Proposal affects non-public schools

When Shiloh Christian begins the 2022-23 school year, it is very likely that the private school’s athletic teams will compete in three separate classifications and travel multiple directions to play.

It’s the result of the Competitive Equity Factor, a proposal that was passed by a 157-28 margin by the state’s schools and placed in the Arkansas Activities Association’s handbook to begin with the 2022-24 reclassification cycle. The CEF uses a points system based on the team’s overall success in individual sports to determine which classification the state’s non-public schools will be placed. The system will not just use the school’s enrollment as a classification guide.

“This might be the best thing, I think, that we’ve ever passed that treats all of them as individual schools, even as individual sports,” AAA executive director Lance Taylor said. “It doesn’t paint all the non-public schools with the same brush. It treats them all differently.

“That’s the problem with our system in the past. We treated them all the same, and they’re not all the same. Not all of the public schools are the same.”

All non-public school athletic teams will be placed in a classification based on what they accomplished on the fields and courts over a four-year period, with the upcoming school year being the final year used of the upcoming CEF count. Teams earn one point if they finish the season with a winning record in conference play, two points for a state playoff/tournament victory, three points if they reach the state championship game and four points for a state championship for a maximum of four points in a single season.

The multiplier that is already in place for non-public schools will remain in place, where schools start one class up from what their true three-year average attendance is in grades 9-11. Teams that compile 10 or more points in baseball, basketball, football, soccer, softball and volleyball over a four-year period will be considered “dominant” and will move up a classification.

The flip side is, teams that have two points or fewer over that four-year cycle are labeled “non-competitive” and can fall to the class of their true enrollment, but they will not be allowed to drop any further than that. The remaining teams are considered “competitive” and will remain where they are.

The CEF works slightly different for bowling, cross country, golf, swimming and diving, tennis, track and wrestling. Teams will get three points for being a state runnerup and four points for a state championship, and any non-public school’s team will move up a classification if it compiles eight or more points over a four-year span.

“This is something we started looking at about two years ago,” Taylor said. “We looked at Alabama and Missouri, and there are 10 or 12 states that are doing this. We looked, then took pieces of different ones and put this together where it would work for our state.

“It was probably my fault that we didn’t get to this sooner, but that’s when covid-19 and the pandemic hit. We didn’t know if we were going to get to play or not, so we put it on the back burner.”

Three non-public schools — Pulaski Academy, Little Rock Christian and Harding Academy — have already accumulated enough points in football for their teams to move up a classification in the 2022-24 cycles. A number of teams will need to add points in the upcoming season in order to keep from dropping to a lower class.

Shiloh Christian, meanwhile, enters the 2021 football season with nine points and is likely to add more and move up to Class 5A. Shiloh’s baseball and volleyball teams have enough points to remain in Class 4A, but both basketball teams and the girls’ soccer team will need points or face going to Class 3A.

“It presents some challenges, of course,” said Shiloh Christian football coach and athletic director Jeff Conaway. “But the way that I view it, as well as our leadership at Shiloh Christian and our coaches, it’s also going to lead to an opportunity.

“There will be some things that make us uncomfortable. Any time there is change, there’s going to be a challenge. Any time you’re not sure what conference you’re going to be in, there’s going to be some scheduling challenges. We’re probably going to be surprised with some issues that come up, but our mentality is we’ll do the best we can do.”

The non- public teams will be placed in conferences upon the completion of that sport’s schedule. Taylor said the equity points will be good for four years, and a new set of numbers will be used to determine the 2026-28 reclassification cycle.

The AAA, however, will continue to do their reclassification process every two years.