With enrollment numbers dropping, Mountain Pointe will be in the 5A
REALIGNMENT BLOG: 12/31/24
With the season just recently concluded, it's realignment time once again! Earlier this month, the football reclassification committee of the Arizona Interscholastic Association (AIA) came out with the initial conference placements for the 2025 and 2026 seasons.
Football is still being treated differently than all other sports, but there is a new twist for this two-year block. Enrollment is one of the factors considered, combined with success on the field over the past two years.
In looking at the data that was used, if a school was playing at a lower level in non-football sports (based solely on enrollment) and it finished in the bottom half of teams in football in 2023 and 2024, it was a candidate to move down. The inverse is true of schools that have higher enrollments, but its football team performed well at a lower classification. A school also has to play football within two conferences of where it is enrollment-wise.
In each conference anywhere from one to four teams were moved up or down. The maximum that a school could shift from its current position was just one conference.
A decision has not been made yet on the future of the Open Division. It seems it will return in 2025. The 4A opted out last year and we’ll have to wait to find out if the 5A Conference committee decides to follow suit. 5A schools went 0-4 in the 2024 version of the Open Division with two of those games going to a running clock. There has been some talk about limiting the Open to 6A and expanding it beyond the current eight teams.
Another topic still to be determined is if there will be a return to region champions earning automatic playoff berths. Last season, only the 2A Conference granted winners of regions a spot in the postseason. In 2024, Camelback (5A), Sahuarita (4A), and Peoria (4A) won regions, but didn’t finish high enough in the computer power points to make the 16-team conference bracket.
Once the conferences are finalized, regions will be worked on. Since 2011, regions have consisted solely of teams within the same conference.
In all the conferences throughout the state, a total of nine schools were moved up and seven schools were moved down. Teams have until Jan. 7 to appeal their placement. The football conferences will be finalized at the AIA Executive Board meeting on Jan. 21. Then, regions will be worked on with the intent to have initial ones completed on Jan. 28.
The only team moving up to the 6A Conference is Higley. The Knights were the 5A champs in both 2022 and 2023 and made the Open Division this year. Higley (enrollment: 2236) already plays at the 6A level in its other sports. Four teams that combined to go 36-13 this year in the 4A Conference will be moving up to the 5A. Arizona College Prep and Yuma Catholic have never played at the state’s second-highest level. The other two, Canyon del Oro and Vista Grande, have with CDO playing in 5A in 2015 and Vista Grande last there in 2017.
The updated 6A numbers show the total number of teams dropping by one from 31 to 30. The 5A total creeps up by three from 47 to 50. There are no new schools opening in 2025 that will fall under the 5A or 6A.
So, here's a look at what the 6A and 5A conferences would look like (pending appeals):
Breaking Down the Movement
Moving UP from 5A to 6A: Higley
Moving DOWN from 6A to 5A: Chaparral and Mountain Pointe
Moving UP from 4A to 5A: Arizona College Prep, Canyon del Oro, Vista Grande, and Yuma Catholic
Moving DOWN from 5A to 4A: Agua Fria and Westview
Moving UP from 3A to 4A: Kofa, Mohave, and Paradise Honors
Moving DOWN from 4A to 3A: Apache Junction and Empire
Moving UP from 2A to 3A: Pima
Moving DOWN from 3A to 2A: Fountain Hills
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