Group of coaches, admins send proposal to OSAA as classification and districting talk begins

The 2025-2026 school year is the final one in the latest four-year block for classification structure from the OSAA, and debate on what the next four years should look like has already begun.

A group of 40 involved with high school sports in Oregon signed on to a proposal sent to the OSAA Classification and Districting Committee that was written by Ida B. Wells High School head coach Robby Scharf and Amity girls basketball assistant coach Luke Roth, aiming to begin the discussion and provide a “road map” for a conversation that is likely to be ongoing throughout the school year.

The districting committee meets for the first time at 9 a.m. Monday, Aug. 25 where it will hear testimony from the public before a closed work session.

The proposal – signed by mainly coaches and a few administrators – aims to quell talks about the OSAA dropping to five classifications from the current six, a move that has reportedly been in discussion.

The OSAA is mulling a drop to five classifications with travel costs as the main concern, OSAA Executive Director Peter Weber told the Oregonian back in May.

“That’s something we’ve heard quite a bit, both at the delegate assembly meeting and then again at the Oregon Athletic Directors Association conference with the situation that many of our school districts find themselves in financially,” Weber told the Oregonian. “Travel will be significant and important.”

The OSAA also has the Championship Thresholds Task Force, which has set forward a goal of standardizing each classifications’ participants in state tournaments, which currently vary widely between the classifications.

The group of 40’s proposal said the focus on classification and districting should be on what’s best for the student-athletes, even if that means some extra headaches and tight budgets for athletic directors and school districts.

“To place budgeting or travel convenience above – nonetheless significantly above – access to fair competition and opportunities for kids is to forfeit the moral high ground and the goodwill that sustains this institution across generations,” Scharf and Roth wrote in the proposal’s conclusion.

The argument by the group is broken into pillars, but comes down to the main point of fair competition, which they argue allows for greater participation and a better overall experience for the student-athletes.

Scharf and Roth argue that dropping to five classifications would allow powerhouse programs to continue to reign while pushing out some of the other strong teams that can’t quite topple the biggest competitors, but could have a chance if there were more classifications.

“When classifications are reduced, dominant programs are concentrated, not challenged,” Scharf and Roth wrote. “The result is more repeat champions, not fewer. These trends show how the ‘rich get richer’ when divisions shrink. The playing field becomes structurally less inclusive, not more competitive.”

The group recognizes the desire to reduce costs still, which is met with solutions in the proposal of creating more, smaller leagues and eliminating a weighted system for out-of-classification matchups.

Currently, the OSAA uses two ranking systems – RPI and Colley – to come up with standings across a classification.

However, the Colley rating doesn’t count games that are played between teams who are two classifications apart, like a 5A team playing a 3A team. Colley also doesn’t account for out-of-state opponents.

Scharf and Roth argue that by eliminating the one-class-away stipulation, more teams will be compelled to schedule matchups with schools closer to home rather than finding teams miles away that are within their classification.

“It will help relieve the travel burden placed on small and large schools alike if schools of different sizes are incentivized to play each other in limited circumstances without forfeiting, fully, the premise of fair competition,” Scharf and Roth wrote. “Coaches and Athletic Directors know how to evaluate matchups and the pros and cons of scheduling a larger/smaller local school rather than a peer school a distance away.”

Reducing league sizes also aims at easing the burden on travel by making leagues even more geographically focused and allowing programs more slots to schedule close-to-home, nonleague matchups.

“There is a balancing act to be had between equitable access to fair play and travel burdens,” Scharf and Roth wrote. “While equitable access to fair play must always win out, smaller leagues allow for schools to have the greatest amount of flexibility in making that happen with fewer miles logged.”

The proposal also comes with suggestions for classification cutoffs based on school enrollment, as well as potential leagues for each classification.

The six classifications outlined are City A (6A), City B (5A), Town A (4A), Town B (3A), Community A (2A) and Community B (1A).

The cutoffs for those classifications are 980+ for 6A, 979-600 for 5A, 599-300 for 4A, 299-145 for 3A, 144-70 for 2A and 69 or less for 1A. The model puts 46 schools in 6A, 38 in 5A, 39 in 4A, 43 in 3A, 50 in 2A and 82 in 1A.

The proposal also aims to address private school success, arguing private schools have increasingly outplayed competition despite enrollment size due to different funding and athletic access.

For example, the OSAA has awarded the OSAA Cup since the 1999-2000 school year to the top performing school across all sports in each classification based primarily on state tournament success along with academic success and sportsmanship.

Jesuit has won the big school title 10 consecutive years and has won it 20 out of the 25 times it’s been given out. Overall, private schools have won 74 of the 138 cups given out, more than half of the titles despite private schools making up less than 25% of the OSAA’s 299 member schools.

The group suggests that if a private school’s enrollment ranks in the top third of the classification’s participants, then the private school will automatically move up one classification.

For example, local private schools in Catlin Gabel, Oregon Episcopal and Valley Catholic are placed into 4A rather than 3A due to their enrollment landing in the top third of 3A schools.

On the flip side, schools with more lower-income students are also evaluated for a potential move down a classification in the hope of creating more fair competition. And some adjustments were made based on geography, like Pendleton staying in 4A despite being over 599 in enrollment.

One final solution offered by the proposal specifically targets the Three Rivers League in 6A. The group argues that the TRL schools have created a recruiting issue in the Portland-metro and based on the premise that the TRL “is where you play if you, as an athlete, have aspirations.”

The proposal suggests breaking up the TRL by sending Tigard and Tualatin to the Pacific Conference; St. Mary’s Academy to a restructured PIL; and West Linn, Oregon City, Lake Oswego and Lakeridge into a newly formed “PacValley Conference” with Salem-area schools.

Separation, the proposal argues, will allow new league mates to have more checks and balances on the former TRL programs.

“When schools mutually benefit from a system that is in place, there is no incentive to report on one another or act as a check on the influence of others through official channels,” Scharf and Roth argue. “When schools are separated from one another and put into different leagues, the impermissible influence schools in league A are utilizing is to the detriment of league B. Separate the powers into different leagues, and the powers can again check each other and play a direct role in combating this growing issue.”

The OSAA Classification and Districting Committee has four more meetings after the first one on Aug. 25. The others are slated for 1 p.m. Sept. 8, 1 p.m. Oct. 6, 9 a.m. Oct. 27 and 9 a.m. Nov. 17.

Requests to testify via Zoom can be made by emailing Chief Operating Officer Kyle Stanfield at kyles@osaa.org.