Tim Stevens will be reporting with more from the NCHSAA board of directors meeting later today. Stay tuned for a longer story on nando.com/preps after commissioner Davis Whitfield meets with the media

The NCHSAA board of directors did not pass a motion that non-boarding parochial schools who were successful in their sport would move up a class. It will stay the same next year, which keeps Cardinal Gibbons in 3A for all sports - regular-season and playoffs.

The proposal that the board agreed upon in principle in December included moving teams up a class (in the playoffs only) if they had: advanced to the regional semifinals in six of the preceding eight years OR made the regional finals in four of the previous six years OR made the state finals in three consecutive years in its current classification.

That story is at this link: http://www.newsobserver.com/2012/12/07/2529555/nchsaa-board-agrees-to-changes.html

The NCHSAA board also voted that transfers from one NCHSAA school to another school within its own LEA (local educational agency) or between LEAs will be ineligible for 365 days without a bonafide change in residence or LEA approval. The LEAs can have their own rules to override the NCHSAA. The NCHSAA rule simply sets a statewide standard.

Spring football practice did not get to the board - it did not get out of committee.

The basketball playoffs will continue to use seeding, but will have minor tweaks like every conference only getting half automatic bids instead half-plus-one. For the Cap-8, for instance, the league would get four automatic bids instead of five.

Seeded playoffs will be added to boys and girls soccer next year as well.

ARTICLE FOUR, MEMBERSHIP
           CURRENT: "Any North Carolina public or non-boarding parochial high school is eligible for membership provided it is accredited by State Department of Public Instruction and provided it adopts and maintains the following code of participation in high school athletics…"

           PROPOSED CHANGE: "Any public secondary school in North Carolina is eligible for membership provided it is funded as a 'free public school' in accordance with provisions in the state constitution and adopts and maintains the following code of participation in high school athletics…"

           ADDITIONAL INFORMATION FOR PROPOSAL ONE: The change would eliminate the three current non-boarding parochial schools from the membership and one that has been approved to join for the 2012-13 academic year. Non-boarding parochial schools have been a part of the NCHSAA membership for about 50 years.

           Currently, the non-boarding parochial schools have additional restrictions as conditions of NCHSAA membership: (1) Any student-athlete may not receive financial aid of any sort (academic, etc), and receiving aid would make the student ineligible, and (2) a transfer restriction; a student has to have been in attendance at the non-boarding parochial school the two most recent semesters to be eligible. That second restriction means if a student transfers from an NCHSAA public school member to one of these schools, he or she is ineligible for one year. The transfer rule is customarily waived when the student transfers from a non-member school, either in state or out of state.

PROPOSAL TWO:

BYLAW VI, CLASSIFICATION

           PROPOSED ADDITION TO THE BYLAW:

           Charter schools with a high school athletic program are eligible upon request for assignment by the NCSHAA to an athletic conference, and as such are on equal standing with all schools in that conference until the conference season concludes. At that time, if two or more teams from charter schools qualify for a playoff berth in a bracketed sport that culminates in an NCHSAA state championship, they will be consolidated into a separate playoff bracket for that team championship.

           Individuals from member charter schools who qualify for playoff competition in non-bracketed sports above the conference level will compete with athletes from other public high schools in the NCHSAA.

           ADDITIONAL INFORMATION FOR PROPOSAL TWO: There are currently approximately 20 charter schools in the NCHSAA membership, all of whom are in the 1-A classification. This provision would pull charter schools out of the regular 1-A playoffs, if they qualify through the regular conference procedure, and then they would meet in some kind of separate tournament format leading to a championship. This would represent an exception to the current procedure for offering championships by classification.

The recommended changes for both proposals, if approved, would take place in conjunction with the next realignment cycle, beginning at the start of the 2013-14 academic year.