Shuffle to begin with 2025-26 calendar
Chapel Hill – After a lengthy period of conjecture, the North Carolina High School Athletic Association has finally revealed its plans for the upcoming 2025-29 re-alignment.
Confirmed Nov. 19, the association released the final ADM (Average Daily Membership) for its member schools, which provides a glimpse at which classification a school will be placed in for nearly the remainder of the decade.
The biggest shake-up is the expansion to eight classifications. In the past, the association has flirted with the idea of a “big” and “little” in each of its four rankings (1A, 2A, 3A and 4A) – but that formula has mostly applied to football, which has occasionally placed Smoky Mountain Conference schools such as Murphy and Swain County in the “1AA” bracket.
In a history-making decision, 5A, 6A, 7A and 8A classifications will be added to the mix next year.
Robbinsville’s daily membership was 334, putting it 16th in the 1A classification.
Andrews (225) was the lowest Smoky Mountain Conference school with football; others from the division still in 1A include Tri-County Early College (151), Hiwassee Dam (137), Summit Charter Academy (82), Blue Ridge Early College (74) and Nantahala School (31).
Bumping up to 2A will be Hayesville (387), Cherokee (389), Murphy (422) and Swain County (535).
Thus, the Smoky Mountain Conference will almost certainly revert to a 1A/2A league for the regular season. Postseason action will see each qualifying program seeded accordingly.
A number of schools the Black Knights have played in recent years will also move up – in some cases, two classifications instead of just one.
Of note, current 1A schools like Jimmy C. Draughn (686), Polk County (660), Chase (642), Union Academy (633), Mount Airy (613), Thomasville (595), Bessemer City (590), East Surry (588) and Eastern Randolph (585) will all leapfrog to 3A.
Association commissioner Que Tucker stressed that the numbers released Nov. 19 are part of a draft process, but the membership data – received each cycle from the N.C. Department of Instruction – has been delayed indefinitely, due to the effects of Hurricane Helene.
Instead, the membership numbers were submitted directly from the schools themselves.
“In the coming weeks, NCHSAA staff will draft a proposed conference alignment, which will be reviewed by the realignment committee,” Tucker explained in a press release. “The committee will then work to develop a first draft for membership approval.
“We look forward to entering a new era of interscholastic athletics in North Carolina under the eight-classification model.”
Tucker added that expanding to eight classifications was approved at the association’s May 2023 annual meeting.
The lowest membership reported was the N.C. School for the Deaf, which had 22. On the other end of the chart, Myers Park High School (3,317) leads the data list at the top of the 8A classification.