After many months of speculating, what many people thought the Alabama High School Athletic Association would do came to fruition Wednesday morning as they added a seventh classification. The proposal was passed following a Wednesday board meeting as the AHSAA Central Board of Control released the 2014-2016 reclassification numbers.
Here is a link to the new class 3A;
http://talismanred.com/ratings/highschool/alignment2014/football_3a.html
Here is a link to the new class 4A:
http://talismanred.com/ratings/highschool/alignment2014/football_4a.html
Here is a link to the recently released numbers and maps of the new regions:
football
When the AHSAA reclassified late in 2011, Hoover High School was the largest school in the state with an enrollment of 1,902 students. The smallest school in Class 6A was Chelsea, with an enrollment of 732. That is a 1,170 difference.
The largest school in Class 5A at that time was Russell County, with an enrollment of 729. That is 300 more than the smallest school in 5A, St. Paul’s (429).
In this year’s classification, W.S. Neal was the last school (60 out of 60 schools that play football, but out of 63 overall) in 4A with an enrollment of 285.65. The biggest 3A school was Madison Academy with an enrollment of 284.11
This year, T.R. Miler had a count of 237.00. as was 42 out of 60 schools that play football, but out of 62 schools overall.
In the most recent reclassification, T.R. Miller was ranked 40th out of 67, with a student count decreasing from 274 to 256.
Prior to that, T.R. Miller was the 26th largest school out of 66.
As for W.S. Neal, the Eagles were the 16th biggest 3A school out of 67 schools, with its last student count at 329 and a student count now at 292 in the most recent classification.
Prior to that, W.S. Neal was last reclassified as the 49th largest school in 4A out of 64 schools.
W.S. Neal was last in class 4A from 2006-2011.
Enrollment numbers are based on the average attendance for 10th-12th graders and ninth grade hold backs. The AHSAA reclassifies every two years.
The AHSAA reclassifies and realigns every two years, and the new configuration is typically released in November. This year’s announcement has been delayed until late January.
Classifications are based on the average daily membership (ADM) figures furnished by the state Department of Education for the upper three grades (10-12) plus ninth grade hold backs. Schools with the largest enrollments are placed in Class 6A, the next largest in Class 5A, etc. Alignments are made for each sport in each class, based on the number of schools participating in a sport.
This post will be updated throughout the day and week to include all the details of the latest reclassification numbers as well as responses from T.R. Miller’s Jamie Riggs and W.S. Neal’s Doug Hoehn.

From the AHSAA
MONTGOMERY – The Alabama High School Athletic Association Central Board of
Control unanimously approved Wednesday a new seven-classification system for championship play beginning with the 2014-15 and 2015-16 school years. The seven-class system is being adopted for all sports.
The action came during the Central Board’s winter meeting at the AHSAA Office. Re-classification, conducted every two years, is based on average daily enrollment numbers provided by the State Board of Education. Member private schools supply the same enrollment information for their schools or school systems.
The AHSAA has functioned with a six-classification system since 1984. The schools were grouped in a four-classification system from 1964-1983 and a two-classification system from 1947-1964. Prior to 1947, the AHSAA had just one classification system.
“The seven-classification system will allow more student-athletes to participate in championship events and more will experience first-hand what it means to play in some of the best venues in our state,” Central Board President Lamar Brooks said. “With the addition of an extra championship game, revenues should increase which will mean much-needed additional money for all schools through the AHSAA revenue sharing program.”
The new seven-classification football alignment places the 32 largest high schools in the new Class 7A. The remaining six classes were divided as equally as possible with 60 schools in 6A, 61 in 5A, 60 in 4A, 60 in 3A, 58 in 2A and 58 making up Class 1A. A total of 23 schools currently do not participate in football championship play and will placed in the re-classification system based on their reported enrollment numbers.
“I want to thank the AHSAA staff and Central Board for the hard work they put in to develop the re-classification plan that was approved,” AHSAA Executive Director Steve Savarese said. “It was a difficult job, but everyone worked together to find the best solution as we move forward.”
Savarese said the seven-class system allows the AHSAA to group schools more closely in enrollment, also reduces the need for nine-team regions in football and has created fewer five- team areas in sports like basketball, volleyball, baseball and softball.
“It also will allow more schools to make the state playoffs and will crown more state champions than at any other time in the history of our organization.”
The Central Board also voted to allow football teams 11 weeks to schedule 10 games. Schools may elect to play a non-region contest the week of Aug. 21-22-23 and then have 10 weeks to play the remaining nine regular-season games. Schools can still agree to play a non- counting jamboree or regulation game that first week but would then have the remaining 10 weeks to schedule the maximum 10 regular-season contests. This format will give schools more flexibility to schedule non-region games.
Brooks said he wanted to thank the member schools for their input and patience throughout the re-classification process. “Scheduling the decision on re-classification until January allowed the AHSAA staff valuable time to evaluate our current classification system thoroughly and provide the detailed information that was needed to make these changes,” he said.
“On behalf of the Central Board of Control and our member schools, I want to thank Mr. Savarese and his staff for their hard work. I also want to thank our Central Board for their commitment and dedication to providing a first-class athletic program to all our student-athletes as well as making decisions that are best for all of our member schools.”
The re-classification alignment data and for each sport can be found at the following link located at www.ahsaa.com. The re-classification by enrollment data is located on the home page of www.ahsaa.com.