KSHSAA Announces Classification Changes

The Kansas State high School Athletic Association has announced the classification changes for the rest of this season, as well as the 2022-23 school year for football, and several schools are involved, especially in football.

While only Wichita County will be affected by the overall class changes - moving down to Class 1A from Class 2A - several area schools will be impacted by the moves on the football side for next season.

Four teams in all, including Elkhart and Sublette, are slated to be reclassified into the 8-Man Division I classification, while Syracuse will drop from Class 2A to Class 1A in football.

With the new cap of 40 teams in Class 3A and Class 2A in football, Class 1A will grow to 48 teams next season. A total of 90 teams statewide - 48 in Division I and 42 in Division II - will compete in 8-Man, and a total of 26 teams are slated to drop into the 6-Man category, which will be enough for KSHSAA to sanction a state championship in the classification next season.

No changes will happen to the largest schools in the area. Garden City and Dodge City will compete in Class 6A, Liberal will play football in the Class5A level, and stay in Class 6A for everything else, and Ulysses remains in Class 4A.

While Syracuse and Stanton County will be the lone area teams remaining in Class 1A, both Elkhart and Sublette will join Wichita County and Meade in 8-Man Division I and could possibly be in the same division. Wallace County will remain a 8-Man Division II school in football, while Deerfield, Moscow, Rolla, Greeley County and Weskan all remain in 6-Man.

The districts for next football season will be released next month.