Comments about ‘UHSAA BOT to consider six classifications in football’

This is dumb to me. We are a small state demographically, and 5 classifications already seems like too many.

Are we serious here, this looks like a Status decision to me. Cuff must want to be put down in UHSAA history as the guy who made 6 divisions. Can someone please tell me how this will change who you schedule to play for the year? As for Region games this isnt an issue the schools are already broke down into classifications based on enrollment numbers and I don't see any issues there its a pretty fair playing field. This looks more like a scare tactic to get the 6 divisions than a solution to a non exsisting problem. Just doesn't make any sense to me your not adding new teams so your going to still play the same teams every year duh!

I understand the theory, but it will not work. The UHSAA could have 7 or 8 classifications and the politics of stupidity will continue.

In the last round two high schools who were over the enrollment mark by a considerable margin all but threatened legal action to be left in a lower classification that they had no business being in. It is NOT the responsibility of the UHSAA to provide every student athlete in every school an opportunity to play in the state tournaments, or to balance poor performing school budgets by manipulating the classifications so that said schools can make an appearance. The UHSAA's only responsibility is to divide the schools into groups based on enrollment numbers without being vilified and preyed upon for parameters beyond their scope or control. The UHSAA is not a charity. If you have 1300 students you do not get to play in a classification that has a cut off of 1000.

End the insanity. Leave the classifications alone. Utah is not Texas or California, but I never underestimate the UHSAAs ability to compromise on their rules, beliefs, or to just make things up as they go along.

This is dumb. If it is a small school issue they can institute 1A and 1B divisions without completely watering down the entire state. I have a feeling this is more than a small school issue and the UHSAA is catering to the few who complain every year about having to compete against larger schools. 6 classifications for a state with 2.7 million people? Unbelievable. Maybe we could propose 12 classifications and better the chances for more schools to win championships. Heck, let's go for 18 classifications.

The people that are saying they don't like the new changes are clearly involved with schools that are always bigger in size. Look at how the smaller schools in classifications feel. North Sanpete Juab delta Grantsville in 3A basically do not have a shot because of their size against schools at least twice their size and three times there size in most cases. Look at manti for an example they where a small 3a and never had a chance then they drop down to 2A and take state. It gave them a chance to win and if they were still in 3A they would not have got past the second round.

The 5A and 6A football coaches should be outraged. They have 24 and 28 teams in their classification. The small schools have 12. Does this mean that there will be state championships in 5A, and 6A and then just region championships in 1A thru 4A? I would hope that the 1A thru 4A schools don't get the same trophy as the schools competing in a REAL classification with a legitimate number of schools. Come on UHSAA, this is a joke.

I am great with six classifications, as long as one of them is eight man football, we are the only western state to not offer this opportunity to students at really small schools.

The idea that because you are competing against larger schools it is unfair or not safe is ridiculous. Football is a violent sport and if parents or coaches or administrators are worried about the safety of the boys then don't allow them to play football. Its as simple as that. As for being unfair, there is always going to be those teams that feel like the way things are arranged is unfair. You think schools thought they had a fair shot against Bingham when they were dominating every other team in Utah. The unfair part is the UHSAA continuing to allow open enrollment. Allowing kids to go to schools that are outside of the boundaries in which they live is unfair. Teams would be more evenly matched if the UHSAA did away with open enrollment and made kids play where they live. I understand tranferring for academic reasons but when you look at all of the athletes that are transferring and what schools they are transferring to, the claim that it is for academic reasons becomes the big fat elephant in the room that the UHSAA doesn't want to see. Get real and change open enrollment. Leave the classifications alone.

UHSAA...just make the ratio's the same or would your political base (5A & 4A schools) be disgruntled. The ratio in 3A and 2A for the biggest and smallest school should be applied to ALL classifications. Oh yea, then 5A & 4A would be in the SAME classification and we'd be back to four classifications. BUt then we'd get "whining" (at lest that's what they call it if a rural school says it) that the schools are so much bigger? WHY can you not get it? Try fielding a girls soccer team, volleyball team, girls tennis team and cross country team in a lower classification during the same Fall season competing with schools that are 2.6X your size? It would be much easier at a big school by shear numbers. You are so lost on the money making venture that you have forgotten all about the students.

This is a joke - if they don't think that numbers matter for other they are crazy. Is this the BCS? Here we go again letting football run everything else. Either do it in all sports or don't do it at all. The other sports never have a say. Are the high school football coaches going to start making 80K and the other coaches working for free?

If schools, coaches, etc. are worried about football competition being dangerous and unfair, don't compete in football and save some money. 1A does offer fall baseball as an alternative for the smaller schools who can't field a team due to numbers. What about private schools? Are we going to set up a separate classification for them too?

Why not do it for all sports????

Regardless of the sport, it is a numbers game. A previous comment stated you only need 5 players for hoops, which is true, however, the more students the better chances you have of finding 5 "good'" players vs. 5 "average" players.

I've played in both a big 4A school (Highland in the late 90's) and a small 3A school (Union) and the number difference is amazing. I now help coach at Union and picky from park city, its sad that we are forced to compete against PC everyyear with about 400 less students sophmore thru senior because Park City refused to move up to 4A and then we have to sit in the region meetings every year and hear PC coaches complain that the reason they don't win state titles is because our region is too weak and they don't get proper competitive preparation. Football is a dangerous sport but all the big city people saying to keep our programs out, I guess thats why the NCAA doesn't have smaller classifications....oh wait they do! And I guess they should also stop handing out conference championships because there are only 10-12 teams in them and Cache Valley1 I guess we should take away Logan's 3A championships because they used to compete in a bigger class.

exhighland, I'm confused. Can you restate your jab at Logan? There are 3 schools in Cache Valley. I'm not going to get into where teams are placed. The question comes with watering down championships. Do you feel good about having one classification competing with 28 schools and at least 2 classifications competing with 12 schools for a state championship? In a 12 team classification if everyone was equal and winning was equal a team should have an 8% chance of winning a state championship each year and should win a state championship about every 12 years. In a 28 team classification under similar conditions a team would have 3% chance of winning a championship and a state championship would happen every 28 years. Small schools cry for equity and I counter that with this argument if they choose to break down the classifications as have been proposed.

I didn't take a jab at Logan, I was just saying that if fairness and school size wasn't looked at then Logan would have never been dropped in classification in the first place. Logan has an excellent program but Logan is big enough to fill 3 schools popluation 48,174, while it was competing in the same classification as Union in which Roosevelt has 5466 citizens total and thats a big difference. I know its a college town but the USU enrollment in Logan is estimated at 14,000 leaving 34,000 population.

Also to your argument about team percentages winning a state are skewed. Because some players take the advice of bigger school and avoid football to avoid injuries programs don't have a chance to thrive because each year realistically there isn't a 3% chance of winning a state title. This is apparent in college football as well because think about how 5 star/4star players commit to programs like LSU, Bama, Oregon instead of Utah State, UNLV, Lousianna Tech. Those latter programs have less than 1% chance of a national title and to say they have an equal chance is preposterous.

Exhighland

Park City will always have something to complain about. You guys and Uintah need to play all the other schools in your area. I cannot believe that the UHSAA had the interest in the kids when they put you in the same league as teams from Salt Lake, Park City, and Heber.

The article was couched in the idea that this is a safety issue and the competitive was just another issue. I would like to see some statistics from the small schools showing that a predominance of their injuries are coming during games against schools significantly larger than they are. But I would want real statistics not just conjecture or a story of the star player getting hurt. If not, quit using that as the excuse to why it should change. If the real argument is the competitive issue do not hide behind the injury thing.

I don't know how much this affects the competitive issue. Obviously school size affects the availability athletes. Where should the lines be set? That is what the UHSSA is getting paid to figure out. Is it better to have more classifications? Or do the Hoosiers thing and play them all together?

I think the recommendation above to consider 8 man football should be checked into.

this is not about state championships. Its more about saftey. Millard has been a strong school in sports over the years. And we think we can compete in most sports.Our studentbody is small even in 2a. But in the state football game there was a big difference between us and Manti.Our lineman were all under 200lbs. they had several lineman well over 200lbs and they were good players.We had several players get hurt in this game and we dont use this as an excuse for losing. But I think it was a factor in the injuries. Are kids can compete in wrestling because they are pared with someone their size

Does anyone know where to find the enrollment numbers they used last time when setting up the classifications? Was it the same last time when they counted only junior and seniors in 4a and 5a. While sophomore thru seniors on the others?