Chapel Hill – Beginning this fall, the Smoky Mountain Conference will both grow two schools larger and tout one regular-season classification extra.
The North Carolina High School Athletic Association's Board of Directors finalized the long-anticipated, much-analyzed 2025-29 re-alignment March 6, which came after the final ADM (Average Daily Membership) numbers were released in November and confirmed that Robbinsville was a lock to remain in the 1A classification for the immediate future.
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. According to a March 6 release, it is the first time the association has expanded classifications in any manner since the switch from three to four in 1960.
"It's about time," Robbinsville High School Athletic Director Lucas Ford emphatically said. "We're headed in the right direction for our school and our kids to be able to compete for state championships, each year and in each sport.
Under the new model, there will be 57 schools in 1A. Robbinsville's daily membership was 334, which placed the school 16th in 1A.
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), the newly-opened Summit Charter Academy (82), Blue Ridge Early College (74) and Nantahala School (31).
Rosman (254) will also return to the conference after a brief stint in the 1A/2A Western Highlands. The Tigers first joined the Smoky Mountain Conference in 1993. Bumping up to 2A will be Hayesville (387), Cherokee (389), Murphy (422) and Swain County (535).
Thus, the Smoky Mountain Conference will revert to a 1A/2A league for the regular season – but it does throw quite the variable into the postseason picture. Teams will be seeded according to their respective classification, but a conference title does not guarantee top billing in the playoffs.
"You're not going to win a conference championship and be seeded with the 1s. That's not going to happen; it's all strictly RPI (Rating Percentage Index, a formula that uses win/loss records and strength of schedule to determine rankings)," Ford noted. "If you win your conference, your RPI should be higher than anybody else's in the conference.
"It won't be a major problem in football, but our boys basketball team would have been a No. 9 seed this year (in the playoffs) instead of the No. 6, because there are still 22 charter schools (in 1A) to contend with. That's a hard dynamic.
Non-football schools (Blue Ridge Early College, Highlands, Hiwassee Dam, Nantahala and Summit Charter Academy) will remain in the Little Smoky Mountain Conference for regular-season, divisional competitions like volleyball and basketball; those schools will still be eligible for playoff competition, in the 1A bracket.
A number of schools the Knights have played in recent years will also move up – in some cases, two classifications instead of just one. Of note, 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.
"It's an exciting time to be an athlete at Robbinsville High School,” Ford said. “If you're a multi-sport athlete, ring season's all year."