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Thursday April 25, 2024
St. Ignace Moves To Class C For 2015-'16 Seasons

EAST LANSING, Mich.---Two Upper Peninsula school districts will be in different classes next school year after the Michigan High School Athletic Association announced the 2015-16 classifications on Monday.

St. Ignace, has been yo-yoing between Class C and Class D for years, will return to Class C in 2015-16. The Saints won the Class D girls basketball state championship this month after being the Class C state runners-up the year before.

Sault Ste. Marie will return to Class B after spending the past two years in Class A.

It remains to be seen whether the Blue Devils will be assigned to the basketball and volleyball districts with the southern U.P. teams, or will be pared with downstate Class B teams.

The Class A-B-C-D classifications are used only for basketball and volleyball, and for playoff points for football. All other sports use a "Division 1-2-3-4" tournament format.

Classifications for the upcoming school year are based on a second semester count date, which for MHSAA purposes was Feb. 11. 

The enrollment figure submitted for athletic classification purposes may be different from the count submitted for school aid purposes, as it does not include students ineligible for athletic competition because they reached their 19th birthday prior to September 1 of the current school year and will not include alternative education students if none are allowed athletic eligibility by the local school district.


After all the counts are submitted, tournament-qualified member schools are ranked according to enrollment, and then split as closely into quarters as possible. For 2015-16, there are 750 tournament-qualified member schools with 187 schools in both Class A and Class B, and 188 schools in both Class C and Class D.


Effective with the 2014-15 school year, schools with 875 or more students are in Class A in MHSAA postseason tournament competition. The enrollment limits for Class B are 420-874; Class C is 213-419; and schools with enrollments of 212 and fewer are Class D.

The break between Classes A and B decreased seven students from 2014-15, the break between Classes B and C decreased four students, and the break between Classes C and D is two students fewer than the current school year.


The new classification breaks will see 13 schools move up in class for 2015-16, while 17 schools will move down. Schools recently were notified of their classification.

MHSAA Executive Director John E. "Jack" Roberts said schools may not subsequently lower their enrollment figure.

However, if revised enrollment figures should be higher and indicate that a school should be playing in a higher class, that school would be moved up.

Schools have the option to play at any higher classification for a minimum of two years, but must exercise the option by April 15 for fall sports, August 15 for winter sports and October 15 for spring sports.


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