Blake: Why I favor the "Little 32" model for realignment

With eight classifications on the way, the N.C. High School Athletic Association recently sent out surveys to its members about what type of eight-classification lineup they might want to see.

One version was the standard "each class the same size" model, one puts the largest 32 schools in the "Big 32," and another puts the smallest 32 schools into a "Small 32."

For the purposes of this column, I'm renaming Small 32 to Little 32 (it just sounds better).

And, also for the purposes of this column, I'm going to lay out why the Little 32 is the best option.

Point 1: The Big 32 doesn't deliver for anyone

The "Big 32" model sounds good until you see it on paper, which is what Joel Bryant did here in case you missed it. Where it falls short might simply be summed up with "we have more than 32 big schools."

The Big 32 pushes schools with almost 2,200 students into 7A, where the smallest schools would have about 1,600. This defeats the purpose of eight classifications, doesn't it? Weren't we supposed to make these classes closer in ADM?

Besides, look at some of the programs that would be pushed into 7A... you'll find programs that consistently go deep into the 4A playoffs or win titles in a number of sports: Marvin Ridge, Independence, Holly Springs, Wake Forest, Lake Norman, Grimsley, Cuthbertson, Weddington, Cox Mill, East Forsyth, D.H. Conley. A juggernaut like Green Level would be close to the cutoff line.

A Big 32 wouldn't keep the best programs in 8A.

It would make the 7A title tougher than 8A in almost every sport, and that would trickle down. Now 6A gets Cardinal Gibbons, 5A gets Charlotte Catholic, and so on.

This would be the worst thing for parity in every class.

But the Little 32 makes 8A's cutoff more reasonable — no schools with more than 1,900 are in 7A — and the 7A range of schools (1,800 to 1,400) is cut down to a reasonable level. It has a much better domino effect.

Point 2: It helps with new schools being added

One of the points the realignment committee must figure out is how to incorporate new schools as they arrive during the four-year realignment process. If a school joins, but its would-be classification is full, do you move someone up or down to make room for the new school?

Moving up a school, through no fault of its own, would only make that school furious.

Few schools would ever object to being moved down a classification, however.

The Little 32 gives some much-needed wiggle-room.

If a new school joins and has 2A size, then you'd be moving schools like Jones, Rosman, or Weldon down a class — which is a win-win for the 2A schools that get to have the same number of schools, and the 2A schools that'd be dropping to 1A.

Yes, that would mean that, over time, what would start as the Little 32 might grow into the Little 40 or something like that. But again, with so many charter schools joining each year, it's important to avoid bumping schools up a class mid-alignment.

Point 3: These schools could use their own bracket

Let's take all 32 schools that might be in the Little 32 and count the number of times we've seen them in a 1A championship game during the last three years.

1. Bear Grass Charter softball (runner-up)
2. Chatham Charter girls basketball (runner-up)
3. Chatham Charter boys basketball (runner-up)
4. Wilson Prep boys basketball (state champ)
5. Wilson Prep boys basketball (state champ)
6. Woods Charter girls soccer (runner-up)
7. Woods Charter girls soccer (runner-up)

That's it: four schools, seven appearances.

For the other 28, they hardly sniff the latter rounds of the 1A playoffs due to their size. Basketball is one of the few sports you can get away with a lack of depth because you only have five starters unlike other sports where you need twice as many, so it's no wonder that shows up four times.

With 32 teams, you'd need at least 16 of them to field a sport in order to have their own championship.

Of the 32 projected schools, they'd certainly get their own title in volleyball, boys basketball, and girls basketball at a minimum.

They'd be close in boys soccer, girls soccer, baseball, softball, and possibly even cross country and outdoor track and field.

Point 4: In sports where they can't have their own bracket, the gap is still small

So let's say there aren't enough football or wrestling programs in the Little 32 to have their own title. No biggie! They'd combine with 2A, which is also likely to be missing a number of programs in those sports. In fact, 2A is projected to have 22 schools that don't play football.

The largest 2A school would still have less than 500 students, so a school like Andrews (221 students) moving up wouldn't have as drastic implications as it would now if Andrews were to have to play in a 1A/2A title (where the largest 2A has more than 800 students).

This is important because, in one of the models, you could have 58 schools in 1A and 58 in 2A. If only 20 programs in 1A field a sport, but 45 in 2A do, you'd have essentially a 65-team classification (though it would be a combined 1A/2A title). It sets us up to run into the very thing we wanted to avoid by going to eight classes.

Point 5: A chance for these schools to field sports that make sense for them

It's no coincidence that six of the now-seven schools that will be playing 8-man football next year would be in the Little 32 (I'm including the two schools for the deaf, even though they play teams from other states primarily). Jones is close to being a seventh in that group but is just over the cutoff line.

There may be some versions of sport that make more sense for these schools, like 8-man football, that they could potentially have as their own championship that would also be completely unique to themselves.

Could these schools bring back slow-pitch softball? Aside from Bear Grass Charter, hardly any have found success in the fast-pitch version that completely replaced slow-pitch back in the 1990s.

Or maybe there are some schools that haven't fielded soccer or baseball that might find it more enticing when they don't have to consistently go against schools twice their size.

These are intriguing options that might be pointless if trying to compete in the current 1A class size of about 110 schools. But shorten that to 32, and it might make sense for the state's smallest enrollments.

Our latest model of where the eight NCHSAA classification cutoff lines might fall