ACA UPDATE: District council agrees with school's appeal; now goes before AHSAA Board of Control

Alabama Christian athletic director Aaron Greenwood and the school’s administration got a supporting vote from the AHSAA District 3 Legislative Council on Friday regarding the school’s football reclassification. (Tim Gayle)

By TiM GAYLE

Round One went to Alabama Christian Academy.

Round Two is going to be much more difficult.

The Eagles participated in a Zoom conference with the Alabama High School Athletic Association’s District 3 Legislative Council on Friday morning, winning their initial appeal of a Wednesday afternoon decision by the AHSAA Central Board of Control to change the school’s football classification. 

“I felt good about our meeting today,” said Greg Glenn, ACA head of school. “I thought that Aaron Greenwood, our athletic director, shared the proposal and did an outstanding job on making clear how we interpreted how those processes were done in the past and should be done now. All we’re asking for is consistency in applying the rules that the Alabama High School Athletic Association has laid out.”

ACA, a Class 4A school for the past three classifications (2016-2021), fell to 3A with the new enrollment figures released on Wednesday morning and was placed in that classification for 2022-23 and 2023-24 by AHSAA officials. After reviewing the decision again in the afternoon, the Central Board elected to apply the minimum threshold of Competitive Balance Factor to Alabama Christian and Madison Academy and keep both programs in 4A despite the fact that ACA has never had their classification in any sport elevated by Competitive Balance in its four-year existence.  

ACA football coach Michael Summers said he was grateful for the outpouring of support from other Capital City Conference schools in the appeal of Wednesday’s decision.

“There has been a lot of support on this,” Greenwood acknowledged. “There were two schools that really got affected and I think one of them, Madison Academy, has won some championships in the past. We’ve been a good solid competitive team but we haven’t been a championship contender. It’s one of those (situations) where we’re kind of getting caught in the crossfire a little bit on that and I think a lot of people see that. A lot of people see what’s going on and I think we’ve got a lot of backing from not just the private schools but also some of the public school people that we’ve talked to.”  

The four-team District 3 Legislative Council consisted of St. James football coach Jimmy Perry, Marengo County Schools Superintendent Luke Hallmark, Bibb County High assistant principal Matt Geohagen and Chilton County High assistant principal Rosalyn Dixon. 

Hallmark also serves as a member of the 15-member Central Board.  

Both ACA and Madison Academy were 4A schools in 2016-17 and 2017-18 but the implementation of the new Competitive Balance Factor in 2018 bumped Madison Academy to 5A in 2018-19 and 2019-20. After earning just 0.5 points in those two years, they dropped back to 4A in 2020-21 and 2021-22, but reached the second round of the playoffs in 2020 (earning 0.5 points) and the semifinals in 2021 (earning two points).

ACA, meanwhile, earned a point after reaching the 4A quarterfinals in 2020.

Neither school earned enough to elevate under Competitive Balance and were not under the rule for the last two years of competition, yet the minimum threshold was applied to both to keep them from dropping to 3A for the next two years.

Previous CBF interpretations by AHSAA officials applied the rule only to schools which had accumulated enough points over a two-year cycle to move up in classification. Catholic, for example, duplicated ACA’s accomplishment by reaching the quarterfinals of the 4A state playoffs in 2019 before losing to UMS-Wright. When the new classification system was approved in 2020, the Knights were allowed to drop to 3A based on their enrollment because they were not elevated by CBF in 2018-19.

“We presented our case, had some back-and-forth discussion where they raised counterpoints and gave us a chance to respond to those,” Greenwood said. “After that, they held their own meeting to deliberate. They gave us a positive response.

“Either way, it still has to go to the Central Board. We’re in a spot where they gave us some good, positive feedback and we’re going to that (Central) Board (meeting) with a little bit of momentum. If nothing else, getting some backing (from the Legislative Council) gives us some positive energy knowing that we’re not thinking about this wrong. There are other people thinking about this in the same way that we are.”

After winning the first round, ACA officials will now face the same board that applied the new interpretation of the Competitive Balance Factor in the first place. A date has not been set for that face-to-face meeting between ACA officials and Central Board members.

Alabama Christian has experienced a decline of 54 students in daily attendance since the last classification for the 2020-22 period. At that time, ACA was the 13th smallest 4A school with an average daily enrollment of 221, which was multiplied by the private school multiplier of 1.35 instituted in 1999. This year’s enrollment is at 167, a middle-of-the-pack 2A school until it is multiplied by 1.35, which falls at 225.45, just above the cutoff between 2A and 3A. 

ACA will be 3A in every sport except football and softball. If Thursday’s new interpretation of the ruling is upheld, the Eagles will not be allowed to drop in softball when the reclassification for spring sports takes place next May. If the school can win its argument, the Eagles will be 3A in every sport in 2022-23 and 2023-24.