LHSAA Executive Committee Adds Fifth Division To Basketball, Baseball & Softball
by Hunter Bower // GeauxPreps.com Owner
The LHSAA executive committee voted Friday morning to add a fifth division for both Non-Select and Select playoff brackets in the sports of boys and girls basketball, baseball and softball.
The fifth division in each sport groups Class B & C schools together while Class 5A through 1A are divided evenly by enrollment into four equal divisions.
Friday’s decision comes a week removed from one of the most drastic restructurings of postseason formats in close to a decade that saw the reduction of playoff brackets in all splot sports. The committee originally reduced all sports to four divisions on each side.
The sport of football was not affected by changes made on Friday.
In a memo released to member schools Friday afternoon, LHSAA executive director Eddie Bonine explained that his staff along with executive committee members who represent Class 1A, B and C received numerous communication regarding the reformatted postseason brackets for the winter and spring sports. After sharing concerns with officers within the executive committee, the association’s board met via Zoom on Friday to add a fifth division to each side in order to group Class B and C into their own respective divisions.
Here is a breakdown of the changes for boys and girls basketball, baseball and softball:
- Schools classified as B & C will be separated into a fifth bracket in the Non-Select and Select playoffs.
- The remaining schools classified as 5A through 1A will be divided evenly by enrollment into four equal divisions.
Boys and Girls Basketball
- In girls basketball, the Non-Select divisions have been reduced to 28 teams while Select divisions I through IV were downsized to 24 and the newly created fifth division has 10 qualifying spots.
- Boys basketball will mirror the girls basketball bracket alignments with the only exception coming in Select Division V which will have 14 playoff spots.
Baseball
- In baseball, 24 teams will qualify for the Non-Select Divisions while 20 teams qualify for Divisions I through IV on the Select side. Division V in Select will have 10 qualifiers. Divisions I through III for baseball will now feature best of three series in the first three rounds of the playoffs.
Softball
- For softball, the Non-Select divisions shrink down to 26 from 32 while Select divisions remain the same at 24 except for Division V, which will have eight playoff spots.