Tolleson wins its appeal to move down to 5A; put in Desert West
REALIGNMENT BLOG: 2/18/25
It's still early in the offseason and the annual realignment for the upcoming 2025 season is taking shape. On Jan. 21, the football reclassification committee of the Arizona Interscholastic Association (AIA) heard appeals from those who didn't agree with their conference placements from December. We'll get to those results in a little bit.
Football is still being treated differently than all other sports, but there is a new twist for this two-year block. Enrollment was 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.
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 last season. 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.
As for the appeals in 6A and 5A? Tolleson was originally to remain in 6A, but won its appeal to move down to 5A. Four other schools (Saguaro, Salpointe, Shadow Ridge, and Valley Vista) tried move down to 5A, but were denied. Five schools that played in 5A in 2024 (Goldwater, Fairfax, Flowing Wells, Ironwood Ridge, and Nogales) attempted to move down to 4A, but their appeals were not granted. In addition, Yuma Catholic (enrollment: 517) was placed in 5A and tried to move back to 4A, but was also denied. Two schools were successful in moving from 5A to 4A - Cibola and North Canyon. The updated 6A numbers show the total number of teams dropping by two from 31 to 29. The 5A total creeps up by two from 47 to 49. There are no new (first-year) schools opening in 2025 that will fall under the 5A or 6A.
After that, the regions were created. There are six in the 6A (five of them with five schools and one with four), and eight in the 5A (five with six schools, two with seven teams, and one with five). Teams had until Feb. 4 to make appeals to move to a different region, but had to stay within its designated conference.
The biggest change you will see in the 6A Conference is things got less “regional”. Gone are all the Chandler Unified schools in the Premier Region. It seems the emphasis was to make balanced regions. It appears teams were ranked and then evenly distributed among the six regions. There are combinations of strong teams and weaker ones in each league. Last year, the Desert Valley Region was a combined 16-34 while the East Valley was 35-15. This year should see less disparity. It will make for some wonky region games in terms of travel, but from top to bottom, things should appear to be more even. And remember, it’s possible that 24 of the 29 schools could see the postseason. Still unknown is if they are going to name these regions. For now, they are just numbers, so we’ll go with those.
The 5A seems to be more geographically aligned with two regions once again for the Southern Arizona teams, one for the Phoenix Union schools, two with all-West Valley teams, one for North Valley schools, and another with an emphasis on the Southeast Valley. They also kept the names.
So here’s a look at what the 6A and 5A Conference regions will look like for the next two-year block:
Breaking Down the Regions: Region 1 combines rivals Val Vista rivals Basha and Perry along with longtime Mesa District rivals Westwood and Mesa High. Salpointe remains the lone Southern Arizona school in the 6A Conference. Perry and Salpointe made the playoffs with Basha reaching the Open championship. The five teams combined for a 34-22 record last year. . . . Region 2 features the Arizona Avenue rivals of Chandler and Hamilton along with Cesar Chavez (Laveen), Valley Vista (Surprise), and Pinnacle from the North Valley. Hamilton was in the Open semifinals while Cesar Chavez, Chandler, and Pinnacle made the playoffs. The five teams combined for a 32-24 record last year. . . . Region 3 is the only one in 6A with just four schools and all are in the East Valley. The featured rivalry in this one comes from Brown Road with Mountain View and Red Mountain. Desert Ridge and Highland are both from the Gilbert Public Schools District. Highland, Mountain View, and Red Mountain all made the playoffs with the Toros reaching the 6A title game. The four teams combined for a 29-17 record last year. . . . Region 4 contains Gilbert rivals Higley and Williams Field. Joining the Knights and Black Hawks are Brophy, Saguaro, and Shadow Ridge. Higley made the Open and Brophy went on a run to the 6A semifinals for the second straight year. The five teams combined for a 24-31 record last year. . . . Region 5 has the intracity rivalry of ALA-Queen Creek and Queen Creek. They will be with a pair of schools from the Tempe District in Desert Vista & Corona del Sol, plus Casteel. ALAQC made the Open for the fourth straight year in 2024 while Casteel and Queen Creek were 6A playoff teams. The five teams combined for a 28-29 record last year. . . . Finally, Region 6 gives us the Peoria rivalry of Liberty-Centennial. This region actually makes geographic sense with Boulder Creek, Mountain Ridge, and O’Connor all in the North Valley. The O’Connor-Mountain Ridge rivalry continues as a region game. The pair have closed out their regular seasons against one another in each of the past nine years. This region houses the Open champion (Liberty) as well as the reigning 6A title holder (Centennial). O’Connor and Boulder Creek were also playoff teams last season. The five teams combined for a 31-28 record last year.
By the Numbers:
3 teams moving down to 5A: Chaparral, Mountain Pointe, Tolleson
1 team moving up from 5A: Higley
Total schools: 29
Breaking Down the Regions: The Central Valley has just one team in it that was there last year - Paradise Valley. The teams stretch all the way from the West Valley (Goldwater & Ironwood) to the East Valley (Dobson & McClintock) with Sunnyslope in between all of them. Goldwater and McClintock were both in the 5A playoffs. The six teams combined for a 34-28 record. . . . The Desert West returns four teams from last season, including Desert Edge & Verrado, who tied for the region’s best mark with Cactus. Canyon View & Millennium were also here last season and the new teams from the West Valley in this region are Kellis and Tolleson. Desert Edge is the defending 5A champion and Verrado & Kellis were 5A playoff teams. The six teams combined for a 37-32 record. . . . The Metro remains completely intact with all six teams representing the Phoenix Union District. Camelback won the region (5-0, 6-4 overall), but didn’t make the playoffs mostly because the entire group of schools finished at 18-42. . . . The Northeast Valley is the lone five-team region. Four of the schools were here last year, including region-champion Horizon. The other remaining teams: Cactus Shadows, Desert Mountain, and Notre Dame, will be joined by a Scottsdale school moving down in Chaparral. Desert Mountain and Horizon made the Open while Notre Dame and Cactus Shadows were both 5A playoff teams. The five teams combined for a 31-24 record. . . . The Northwest has just two returning teams from last year among the six in the region. Apollo and Willow Canyon are back and welcome three from the West Valley (Cactus, Sunrise Mountain, and West Point) plus 5A newcomer Yuma Catholic. The Shamrocks played in the 4A semis last year and Cactus was the 5A runner-up. The six teams combined for a 36-31 record. . . . The San Tan has last year’s region winner Campo Verde returning along with Gilbert and Skyline. The newcomers that fit well with this East Valley theme are ALA-Gilbert North, Arizona College Prep, and Mountain Pointe. ACP comes up from 4A and played in the title game there last season while MPHS is down from 6A for the first time. Aside from ACP, Mountain Pointe, ALAGN, and Campo Verde made the playoffs with ALA-Gilbert North knocking Campo out in the quarterfinals. The six teams combined for a 42-28 record. . . . Both of the Southern Arizona regions have seven teams in them. The Sonoran has its champ from last year, Tucson, back along with Ironwood Ridge. The rest of the region is new with Canyon del Oro and Vista Grande up from 4A, and Buena, Casa Grande, and Marana moved over from the Southern. This region is loaded as all seven teams made the playoffs last season with Marana playing in the Open Division. The seven teams combined for a 55-24 record. . . . Lastly, the Southern brings back three of its teams from last season - Cienega, Desert View, and Sunnyside. They are joined by Flowing Wells, Marana Mountain View, Nogales, and Maricopa. All four of those teams played in the Sonoran last season. Once again, Maricopa will have its region games against Tucson-area teams (and Nogales). In this region, only Cienega and Marana Mountain View were playoff teams last year. It’s quite a contrast from the Sonoran as the seven teams in this region combined for a 26-46 record.
By the Numbers:
4 teams moving down to 4A: Agua Fria, Cibola, North Canyon, Westview
4 teams moving up from 4A: Arizona College Prep, Canyon del Oro, Vista Grande, Yuma Catholic
3 teams moving down from 6A: Chaparral, Mountain Pointe, Tolleson
1 team moving up to 6A: Higley
Total schools: 49
Just like last year, teams within the regions will play one another mostly in the second half of the season. Region champions will be determined by win-loss record solely within their regions. Tiebreakers will be decided first by head-to-head outcome, then by their ranking within the power points.
Four schools appealed their region placement. Those were heard at the AIA Executive Board meeting on Tuesday. Salpointe had asked out of Region 1 (with no potential destination listed on the agenda), Vista Grande was trying to get into the Southern Region, Skyline wanted to play in the Central Valley, and Westwood had petitioned to move from Region 1 to Region 3. It is unlikely that both Salpointe and Westwood will be able to move, because that would leave just three schools in Region 1. None of these four schools were successful in getting moved and are remaining where they were initially placed.
Schedules will soon be worked on. Expect to see cross-scheduling games involving teams from two separate conferences (example 6A vs. 5A, 5A vs. 4A, etc.) like we had last year. Also, several schools will likely line up out-of-state games (which count in the rankings).
As has happened since 1977, 16 teams will still qualify for the state football tournament for each conference (unless this gets changed later). As of now, eight teams are selected for the Open bracket.
