Realignment recommendations issued

The landscape of high school sports in Nevada could shift slightly next year.

The Nevada Interscholastic Activities Association’s realignment committee Wednesday came up with a short list of recommendations for the state next’s realignment cycle, which begins in the fall of 2016.

In a five-hour meeting at Chaparral, the committee eventually decided to expand the current Division I-A Southern Region by two teams and do away with point thresholds used to move teams between Division I and I-A in the Nevada Rubric, which has been used since 2012 to place Southern Nevada teams in one of the top two divisions in the state.

The recommendations will go to the NIAA’s Board of Control in April for approval. The board can accept, reject or amend the proposal.

Committee members voted to stop the current rubric cycle after the winter 2015-16 season instead of including the spring 2016 season. The schools with the four fewest point totals in Division I would move to Division I-A, effective in the fall of 2016, and the top two schools in Division I-A would move to Division I. Schools with enrollments of 1,200 or fewer students are exempt.

The movement would leave 19 teams in the Southern Division I and do away with regions in Division I, instead putting teams into a 10-team league and a nine-team league, one Sunrise and one Sunset.

“We needed to have a set number of teams so that the I-A didn’t continue to expand and make the Division I the small league,” said committee chair Dave Wilson, a former principal at Chaparral and Virgin Valley. “It also causes a Sunrise and Sunset schedule to be set instead of having four- or five-team leagues and having everyone making the playoffs.”

Stopping the rubric after next winter would go against the board’s previous approval to include spring 2016 in the current rubric cycle.

“It’s a concern,” said Wilson, who spoke against skipping the spring points. “We need to ensure that every season counts for every sport.”

Every two years, the top two Division I-A teams would move up, and the bottom two Division I teams would move down. If a school with fewer than 1,200 students finishes among the top two teams in Division I-A, it would not be required to move. The school with the next highest point total would move.

“There were schools that were concerned that there was no movement (from Division I-A to Division I) last year, specifically with Faith Lutheran,” Wilson said. “It puts a caveat in there that there would be movement.”

Faith Lutheran more than doubled the point threshold to move from I-A to I in the last rubric cycle but was protected due to its enrollment.

The committee made no recommendation about postseason berths or a tournament format, choosing to table that item.

The committee also recommended to change the nomenclature of the current divisions, back to Class 4A (largest), 3A, 2A and 1A (smallest), which are still listed in the Nevada Administrative Code.

In addition, the committee recommended that Division III school White Pine be moved from the South to the North for the 2016-17 school year. White Pine was moved to the South before this season.

Contact reporter Bartt Davis at bdavis@reviewjournal.com or 702-387-5230.