CHAPEL HILL — The North Carolina High School Athletic Association on Thursday, Dec. 10 released its first realignment draft for the 2021-25 period.
In the initial draft, Mitchell High School remains in the West 1A designation but gains some new conference opponents.
Mitchell’s conference, designated as “Conference 42” in the realignment draft, would feature familiar faces in Avery, Mountain Heritage, Madison and Owen but would add newcomers Draughn, Patton and West Caldwell.
Avery, Draughn, Mitchell and Mountain Heritage are all classified as 1A schools in the first draft with Madison, Owen, Patton and West Caldwell classified as 2A programs.
Mitchell’s conference would be one of 50 “split” conferences in the state, meaning the conference is made up of schools from more than one classification.
The NCHSAA cited a desire to keep travel times down for conference games and preserving natural rivalries as reasons for the increased number of split conferences.
“It also takes into consideration the protection of natural rivalries and strongly considers geography and travel time,” said NCHSAA Commissioner Que Tucker. “Of course, this means the way of getting into the playoffs must be reviewed and updated. That will come later.”
In previous years, the NCHSAA used only enrollment figures to determine which classification schools will belong to for the next four years.
Average daily membership numbers, the enrollment data used by the NCHSAA, are still the top consideration but there were two other points added to consideration for the most recent alignment.
The NCHSAA also factored in a three-year average of state cup points for each school and a three-year average of the Identified Student Percentage (ISP) figures for each school.
State cup points represent overall athletic department success while ISP numbers denote the percentage of students receiving some form of government assistance.
Using a multi-step formula, the numbers were blended together to produce an alignment score for each school.
The first realignment draft is subject to change. Schools have until Jan. 8 to submit concerns or suggested changes to the NCHSAA.
The realignment committee will meet to review the submissions on Jan. 13 and will release a second draft on Jan. 14.
Schools have until Jan. 21 to submit appeals regarding the second draft and appeals will be heard on Jan. 27 and 28.
The committee will release its third draft on Feb. 4 and will accept final appeals through Feb. 10.
The NCHSAA Board of Directors will meet and vote on the final proposal from the realignment committee in March and the new realignment is set to take effect on Aug. 1.
“I am grateful for the commitment and input of the realignment committee to faithfully represent the membership in their respective regions during this process,” Tucker said. “I am also thankful for the hard work of our staff members who diligently worked to meet the established deadlines, while continuing to service the other needs of the membership.”