My solution would be..

[ccbulldog]

Only 5 classes with 36 in top class with four 9 team divisions with 4 in each making playoffs. And the other 4 classes divided equally with 8 districts each with top two in each district making playoffs

[MSSportsGuy]

I'm old and here are the iterations I experieced and have also witnessed:

 

I was in HS in the early 90: 

7 or 8 teams in our district (3A), top 2 made the playoffs. My junior year I think we were 8-2, maybe 7-3, but missed out because we lost two districs games to people better than us.

 

Late 90s or early 2000s (I was a newlywed with twin babies so clearly my mind was elsewhere lol):

 Top 4 were making the playoffs. Most divisions below 5A had 7 teams but eh, whatever. Also 1A due to so many non football members moves to 4 regions with 7 or 8 team districts because coaches complained they couldn't fill out a schedule. 5A also had the same issue when they initially made it top 32. These divisions did have some travel issues for a few teams but I was only an observer at that point. 

 

2009 Association moves to 6A:

Read the rationale was the "gap" between 4A. Up to that point 5A had been the largest 32 with 4 on down divided evenly, Too big of a gap in 4A (allegedly) so top 32 6A, next 32 5A, then divided evenly. Districts in lower classes shrink to 6 or so teams. Again, I sort of get it but another trend was happening and that's school consolidation was taking place in some rural communities. With the top 4 making the playoffs in 6 team regions, I started to see 2-8/3-7 teams from some classes in the "Playoffs". 

 

2022 Association goes to 7A:

This was done to "increase excitement" and reduce the gap in 6A. The gap argument had some merits and I get it if you were Grenada playing Tupelo or Desoto Central but virtually no thought was given to the lower classes and what this would do. 6A could have become the top 24, 5A the next 24, and the other 16 who were part of the old 5A would have shifted down as things were divided evenly again. Sixteen schools over 4 classes would have mean 4 per class so not even one additional school per region. The numbers dividing the lower classes are basically moot as it's whoever is sitting where the line is drawn.

 

Other considerations:

In my 30 years since HS graduation there has been some consolidation in rural communites for small schools. It's true Desoto built 4 new high schools, Madison County 2, and 1 in Harrison County but the total number of schools in the state has been shrinking, as has overall enrollment. This is over the course of three decades so obviously things change and I don't say we should stay frozen in time but we should also be realistic. 

 

If I were king, which I won't be, I'd honestly make 5A your largest 24, 4A next 24, then divide the rest up evenly on down as much as possible. The top of 3A to bottom wouldn't be that much of a difference in the big picture unless there were a couple of outliers. If the association doesn't have enough officials to cover all the games now why did we add more (rhetorical question). 

 

Maybe the principals and coaches will push back but I doubt it. The moves from the association, such as forcing the hand of the Catholic schools to go MAIS because a couple of soccer and baseball coaches were upset they lost a state finals appearance, tend to be short sighted and reactive. 

[coastfootballfanman]

How does adding an additional class put more strain on the referees? It is still the same number of teams playing essentially as it was under 6A or am I missing something? Your other points make sense. I have seen 2 different people mention going to 7 classes puts more stress on the ref situation but I do not see how as we did not add any teams so it should be the same number of teams/games to get covered. 

[Dubaction]

18 minutes ago, coastfootballfanman said:

How does adding an additional class put more strain on the referees? It is still the same number of teams playing essentially as it was under 6A or am I missing something? Your other points make sense. I have seen 2 different people mention going to 7 classes puts more stress on the ref situation but I do not see how as we did not add any teams so it should be the same number of teams/games to get covered. 

I don’t understand it either. It’s just easy to say without paying any real attention to what you’re saying. 

[Vott]

1 hour ago, MSSportsGuy said:

I'm old and here are the iterations I experieced and have also witnessed:

 

I was in HS in the early 90: 

7 or 8 teams in our district (3A), top 2 made the playoffs. My junior year I think we were 8-2, maybe 7-3, but missed out because we lost two districs games to people better than us.

 

Late 90s or early 2000s (I was a newlywed with twin babies so clearly my mind was elsewhere lol):

 Top 4 were making the playoffs. Most divisions below 5A had 7 teams but eh, whatever. Also 1A due to so many non football members moves to 4 regions with 7 or 8 team districts because coaches complained they couldn't fill out a schedule. 5A also had the same issue when they initially made it top 32. These divisions did have some travel issues for a few teams but I was only an observer at that point. 

 

2009 Association moves to 6A:

Read the rationale was the "gap" between 4A. Up to that point 5A had been the largest 32 with 4 on down divided evenly, Too big of a gap in 4A (allegedly) so top 32 6A, next 32 5A, then divided evenly. Districts in lower classes shrink to 6 or so teams. Again, I sort of get it but another trend was happening and that's school consolidation was taking place in some rural communities. With the top 4 making the playoffs in 6 team regions, I started to see 2-8/3-7 teams from some classes in the "Playoffs". 

 

2022 Association goes to 7A:

This was done to "increase excitement" and reduce the gap in 6A. The gap argument had some merits and I get it if you were Grenada playing Tupelo or Desoto Central but virtually no thought was given to the lower classes and what this would do. 6A could have become the top 24, 5A the next 24, and the other 16 who were part of the old 5A would have shifted down as things were divided evenly again. Sixteen schools over 4 classes would have mean 4 per class so not even one additional school per region. The numbers dividing the lower classes are basically moot as it's whoever is sitting where the line is drawn.

 

Other considerations:

In my 30 years since HS graduation there has been some consolidation in rural communites for small schools. It's true Desoto built 4 new high schools, Madison County 2, and 1 in Harrison County but the total number of schools in the state has been shrinking, as has overall enrollment. This is over the course of three decades so obviously things change and I don't say we should stay frozen in time but we should also be realistic. 

 

If I were king, which I won't be, I'd honestly make 5A your largest 24, 4A next 24, then divide the rest up evenly on down as much as possible. The top of 3A to bottom wouldn't be that much of a difference in the big picture unless there were a couple of outliers. If the association doesn't have enough officials to cover all the games now why did we add more (rhetorical question). 

 

Maybe the principals and coaches will push back but I doubt it. The moves from the association, such as forcing the hand of the Catholic schools to go MAIS because a couple of soccer and baseball coaches were upset they lost a state finals appearance, tend to be short sighted and reactive. 

I remember one year, west marion went 10-1 and missed the playoffs on a tiebreaker with magee and columbia in the years when only two teams made the playoffs from the region

[Bulldogs4]

If they are going to continue with the NBA approach (where half the teams or more make the playoffs), then cut regular season down to 10 games and start the season on the Friday of Labor Day weekend. 

[Vott]

Just now, Bulldogs4 said:

If they are going to continue with the NBA approach (where half the teams or more make the playoffs), then cut regular season down to 10 games and start the season on the Friday of Labor Day weekend. 

The season was cut to ten games. Most teams had a bye week this season

[doyouevencoachbro]

Only solution needed: 

1a doesn't need 8 regions. 

 

 

I personally love that anyone can win it in most classifications. 

 

2a, 5a, 6a, and 7a are wide open in my opinion 

 

1a should be Velma

3a should be Winona

4a should be Louisville

 

 

 

[maroontide06]

7 minutes ago, Vott said:

The season was cut to ten games. Most teams had a bye week this season

That's right.  There was only a handful of the larger classifications like 6a or 7a that had a full 11 game schedule.  It wasn't very many.  I think the days of going 15-0 are over with LOL!

[coastfootballfanman]

Consolidation is long over due for a lot of the smaller, rural areas. If the state could get consolidation to happen, going back to 5A would be awesome. I think the parity has been good overall this year. People complaining about teams with losing records making the playoffs must not have been paying attention the last decade or more because that has happened quite frequently year in and year out in 2-4A. If they keep it 7A. I would like to see the top 24 be 7A. 32 teams for 6-4A. 40 in 3-2A. Divide 1A as evenly as possible. Consolidation needs to happen. Too many small population schools within a 20 minute drive of each other. 

[Dubaction]

I’m not as anti 7 classifications as most but I do agree there needs to be some consolidation. 

[MSSportsGuy]

1 hour ago, Vott said:

I remember one year, west marion went 10-1 and missed the playoffs on a tiebreaker with magee and columbia in the years when only two teams made the playoffs from the region

I have no issue with the top 4 making the playoffs if a region is 7 or 8 teams, but to get regions that large would mean shrinking the number of classes again. 

[MSSportsGuy]

26 minutes ago, coastfootballfanman said:

Consolidation is long over due for a lot of the smaller, rural areas. If the state could get consolidation to happen, going back to 5A would be awesome. I think the parity has been good overall this year. People complaining about teams with losing records making the playoffs must not have been paying attention the last decade or more because that has happened quite frequently year in and year out in 2-4A. If they keep it 7A. I would like to see the top 24 be 7A. 32 teams for 6-4A. 40 in 3-2A. Divide 1A as evenly as possible. Consolidation needs to happen. Too many small population schools within a 20 minute drive of each other. 

I agree with you and I'm a native of Northeast Mississippi where many of the small schools have opposed any consolidation. I don't think bigger is necessarily better but there are places where there are 1A/2A schools within a 10/15 minute drive of each other in aging facilities. 

 

What keeps these schools going is largely:

1a. Athletics

1b. Keeping schools racially exclusive or at worst balanced.

2. Tradition and history, both of which have 1A and 1B as factors. 

 

I'm more of a fan of district consolidation. My home county where my mother and brother still live has 2 school districts for no reason other than that's how it was set up and people are happy with it. Those citizens will say consolidation needs to happen but if you mention "their" school all heck breaks loose.

 

 

 

[JagsFan77]

9 hours ago, ccbulldog said:

Only 5 classes with 36 in top class with four 9 team divisions with 4 in each making playoffs. And the other 4 classes divided equally with 8 districts each with top two in each district making playoffs

Top of 5A would be DeSoto Central with 1553 students. Bottom would be Pearl River Central with 780 students. Thats a difference of 773. The top of 4A would be Picayune with 763 students. So the size difference in the 5A division alone would be bigger than the difference of the bottom of 1A all the way to the top of 4A.

[doyouevencoachbro]

4 minutes ago, JagsFan77 said:

Top of 5A would be DeSoto Central with 1553 students. Bottom would be Pearl River Central with 780 students. Thats a difference of 773. The top of 4A would be Picayune with 763 students. So the size difference in the 5A division alone would be bigger than the difference of the bottom of 1A all the way to the top of 4A.

And that is why a lot of coaches were in favor of moving to 7 classifications.  

[JagsFan77]

Just now, doyouevencoachbro said:

And that is why a lot of coaches were in favor of moving to 7 classifications.  

Yup. And people only see the side of it they want to see. They don't care if schools are in the same division as schools twice their size as long as they see the matchups they want to see. Pure selfishness.

[Rebel Bert]

This process starts at the district meetings put forth by principals, coaches, and ADs. We have no control as fans. Nothing will change but future consolidation of schools or closing in the case of JPS. Probably little to no new schools unless counties like Jasper, Covington, Smith or Simpson consolidate. And yes I just threw that out because there are other areas of the state that can consolidate. These counties will not consolidate unless forced to federally, or lack of funding. Most of the counties will have to leave the schools open housing PreK through 8th grade maybe even 9th grade. This could cause building a new wing onto the existing centrally located school.

[coastball]

MHSAA gets a cut($) from each playoff gate if I'm not mistaken so no changes coming any time soon.

[Rebel Bert]

1 hour ago, coastball said:

MHSAA gets a cut($) from each playoff gate if I'm not mistaken so no changes coming any time soon.

$3 per ticket at least.