November 12, 2014

Reclassification/Realignment for Fall 2015 through Spring 2017

by Carey Meitzler

First and foremost, this is not official (not from Mississippi High School Activities Association).

The enrollment numbers are from the MHSAA (link to numbers on MHSAA site).

For those unfamiliar with how the cutoff works, the top 32 are Class 6A and 33-64 are 5A.

Here is a link to the current alignments (current football divisions)

The view below makes a lot of sense if you put a map in front of you. 

Jackson Provine drops from 6A to 5A. 

Since Jackson Wingfield is already in Region 3, it would be logical to place Provine in the same

Region.  Lanier and Provine are only a few miles apart, so you could move Provine into Lanier's

spot and put Lanier in the South.  Either way, to keep the numbers in each Region even, one of the

two should go into Region 3.

The longest trip in this region as of today is Wayne County traveling to Natchez which according to

Google Maps is 175 miles.

If Provine (or Lanier) goes into Region 3, then move Pearl River Central into one of the openings

created when East Central drops to 4A and George County moves up to 6A.   

Hattiesburg, currently 6A, is moving to 5A and could take the other opening.

Done, right?

As ESPN's Lee Corso would say "not so fast my friend".

Pearl and Callaway, currently in Class 5A Region 2 are moving up to Class 6A.

Grenada, currently in Class 6A Region 1, is moving down to Class 5A.

You could put Pearl in Class 6A Region 3 to replace Provine. 

Callaway could take Greenville's spot in Class 6A Region 2 and then move

Greenville to Region 1 to replace Grenada which would put Greenville closer

to its opponents than they are today.

Again, I stress that this is not official from the MHSAA; only my point of view on what the

numbers and geographics would allow one to do for the realignment.