(KFGO/KNFL) An adjusted three-class North Dakota high school basketball plan was released to member schools of the North Dakota High School Activities Association today. The NDHSAA Board of Directors met today to review the plan.
The Board of Directors will be sending a survey to Class B superintendents and Class A athletic directors this coming week to gather input prior to their February 8 meeting in Valley City. The Board has set February 22 as the deadline to implement a three-class basketball plan to begin in the 2023-24 school year.
A significant adjustment being made the removal of the multiplier factor for students enrolled in a school which is outside of their defined district. The Divisions would be classified as B, A, and AA.
AA would consist of schools with enrollments of 650 or more in grades nine through twelve.
A would consist of schools with enrollments of 162.5 to 649 in grades nine through twelve.
B would consists of school with enrollments less the 162 in grades nine through twelve.
Public and non-public schools located within a Division AA school district with 100-399 students shall be placed in Division A. Public and non-public schools located within a Division AA school district with 400 or more students shall be placed in Division AA. Schools such as Oak Grove in Fargo, Shiloh Christian in Bismarck, and Dickinson Trinity would be examples of this. Schools have the option to “opt up” to a higher divisions for a two-year commitment, similar to what Shanley currently does in high school football.
The AA Division with have 18 schools, with Minot North being included in the 2024-25 school year.
The A Division would consist of four regions. Current Class A schools Wahpeton, Watford City, Valley City, and Devils Lake would be in the middle class along with schools such as Central Cass, Kindred, Grafton, Carrington, Lisbon, and Thompson among others.
Divisions A & AA would play a maximum of 21 regular season, Division B would play a maximum of 19.
The Division AA tournament format would remain similar to what Class A currently uses. A combined girls’ and boys’ state tournament would in early March.
In Division A, each Region champion would qualify for the state tournament. The runners-up and third place teams would need to play a state qualifier game in order to earn a state tournament berth. For example, the second-place team in Region 1 would play the third-place team from Region 2 and vice versa in state qualifying games to be played at a neutral site.
Division will consist of eight districts, with the top four teams advancing to the Region tournament. There will be four regions, with the state qualifier format proposed in Division A also would exist in Division B.
The State A and B girls tournaments would be played on the same weekend at two different locations. The current proposal has the State A girls tournament in Minot, the State Class B in Jamestown February 29 through March 2, 2024. The State A and B boys tournaments would also be at two different sites, with the State A Boys March 14-16, 2024 at the Fargodome and the State B Boys at the same time in Minot.
The details of the proposal can be found at the link below.
