The Mississippi High School Activities Association voted Thursday to approve a proposal to adopt a seventh classification during the governing body’s next realignment.

Reclassification for MHSAA member schools is scheduled to take place prior to the 2023-24 school year. If approved by MHSAA Director Rickey Neaves, the MHSAA will be divided into Classes 1-7A beginning in fall 2023, with the top 24 schools in terms of enrollment becoming 7A schools, the next 24 in enrollment becoming 6A schools, followed by the next 24 becoming 5A schools. The next 40 schools would be Class 4A, the next 40 Class 3A, the next 40 Class 2A and the rest Class 1A.

According to a document acquired by Star correspondent Brandon Shields, the plan to add a seventh classification came as a result of “large discrepancy in numbers from the top of each classification to the bottom.” In Classes 5-7A, there will be four regions of six schools under the proposed plan, while Classes 2-4A would feature eight regions of five schools. That doesn’t include sports requiring combined classifications such as swim, girls powerlifting or bowling, among others.

MHSAA classifications that took effect prior to the current school year put 32 schools in the league’s highest classification, 6A, based on enrollment numbers. Tupelo was listed as having the largest enrollment in the state, 1,907 high schoolers, while Center Hill had the lowest enrollment of all 6A schools, 1,047. The next school on the list, West Harrison, has the highest enrollment of all the Class 5A schools at 1,045 students.

Meridian High School’s enrollment was listed at 1,263 after the MHSAA’s most recent reclassification, which gives it the 20th highest enrollment in Mississippi public schools. That would mean Meridian would become a 7A school after realignment barring significant changes to enrollment numbers.

Cheyenne Trussell, Meridian’s athletic director, said moving to seven classifications would help with league parity, as there are currently seven 6A schools with enrollment numbers of less than 1,200 students, whereas the top seven 6A schools have enrollments of more than 1,700 students.

“My understanding is the top four teams in each division would go to the playoffs, so that makes it a very competitive league top to bottom,” Trussell said.

In terms of a potential move to Class 7A, Trussell said expectations for the school’s athletics wouldn’t change from how high they are now.

“Our motto is, ‘We’ll play anyone, anywhere, anytime,’ and that’s what we’re building toward,” Trussell said. “Our programs are built to compete, and it’s not like we would have a choice in the matter.”

Quitman was listed as having an enrollment of 461 high schoolers during the last MHSAA reclassification, making it currently the smallest Class 4A school in terms of enrollment. Quitman Athletic Director Chris Coleman, who is also the school’s boys basketball coach, said like most coaches across the state, he went back and examined the enrollment numbers after the news of seven classifications was announced to see where Quitman would potentially fall during the next round of reclassification.

“I think our numbers are a little lower than they were at that time, but wherever we do land, we have to prepare and do what we have to do,” Coleman said.

Coleman also said he understands the concern schools had competing against other schools in their classification that have significantly more students.

“At times you’ll be able to compete at the highest level in any division, but having smaller numbers makes the rebuilding process harder when you go through great athletes and then don’t have the numbers to choose from to replace them (when they graduate),” Coleman explained.

From a coaching standpoint, Coleman said his team’s schedule will feature tough division opponents regardless of whether Quitman stays 4A or goes down to 3A in the next realignment.

“But as an athletic director, when we’re talking about saving money on travel, it’ll help out, and immediately our gate revenue would go up because we’d be playing local rivals that we don’t get to play every year,” Coleman said. “I think every school in our division would benefit from ticket sales if that happened — with all sports, because not only would we play each other but we’d be playing each other in games that mean a lot more as far as the division and playoffs.”

Northeast Lauderdale Athletic Director and boys basketball coach Lewis Lightsey shared Coleman’s excitement at the possibility of local rivalry games having postseason implications.

“We’re hoping it means less travel within some of our district games, and we also hope some of our rivals will fall back into our division,” Lightsey said. “If that happens, it might boost the excitement level, too, because those games would have more stakes.”

Of the four Lauderdale County School District high schools, only Clarkdale has changed classifications in the last decade, going up from Class 2A to Class 3A prior to the 2019-20 school year. West and Northeast Lauderdale have remained Class 4A schools during that time, while Southeast Lauderdale has been a Class 3A school the past 10 years. Bigger picture, Lightsey said he hopes adding a Class 7A will bring more parity to each classification.

“Hopefully you’d match up with teams that have a closer number of students to the students at your school,” Lightsey said. “Sometimes in our (classification) it was a wide range, so hopefully we’d be within a much closer range. You’d also have more state champions as a whole with more chances for kids to be in the playoffs and make money as well.”