The meeting started public comments from two north Louisiana principals, Mickey McCarty of Neville and Lincoln Prep’ Gordon Ford.
Both spoke about the status of a delayed vote on select/nonselect agenda items from January’s annual convention.
From there, the LHSAA’s executive committee’s summer meeting went on as planned — with only two other notable procedural references to the select/nonselect divisions system put in place last fall.
The Thursday meeting held at the LHSAA office offered a glimpse of where the latest split-related issues stand and what looms ahead for 2023-24.
“I just wanted to have some representation down here not only for my school, but also for north Louisiana,” McCarty said afterward. “Not many principals that I spoke with could be here today, so I wanted to give us a voice.
“We’re disappointed that we did not have a summer meeting that we felt we were going to have as a principals’ group … and I get the policy and procedure. That was a 300-something principals’ vote to table those proposals. But I think most people knew not a lot was going to happen.”
McCarty spoke after being informed that his May request for a special-called meeting for all principals to vote on the items attracted 169 responses from member schools — short of the 50% or 206 schools needed to trigger a special-called meeting based on the LHSAA constitution. Another meeting request submitted in April garnered 135 responses.
A vote on the revamped divisions structure for the LHSAA’s select/nonselect split sports will take place this January, according to LHSAA executive director Eddie Bonine. He also noted that more special meeting requests could be filed to force a vote sooner.
“At this point, we move forward,” Bonine said. “The bone of contention is that there was a promise of a summer meeting made. What was said was there could be a summer meeting. But there are guidelines to follow, which is what we did with both meeting requests.”
The revamped playoff structure used an updated definition of what a select/nonselect school is, expanding the list of select schools to include all charter schools, open enrollment schools and any school with a magnet component.
The changes left the LHSAA with 218 nonselect schools and 191 select schools, offering more of a balance in structure and more competitive playoffs in 2022-23.
“I think the original beef was not so much about what the LHSAA did, but how they did it,” Ford said. “We need to have some more conversations about putting a few requirements around how the executive committee does their business with regard to (bylaw) 4.4.4. Maybe add a few more guardrails.
“Ultimately, the principals have abdicated a lot of that authority to the executive committee. I do commend them for stepping up to try and put us in a better position. I think there are more principals now than in January who think this (system) is better than what we had before.”
The bylaw 4.4.4, which gives the executive committee the authority to make changes to promote fair play, was cited Thursday to make a key change to the power ratings structure.
In the new system, schools from multiple basic classes, as in 5A, 4A, 3A, etc., played in same enrollment divisions together. Schools from lower classes received an extra two points per class when playing up.
For example, a 3A school could receive four points for playing a 5A school even though both played in Division II. The committee used 4.4.4 to take away the power ratings boost for teams in the same division.
The LHSAA’s next two-year reclassification will be done this fall, ahead of the January vote. For that reason, schools will again by districted in basic classes. If the new divisions structure is approved, schools will be districted by divisions the following two years.
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