The Arkansas Activities Association’s governing body, made up mainly of school administrators from around the state, recently held its annual meeting to vote on various proposals at the Statehouse Convention Center in Little Rock. This year, the governing body voted to pass all eight proposals.
Proposal 7 was one of the most intriguing matters of the meeting as it dealt with competitive equity in football. The proposal, passed by a vote of 145-44, changes a rule placing private schools into conferences after the public schools were divided up into classifications and conferences for football only. The new proposal caps conferences at eight teams and pushes public schools down to a smaller classification if necessary. Mountain Home athletic director Mitch Huskey says he sees positives and negatives with this proposal.
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Proposal 8, passed by a vote of 172-19, changes the current format for competitive equity factor lookback for private school programs in football, volleyball, basketball, baseball, softball and soccer. Currently, the lookback is over a four-year period with 10 points or more being considered dominant. Under the new proposal, the lookback will be two years, and five points are considered dominant. If a private school team accrues enough points and is considered dominant, it would move up one classification. Huskey says the new system will be more fair since public schools get looked at every two years to see if they move up or move down.
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Another issue before the governing body that may not have received as much attention is Proposal 1, but Huskey says it’s important for the Mountain Home School District. Huskey says the proposal, which passed unanimously, addresses travel for junior high teams in Arkansas.
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Proposal 1 takes effect immediately. Proposals 7 and 8 will go into effect in the fall of 2024.
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