AIA offers revision to initial high school team sports placement

The Arizona Interscholastic Association has released a revision to its proposed high school team sport division placement for the 2015-2018.

  The revision came after much public outcry by coaches, schools and media about what appeared to be obvious errors in the proposed placement.

  The formula used to determine placements was a combination of each school's enrollment, percentage of free/reduced price lunches and MaxPreps' record and ranking history.

  Though most of the immediate attention focused on football, placement in other sports also caused observers to scratch their heads.

  For schools in The Buckeye Valley News circultion area the original placements saw Buckeye's football team moved from Division III to Divison IV. This was despite four straight years of winning records and going to the playoffs three of the past four years.

  Another curious placement was the Youngker's boy's soccer team which was initially proposed for Division I despite never attaining a winning record.

  Just days after releasing the initial proposal the AIA issued a statement that its two "highly competent" consultants had used a wrong field in the formula to calculate the placements and that work had begun to "run the formula using the correct data points and update the initial division placements." The AIA added that new proposed placements would be out by Jan. 26.

  The proposed placements released on Monday did seem to correct errors caused by the incorrect formula. However, the percentage of school/sport combinations in the BVN circulation area affected by the proposed placements remained the same - nearly 74% of sports are slated to move up or down under the proposal.

The table above relfects the REVISED proposed 2015-18 placement issued by the Arizona Interscholastic Association on Jan. 26. The shaded areas in the revised table represent those sports which are proposed to move up or down a  division during  the  2015-18 school years.

  Six teams are recommended for Division I play including Buckeye tennis and Verrado boy's and girl's soccer, boy's and girl's tennis and baseball. Conversely, Buckeye is seeing six sports recommended for a move down to Div. IV. Those sports are boy's basketball, boy's and girl's soccer, baseball, softball and volleyball.

Estrella Foothills saw several teams move up to Div. II.

  Schools have until Feb. 2 to file an appeal for sports they feel may be out of place.

  Verrado soccer Head Coach Ted Campbell suggested he will appeal the Div. I placement for his team while girl's soccer Head Coach David Hopkinson said he'd like to discuss the issue further with the school administration.

  Verrado Athletic Director Nick Browder said he had scheduled a meeting with his coaches Wednesday to discuss placements and determine appeals could be made.

  Following the appeals deadline the AIA will hold a series of appeals hearings during early February with a final division placement made public to AIA membership on Feb. 18.