation directed at the organization. Even the legitimate media, such that it is, has surveyed high school coaches and administrators and speculate as if they know what’s coming.
Here’s the catch. Every possible scenario has negative consequences and potential litigation that could make AHSAA officials release Friday’s 2026-28 classification in a trial scenario that gives schools two years to adjust to the new classification proposal before it officially is implemented in 2028.
Here are the most likely scenarios:
If you’re listening to coaches or administrators from north Alabama, a classification model includes no private schools, apparently kicked out of the Alabama High School Athletic Association. That model obviously makes no sense because private schools would simply form their own organization with their own rules.
If you’re listening to coaches or administrators from central Alabama, the classification model that seems most likely includes a separate division for private schools within the Alabama High School Athletic Association, with those private schools competing in either one or two divisions.
Forty-six of the 58 private schools that compete in the AHSAA are either Class 1A or Class 2A schools (before the 1.35 multiplier is applied to enrollment). To ask 46 smaller schools to somehow compete with 12 larger schools is ludicrous. It’s virtually certain that many of the coaches, if not the schools themselves, would pull out of the AHSAA, taking valuable financial resources with them.
If private schools were divided into two classifications that left the 12 largest schools in their own classification, those 12 schools likely would be divided into two six-team regions that include five teams from Mobile, two from Birmingham, three from Huntsville and one each from Tuscaloosa and Montgomery. The travel distances, particularly in non-revenue sports such as softball and baseball, would force those schools into another organization.
If those schools were divided into three classifications, dividing the smaller 46 schools into two 23-team classifications along with the 12-team classification, the smallest 23 teams -- those with an enrollment of less than 120 students -- don’t participate in many sports. Ten of those schools don’t have football programs and a similar number don’t play softball. Few have golf, soccer or tennis teams.
If you’re listening to coaches or administrators from south Alabama, a classification possibility gaining some traction is to use the current system but separate the private schools for postseason play. In other words, seed the private schools for their postseason playoff season and take the four highest public schools in each region and place them in the current playoff format. Of course, AHSAA officials would then have to schedule one or two or three additional playoff brackets in addition to the current format now in place. Would basketball area tournaments now take place in January to allow extra playing time for nine or 10 classifications to participate in regionals?
And, like the other private school proposals, the amount of travel on every member school, but particularly the private schools, will rise dramatically in some instances as will other costs, such as the cost for officials with additional classifications. Several private schools in the Alabama Independent School Association left for the AHSAA because of travel burdens, but the new burdens created by a separate private school association are greater than they were before.
There is another option out there where the current formula remains while options are considered, but while the former models need to appease the members, keeping everything the same will not appease state legislators who have voiced the need for change. And if things remain the same, why the need to push the classification release back a month, unless it was to tie the hands of the legislature who currently has other issues with a higher agenda?
And therein lies the problem with different egos entering the fray. AHSAA executive director Heath Harmon has been meeting with a group of private school administrators for more than a year, trying to appease members who have battled issues such as the multiplier or Competitive Balance Factor, but most of the members of the Central Board haven’t heard of those issues from private school administrators first hand.
Then there is the state legislature. One prominent politician met with Harmon over the idea of putting state legislators on the Central Board and another lawmaker even went so far as to put the legislation together, only to withdraw it. In the meantime, there is plenty of incorrect information concerning the bill making its way through social media.
Another legislator was proposing a bill to clarify the differences between the CHOOSE Act and the legislature, but that bill hasn’t surfaced yet. There is plenty of misinformation making its way through social media concerning the CHOOSE Act as well. Some people interpret the bill as saying that anyone who receives CHOOSE Act money is eligible to play immediately. But to use an example, any player wanting to transfer from a Montgomery school, public or private, could not transfer to a Montgomery private school because there are overlapping school zones that require a student to sit out a year before earning eligibility.
How far are the private school administrators willing to go? If they’re put in a separate classification, it negates the reason those private schools joined the Alabama High School Athletic Association in the first place. Will private school coaches schedule any games with the public schools that pushed to exclude them from the organization? Will public schools be willing to schedule any games with private schools that are no longer in their postseason path?
How far are AHSAA officials willing to go? If they’re willing to put restrictions on private school athletes, are they willing to put restrictions on out-of-zone students who attend single-school districts?
And if these private schools decide they’ve had enough, how quick and decisive will their actions be? It’s not likely any of the larger programs would want to join the Alabama Independent School Association. More than likely, they would want to form their own association, which is no small task. AISA officials, however, have made it clear on more than one occasion that they would be willing to let the “new” organization use their bylaws, their championship venues, etc., until they could form their own association in a year or two.
The egos are in the way. AHSAA officials, state legislators and private school administrators need to remember why we’re having this discussion in the first place.
Alabama Christian Academy headmaster Josh Roberts made a Zoom presentation to the Central Board in December that should have resonated.
“We are not asking for special treatment,” he said. “We are asking for fairness, safety, opportunity and to be part of the solution process. Rumors swirl that the Central Board will take up a proposal that will separate private schools for championship play. You can be a voice for unity. Staying together puts students first.
“We have raised up a generation of athletes in a system where their competition is manipulated through the multiplier. Now is the time to ask, ‘Does this serve students or does it function as legislative self-protection that stifles competition?’
“And speaking of competition - let me be clear about what we do in this association. We develop students through competition. Yes, there are individual students at stake and we ought never forget the individual lives that each policy touches, but there are also system issues, generational issues at stake. When this association embraces the spirit of competition then we will once again be the leader in athletics in our nation.”
Roberts, like the remainder of the administrators and coaches in this state, will be awaiting the Friday morning release of the classification proposal and what it means for the state’s high school athletic programs.