AURORA — The cross country committee voted on Monday to recommend a proposal where the Class 2A state meet scores four runners in the team race.
Currently, teams at the 2A meet run six athletes, with three of them counting toward the team points. The proposal would be to run six and score four.
It is the second-straight year the committee has forwarded this specific proposal. Last year, the recommendation was voted down at a Legislative Council meeting.
The recommendation will again head to Legislative Council for a vote at its next meeting, set for January.
“This has been a push from some 2A schools for the last few years,” said CHSAA assistant commissioner Jenn Roberts-Uhlig. “It’s definitely divided among 2A schools on what’s best moving forward.”
Those behind the proposal plan to communicate with other leagues and Legislative Council members prior to the vote.
Additionally, the committee voted to recommend a second proposal which would allow a fifth team to qualify from each 2A regional. This would bring 2A up to 20 teams at the state meet, in line with the 20 that currently go in 3A, 4A and 5A.
“I think pulling the fifth team into 2A makes them more balanced with 3A, 4A and 5A,” Roberts-Uhlig said.
AURORA — The state volleyball tournaments could look very different in the near future.
The sport’s committee on Tuesday unanimously voted to recommend a bracket format starting next season. Their recommendation will move forward to the Legislative Council for a vote at their next meeting in January.
“We are really excited to be moving in this direction,” said CHSAA assistant commissioner Bethany Brookens, who oversees volleyball. “We think that it is the best way forward for our sport.”
The bracket proposal, if passed by the Legislative Council, would move volleyball away from its current pool play setup and put all five classifications into a modified double-elimination format. Each class would continue to qualify 12 teams to the state tournament, though it would need to move to a three-day format.
The bracket would keep many of the popular aspects of the current format — teams would still be guaranteed at least two matches over two days; the championship matches would all start at the same time — while getting rid of some of the negatives, according to proponents.
No longer would there be so-called “meaningless” matches, which can happen in the current format with a pool winner already decided. No longer would tiebreakers be required to determine winners of pools where teams all finish 1-1.
Those tiebreakers can often push the state schedule back. This season, for example, the state finals were scheduled to start at 7 p.m. They didn’t start until 8:40 p.m. because three pools required tiebreakers.
Additionally, the tiebreakers can cause some teams to play an extraordinary amount of sets in one day with limited amount of rest.
“It just evens it all out,” said Eaglecrest coach Tanya Bond, who presented the proposal to the committee. “Everyone is going to have the same experience on Saturday. And hopefully it will be a more meaningful experience, because the fans won’t be wondering what’s going on, what time the matches are going to be starting, and if they matter.”
“This eliminates what the committee found to be the two biggest cons: the tiebreakers and the meaningless matches,” Bond added.
(Dustin Price/DustinPricePhotography.com)
Officially, the format is known as the Olympic Crossover Bracket. An example of the bracket is listed below.
It was an idea forwarded by a subcommittee that was specifically tasked with looking at the state tournament format in volleyball. That subcommittee met in February, and has solicited feedback ever since.
An overwhelming majority of leagues indicated their support to the subcommittee, and many also communicated their support to the volleyball committee members prior to Tuesday’s vote.
Under the proposed format, the top four seeds in each classification receive a first-round bye, with seeds Nos. 5-12 facing off in the first matches. Teams that win those matches advance to face those top-four seeds, while the teams that lose move to the contender’s bracket where they still have the chance to advance to the semifinals.
Teams in the winner’s bracket move to the contender’s bracket if they lose prior to the semifinals. Once the semifinals are set, the bracket becomes a single-elimination tournament.
There was discussion about looking at a state tournament that is double-elimination all the way through, but that would make scheduling difficult, and also negate the increased rest between matches that the Olympic Crossover provides.
Additionally, there was discussion about a simple single-elimination tournament, but the subcommittee received feedback that teams didn’t want to stray too far from the current state tournament experience.
“Over and over and over, the volleyball community has said ‘We want that volleyball experience,’” Bond said. “If you go single (elimination), that eliminates that experience for a number of kids, and if you go true double, it becomes unmanageable.”
“This was a balance between the current model, and getting rid of a number of cons, but also keeping some of the pros,” Bond added.
When it came time to vote, the committee was unanimous in its approval.
“It’s time to do it,” said Rock Canyon athletic director Tom Brieske, a committee member.
If approved, the 2018 state volleyball tournaments would be held Nov. 8-10.
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Notables
There was a lot of discussion around whether 1A and 2A should move away from districts, and more closely mirror what 3A-5A do for regionals. Ultimately, one proposal to move 2A to the 3A-5A format wasn’t voted on, but the committee recommended that more work be done on it and be brought back next year.
The new district alignments for 1A and 2A were approved. Those will be published with the volleyball committee report in advance of the Legislative Council meeting.
AURORA — The Classification and League Organizing Committee met Tuesday, and chief among their decisions was setting enrollment splits for the 2018-20 two-year cycle.
Those enrollment cutoffs are listed below, save for football, which has its classifications set by the football committee. Those splits will be posted within the next 10 days. This information is also available on this page.
A breakdown of each school’s reported Oct. 2017 enrollment, which is used to place programs into classifications, is available here.
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Enrollment cutoffs
Team Sports (except football)
Class
Bottom
Top
5A
1392
up
4A
619
1391
3A
272
618
2A
88
271
1A
1
87
Cross Country
Class
Bottom
Top
5A
1520
up
4A
788
1519
3A
304
787
2A
1
303
Boys Golf
Class
Bottom
Top
5A
1520
up
4A
677
1519
3A
1
676
Girls Golf
Class
Bottom
Top
5A
1590
up
4A
870
1589
3A
1
869
Gymnastics
Class
Bottom
Top
5A
1698
up
4A
1
1697
Boys Swimming
Class
Bottom
Top
5A
1622
up
4A
1
1621
Girls Swimming
Class
Bottom
Top
5A
1765
up
4A
1160
1764
3A
1
1159
Boys Tennis
Class
Bottom
Top
5A
1397
up
4A
1
1396
Girls Tennis
Class
Bottom
Top
5A
1650
up
4A
1075
1649
3A
1
1074
Track
Class
Bottom
Top
5A
1514
up
4A
788
1513
3A
298
787
2A
94
297
1A
1
93
Wrestling
Class
Bottom
Top
5A
1654
up
4A
955
1653
3A
304
954
2A
1
303
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Re-classification of schools
Three schools asked to reclassify according to bylaw 1500.21, which allows schools to move down a class if they meet a number of factors, such as socio-economics, geography, competitive history and enrollment trend.
Greeley Central was approved to reclassify. This means their team sports will compete in 4A, and representatives of the school said it was their intention to play up to 4A in sports, such as wrestling, where the reclassification would put them in 3A.
Montezuma-Cortez’s reclassification from 4A to 3A was also approved. Likewise, school reps said they would commit to playing up to 3A in any sports where the reclassification would put them in 2A.
Skyline’s reclassification from 5A to 4A was approved.
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Program playdowns
The following schools had their program playdown requests approved. These programs will not be eligible to compete in the postseason, per bylaw 1500.27.
Arvada football from 3A to 2A.
Boulder softball from 5A to 4A.
Calhan football from 1A to 8-man.
Cripple-Creek Victor from 8-man to 6-man.
Dolores Huerta from 1A to 8-man.
Jefferson from 2A to 1A.
Loveland boys and girls soccer from 5A to 4A.
Mead boys soccer from 4A to 3A.
Pinnacle football from 2A to 1A.
Rangeview boys lacrosse from 5A to 4A.
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New schools approved as members
The committee approved seven new schools for initial probationary membership into CHSAA. They are:
Denver School of Science & Tech – Byers, which is in Denver’s Wash Park neighborhood.
KIPP Northeast, located in northeast Denver.
Loveland Classical School, in Loveland.
Riverdale Ridge, in Brighton.
Strive Prep Rise, in northeast Denver.
Strive Prep Smart, in southwest Denver.
Thomas MacLaren, in Colorado Springs.
KIPP Northeast and Strive Prep Rise are housed in the same building and are planning to co-op, so they will play 4A. DSST-Byers, Riverdale Ridge and Strive Prep Smart will likely be 3A. Loveland Classical and Thomas MacLaren will likely be 2A,
Riverdale Ridge will most likely play 2A football, as well.
Another school, Windsor Charter, was not accepted because the CLOC members felt the school was not yet ready to become a member for a variety of reasons.
With these new schools, CHSAA will have 361 member schools in 2018-19.
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Stargate School granted full membership
One new school has joined CHSAA as a full member, moving off probationary status: Stargate School, which is located in Thornton.
Three others up for review for full membership were left on probationary status:
DSST-College View was left on because it has had multiple CHSAA violations dealing with eligibility.
Golden View Classical Academy and Victory Prep Academy were both left on probationary status because no one from the school attended the CLOC meeting.
EDITOR’S NOTE: Mike Krueger is the chair of the CHSAA football committee. He penned the following letter to football coaches this week.
As you know, the 2017 football season will bring us to the close of a two-year cycle in Colorado high school football. We wanted to update you as we look forward to the 2018-20 cycle and beyond.
As we work toward, plan, and create a vision for high school football in our State, the CHSAA football committee remains ardently dedicated to continuing the shared decision making model that has helped us shape the landscape for high school football. We started initial discussions this past summer with stakeholders around the state from each of our classifications.
Obviously the input and wisdom from our coaches is a vital and much-needed part of this important process. Each league and region around our state has identified individuals whose main responsibility is to relay information and provide insight from each of our stakeholders and communities.
These classification representatives from around the state meet with each other and discuss many issues, including the structure of how leagues are formed and created. These groups are led by members of the CHSAA football committee. This provides an opportunity for the committee to hear directly from each of our schools and programs.
As mentioned, input from the membership is desperately needed and desired. We therefore want to encourage football coaches to talk with their athletic directors and the representative from your league and/or community and provide input into the structure and design of our leagues and playoff formats.
The dedicated individuals that serve on our football committee spend countless hours gathering input and ideas, talking to coaches and communities, and facilitating discussions that help promote the sport of football for all athletes, coaches, schools and communities across our vast state.
Coaches, please take the time to talk with your athletic director and your representatives so that your voice is heard in these important dialogues. Thank you so much for everything you do each and every day for our student-athletes and your schools.
LONE TREE — A broad effort to examine CHSAA’s current classification system is underway.
A subcommittee of the Classification and League Organizing Committee (CLOC) has met twice so far after being tasked last November to look at how schools and teams are divided into divisions of competition.
On Tuesday, Mike Schmidt, the principal at Platte Canyon who is in charge of the classification subcommittee, updated their progress at the All-School Summit. CHSAA’s current classification system has remain unchanged since 1933 — schools have been classified solely by enrollment for more than 80 years.
“We’re just trying to figure out: is there a better way to classify teams and sports, and are there changes we could recommend for your consideration in the future?” Schmidt said.
He opened by stressing that the classification committee was merely making recommendations to CLOC, that that any potential changes made wouldn’t be implemented until the 2020-22 cycle at the earliest, and that they could even recommend not changing anything.
“We’re not making any decisions,” Schmidt said. “We’re just looking at the information, we’re trying to do some of the leg work for you, and make some recommendations. Then it’s up to you to decide whether or not that’s going to be in the best interest of our student-athletes, because that’s why we’re here.”
The classification committee met for the first time in January, then again during the state wrestling tournament in February.
At the January meeting, they talked about their goal — and landed “on the idea of at least exploring other options,” Schmidt said. So they created a survey of all member schools to figure out what factors were most important in creating classifications.
They also talked about potential additions or alternatives to the current enrollment-based classification system, such as a competitive balance component, and just the basic concept of increasing participation through this process.
In February, the classification committee examined the results of their survey.
“Enrollment, by far and away, was the most important factor you identified,” Schmidt said. “We know, if nothing else, that is going to be part of some system down the line, most likely. But there were certainly other factors that were significant.”
Factors such as students from outside a school’s district participating in their programs; percentage of students participation in activities; admissions processes; or on-field success.
That last factor, on-field success, Schmidt said, “raises a lot of interesting questions.”
But some of these concepts are already in place in varying stages around the nation, and so the classification committee will continue to research what other state associations are doing.
“Do we want to reinvent the wheel?” Schmidt asked. “We’ve got 50 other associations out there who are doing the same thing and looking at the same issues. There are most likely systems out there that would interest us and apply to our geographically-varied and diverse state.”
“Once we’ve got some of that information,” he added, “we’ll see if that’s something we would want to adopt, or look at doing our own thing.
The classification committee is due to meet again this fall.
DENVER — The hockey committee has recommended the addition of two new programs, which would bring the sport to a total of 34 teams across the state.
During its meeting at the University of Denver on Friday morning, the committee voted to add Chaparral and Woodland Park as varsity programs for the 2017-18 season, meaning both teams would begin play immediately. Their inclusion is dependent upon approval by the Legislative Council at its meeting in April.
“You could tell our committee did their homework because they had very in-depth discussion about a lot of items on our agenda — including the addition of the two new programs,” said CHSAA assistant commissioner Bud Ozzello. “We look forward to the continued growth of the sport.”
Both Chaparral and Woodland Park made presentations to the hockey committee on Friday. After a lengthy discussion, including questions about what it would do to schedules and alignment, they unanimously voted to add the programs. If approved by Legislative Council, hockey will have 34 teams starting in the 2017-18 season.
“This shows that the interest for hockey around the state continues to increase, and that’s only a good thing for our sport,” Ozzello said.
Chaparral will be placed into the Pinnacle Conference, and Woodland Park will play in the Highlands.
Chaparral will become the third hockey program within Douglas County Schools. It will also serve Legend and Ponderosa, making it the home program for all students at Parker high schools.
“We came here about seven years ago and we kind of had a long-range plan in Douglas County to start hockey,” said Douglas County district athletic director Derek Cheney.
The first program in the area was Mountain Vista, which began play in 2011-12. The Golden Eagles have been very successful, to the point that Douglas County started a second program at Castle View two years ago.
(Ryan Casey/CHSAANow.com)
Both Mountain Vista and Castle View spent time ranked in the top-10 this season, and they actually faced one another in the second round of the playoffs this season.
Going forward, Mountain Vista will serve students from Mountain Vista, Highlands Ranch and ThunderRidge. Castle View will serve Castle View, Rock Canyon and Douglas County.
“The final piece to our puzzle was to have a team in the Parker region,” Cheney said.
Douglas County Schools has no plans to add a fourth team, Cheney said.
Chaparral has had a club team since 2007. The plan is to have the team split ice time between Family Sports in Centennial and Joy Burns Arena on the campus of the University of Denver.
The mere topic of adding a team drew a lot of interest, with 80-100 parents attending a meeting at Chaparral.
“After that meeting, we really felt like this was becoming a big thing and that they wanted hockey in the Parker area,” said Chaparral athletic director Rob Johnson.
“We have the numbers to support three teams” in the district, said Ryan Finnefrock, who will be Chaparral’s coach. “We have a ton of hockey players.”
Woodland Park’s inclusion adds another team from the state’s southern region — something that signals real growth of the sport.
“This is exciting,” said committee member Erik Austin, the coach at Cheyenne Mountain. “I’ve been waiting for this kind of proposal from the southern region for about 10 years now. We’ve been trying to grow the game aggressively, and this is a way to do it.”
During its presentation, Woodland Park said the timing was right to add varsity hockey.
“We’ve got to strike while the iron is hot,” Woodland Park athletic director Mike DeWall told the committee. “It’s time for us to offer high school hockey in the Teller County region.”
The push from Woodland Park was so strong that superintendent Jed Bowman also attended the meeting.
“This is a community dream that has been part of Woodland Park for probably 30 years,” said Bowman, who once coached Air Academy’s hockey team. “We have a rich history of hockey.”
Currently, 11 students at Woodland Park play varsity hockey for four teams spread out throughout Colorado Springs.
“All 11 of them have expressed interest in playing for the school team,” Bowman said. That includes three juniors that will be seniors next season “who would like to be part of making history at our school,” Bowman said.
Ice time won’t actually be a huge issue for Woodland Park. Bowman said they would only need two weeks of practice ice in Colorado Springs, as they have access to an outdoor ice facility in town for practice. For games, they are exploring possibilities in Colorado Springs.
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Notables
The Frozen Four moved to a Friday/Monday format this season. It will stay that way in 2018 (March 2 and 5), and 2019 (March 1 and 4). Both events will continue to be hosted by the Colorado Avalanche, but a site is still to be determined. It may be the Pepsi Center, if the dates work out with the NHL, NBA and NLL schedules. “What you’re seeing today is just step one,” said Jason Schofield, the manager of amateur hockey sales for the Avalanche. “We’re just getting started.”
The committee also recommended a change to the waiver process for postseason eligibility, which would allow junior varsity players who play in 65 percent of their team’s JV schedule to be eligible to play in the varsity postseason — so long as they don’t play club hockey.
The long-discussed mercy rule in basketball has hit the home stretch.
On Thursday, CHSAA’s basketball committee unanimously recommended implementing a rule that would create a running clock when a game hits a margin of 35 points or more after three quarters. That recommendation, requested by CHSAA’s Board of Directors, will be voted on by the Legislative Council at its next meeting in April.
“While I believe the most of the committee was reluctant to recommend a mercy rule, the data and anecdotal information provided to the committee members as well as the request from the CHSAA Board of Directors dictated that something needed to be forwarded to the membership for consideration,” said CHSAA assistant commissioner Bert Borgmann, who oversees basketball.
This change would apply to all levels for both boys and girls basketball, if approved by Legislative Council. The clock would only stop on injuries, called timeouts, and free throws.
So far this season, 17.2 percent of girls games (841 of 4,892 total) have finished with a margin of 35 points or more. On the boys side, 12.8 percent of boys (633 of 4,952) have done so.
If the mercy rule is implemented, it would begin in the 2017-18 season.
The idea to stop the clock on free throws came from committee member Chris Noll, Doherty’s athletic director, who said the Colorado Springs Metro League currently does that at its lower levels.
“That’s where you’re losing a minute-and-a-half at a time,” Noll said.
The free-throw change was a new wrinkle, and may help soothe some opponents of a mercy rule, who argue that a running clock would shorten games too much and take away playing time, especially from younger players.
“We believe that this is a sound mercy rule that is as non-invasive a mercy rule as possible,” Borgmann said. “Teams still will have three full quarters before the mercy rule would come into play.”
“We felt it has been such a topic that we need to get it out to the membership to vote on,” said Jeffco district athletic director Jim Thyfault, who is a member of the Board and also the basketball committee.
On Thursday, the basketball committee also considered other mercy rule options, including one that would have been implemented with a margin of 40 points or more after three quarters. It did quickly discuss another option where each league could set its own rule, but moved away from that because it wanted consistency.
The committee took input from audience members, including coaches in attendance, prior to making their decision. Among those ideas: banning a press after a certain margin, and removing players.
But the group ultimately wanted something easy to implement consistently across the state.
“One of the important things when implementing any type of a mercy rule or rule change is to make it simple and easy to implement across all levels,” Borgmann said. “Simply having a mercy rule, though, does not mean that schools cannot invoke other rules to help address games that are out of hand.”
If the Legislative Council adopts the mercy rule for basketball, it would leave field hockey, volleyball and lacrosse as the only team sports without one.
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2A wants to change regional format
The committee recommended a change to the regional format for Class 2A boys and girls.
Currently, the class uses a 24-team format that was put in place by an amendment at the Legislative Council last April, meaning it was not recommended by the basketball committee.
As such, on Thursday, the committee recommended a return to a 32-team format, taking four teams each from the eight districts, and then seeding the district champions Nos. 1-8. The remaining teams, seeds 9-32, would be seeded by RPI.
“They’ve always had a 32-team region setup, and it became a matter of wanting to return to a previously popular format,” Borgmann said.
The current format requires games be played at a neutral site, something that has become problematic for a big swatch of teams on the eastern plains.
“As with any non-committee recommended format, there were unintended consequences,” Borgmann said. “In this case, finding an affordable facility for schools to play 20 games over two days became a challenge.”
If the 32-team format is approved, the Final 8 teams would be reseeded prior to the state tournament.
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Notables
Dustin Duncan, a representative from the Colorado High School Coaches Association, said a number of coaches had reached out asking that Colorado add a shot clock. Duncan estimated that it would cost each school about $2,000 to add one. But, he added, it would also mean adding an additional worked each home game.
Basketball’s RPI percentages will stay the same through next season. One reason for this is the timing of the committee meeting, which comes in the middle of the season. The meeting can’t be moved after the season, because the committee report must be submitted more than 30 days before the Legislative Council meets.
AURORA — Boys volleyball hit a bump in the road last week as it seeks to become CHSAA’s next sanctioned sport.
CHSAA’s Equity Committee, which gives recommendations on sanctioning, could not to endorse the sport after hearing a proposal from a group representing boys volleyball last Thursday.
In a letter sent last week, the committee cited data that showed that 81 percent of schools “responded that by adding this sport, their proportionality numbers would either be negatively affected or their school’s proportionality would become out of compliance.” Proportionality deals with the balance of boys and girls sports as mandated by Title IX.
As such, boys volleyball will no longer be making a presentation to the Legislative Council at its meeting on Thursday. Still, a league may still choose to sponsor a bylaw seeking sanctioning at the April Legislative Council meeting.
“It’s very possible that they still seek sanctioning,” said CHSAA assistant commissioner Bethany Brookens, who oversees the Equity Committee.
There is a group of schools who feel very positively about sanctioning. A total of 74 percent of schools responded to a survey about adding boys volleyball, and of those, 77 percent favored sanctioning.
But the lack of a positive recommendation from the Equity Committee may make it a tall task if the bylaw were to come up for a vote in April. According to existing bylaw 5000.1, in addition to surveys of member schools, the Legislative Council needs to consider any “recommendations from the Equity Committee regarding positive and/or negative impact to proportionality in our member schools.”
Larry Bull, the district athletic director of Cherry Creek Schools, gave the presentation on behalf of boys volleyball last week.
He noted that the sport has been around at the club level since 1996, and has since grown to more than 500 athletes participating around the state.
“It is public, private and charter schools doing this,” Bull said. “You have very, very large schools participating, and very small schools participating.
“It has a 20-year history, and it has the potential to become an important sport for our young men in Colorado.”
Their proposal would place boys volleyball in the spring season.
If Colorado were to sanction boys volleyball, it would become the 25th state to do so nationally. And the sport is definitely growing on the national level. Over the past five years, it has seen a 12 percent increase in participation, according to the most recent NFHS survey.
This is the third time boys volleyball has attempted to gain sanctioning from CHSAA. But, “I will tell you,” Bull said, “the momentum is stronger” this time around.
Equity Committee member Dave Walck, the athletic director at Grand Valley, called the proposal “the most organized effort” he’d seen from boys volleyball. “This is something that more people are talking about, and I think it has the potential to be very successful.”
The letter even acknowledged that “the entire committee was extremely impressed” by the presentation.
Still, the Equity Committee was unable to get past that 81 percent of schools that said adding boys volleyball would either put them out of proportion, or would have a negative effect on their number.
So, as of now, boys volleyball appears to be in a holding pattern.
The Equity Committee also heard presentations from girls wrestling and ultimate frisbee last week. It also heard about the forthcoming proposal to add a fourth classification of boys soccer that will be put in front of the Legislative Council this week.
It gave approval on the 2A boys soccer proposal, as well as a split of 4A/5A co-ed cheer into separate classifications.
Girls wrestling inspired curiosity in the committee, and the group wants updates in the upcoming year or two to see how it develops.
CHSAA hasn’t added a sport since a three-year span from 1997-99, when boys and girls lacrosse, and field hockey were all added.
AURORA — The structure that determines CHSAA classification is getting an in-depth look.
During an initial meeting of the reclassification subcommittee on Tuesday at the CHSAA office, a decision was reached to explore new ways of classifying schools.
Since classifications were first implemented in 1933, the main determining factor for splitting schools has been enrollment. But the subcommittee, a 13-member offshoot of the Classification and League Organizing Committee which is tasked with looked at the current alignment system, reached a consensus that enrollment alone isn’t enough to determine classifications.
“I’m hearing from everybody (on the subcommittee) is that the straight enrollment number may not work,” said subcommittee chair Mike Schmidt, the principal and football coach at Platte Canyon. “Can we build a better system that has fewer anomalies, and is fairer?”
Said subcommittee member Larry Bull, the district athletic director at Cherry Creek Schools: “I don’t believe it’s a true reflection — that number — of schools.”
So the group will explore models used by other states which classify based upon criteria that either builds upon the enrollment numbers, or use another system entirely. Other systems, such as one where schools apply for a classification, could also be explored.
“This is just the first step,” said Schmidt, adding that the classification system may not even have to change after looking at other options. “I just want to see, ‘What would it look like?’”
Additionally, a survey of member schools will be conducted to explore factors that should be considered when classifying schools.
A big topic of conversation within the subcommittee on Tuesday was whether or not any change should apply to all classes, big and small, and all regions, metro and rural.
“We’re at the point where one size doesn’t fit all anymore,” said Randy Holmen, the superintendent at Geno-Hugo School District.
Ultimately, the group has a big eye on competitive balance, and ensuring that high school athletics continue to grow.
“I see the charge of this group as saving programs for kids,” said Doherty athletic director Chris Noll.
A little while later, CHSAA commissioner Paul Angelico added, “What we’re trying to do is to encourage as many kids as possible to participate in high school athletics. … What can we do to help schools provide programs that will entice as many kids as possible to be involved?”
But, the tone of the meeting was ultimately careful, measured and tempered. It was clear that the subcommittee wants to take its time exploring what next step would be best, rather than jump into a change just to change. Any potential change wouldn’t take effect until the 2020-21 school year.
“One thing we need to keep in mind as we’re looking at restructuring is we don’t water down what it means to be a state champion,” said Rick Macias, the district athletic director at Pueblo City Schools.
“We have to be careful, because we’re not going to fix it all. It’s impossible to fix it all,” added Jim Thyfault, the district athletic director of Jeffco Public Schools. “Schools differ gender to gender, and sport to sport. So how are you going to fix that? You’re not going to fix it entirely.”
The subcommittee will next meet in February, and then again in June.
AURORA — The football committee has recommended a change to a 37.5/37.5/25 RPI formula as part of postseason qualification.
The recommendation, made Wednesday during the committee’s annual meeting at the CHSAA office, would be implemented with the 2017 season if it is approved by the Legislative Council in January.
It would mean a move away from the standard formula used during the 2016 season which took the following into account: 25 percent of a team’s winning percentage (WP), 50 percent of a team’s opponents’ winning percentage (OWP), and 25 percent of the winning percentage of the opponents of a team’s opponents (OOWP).
The recommendation is to move to:
RPI = (0.375 x WP) + (0.375 x OWP) + (0.25 x OOWP)
The RPI is used to capture the 16-team brackets in all classifications, with the possible exception of any league champions outside the top-16. League champions automatically qualify for the postseason.
The topic of RPI was a big one from the start of the meeting.
“The RPI system is new, and we knew there would be challenges. There are,” CHSAA assistant commissioner Harry Waterman told the committee. “It doesn’t matter what the system is, because that would be true under any system.
“We don’t believe that the system is broken,” he added. “However, we do have an opportunity to make changes that accomplishes some of our goals.”
Both Waterman and Mike Krueger, the committee chair who is the district athletic director at Aurora Public Schools, stressed that any possible decision should not swing too far back in the other direction.
“The first thing we need to think about is where we came from,” Krueger said, noting the former Wild Card points system used for playoff qualification that “was very broken.”
As the meeting wore on, each classification voiced displeasure with the current percentages in place for football’s RPI. A common thread among the feedback was a desire to increase the weight of a team’s own winning percentage within the formula.
The conversation quickly turned to which percentages should be considered, and the discussion centered on three options:
Evenly split at (1/3 x WP) + (1/3 x OWP) + (1/3 x OOWP)
35/35/30
37.5/37.5/25
After about an hour, the committee voted 10-3 to make the change to the 37.5/37.5/25 formula.
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Discussion of 5A waterfall alignment
The 5A class was the center of much discussion during the meeting, and a lot of that was because “5A underwent some pretty big changes in one fell swoop,” as noted by Horizon athletic director Eric Gustafson, a 5A rep.
Prior to 2016, the class went from a 32-team to 16-team playoff bracket, started using the RPI, and also changed to a new waterfall alignment, which has been met with mixed opinions.
“The thing I heard in 5A was (the waterfall alignment) really highlighted the disparity in 5A football,” Krueger said, “and I sit here, as the chair of this committee, extremely concerned about the schools on the lower end of 5A that may or may not be able to retain their programs because they haven’t been able to compete at the highest level.”
As such, the committee will explore options for alignment over the course of the next year.
“This was an idea that came from the membership, a lot of coaches primarily,” Krueger said of the waterfall. “We wanted equal leagues. This committee did that. Now that we have this system, we have to look at, possibly, in a year from now changing some things around to protect some of those programs.”
All that said, the alignment will not change for 2017. The committee is considering options for the 2018 and 2019 seasons.
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Notables:
6-man football talked about changing its mercy rule from 45 points to the 40 points used by every other classification, but no vote was called, and so it will stay at 45.
6-man also voiced concern that Hi-Plains, the eventual champion in the classification, drew a number of players from Flagler without an official co-op being filed. Under state law, players are allowed to play for a team in their district of residence or district of attendance if their own school doesn’t field a team. Flagler dropped its team just prior to the season. “It’s on our radar,” Waterman said.
3A discussed the fact that its championship game was hosted by a home team, and threw out the possibility of returning it to a neutral site, or removing the 5,000-seat mandate for a site to serve as a host. The 3A game has previously been at a neutral site, at Legacy Stadium in Aurora, but was moved to home sites in an effort to increase attendance.
The football officials association gave an update, and said that the 40-second play clock experimental rule “has improved the game experience” and has been an overall positive addition. Assuming the NFHS continues to approve, the rule experiment should continue.
