Arkansas Activities Association bureaucrats will vote Monday on a proposal that could reshuffle the state's high school football classifications — letting three private schools that were penalized for winning drop back down, provided they don't win too much this fall.
Proposal 13, up for a vote at the AAA's annual governing body meeting in Little Rock, would allow any non-public football team that moved up more than one classification under the so-called Competitive Equity Factor to drop down one classification for the 2027-29 seasons — unless they reach the playoff semifinals this year. In other words: you can have your old classification back, but only if you lose early enough.
The Competitive Equity Factor is a formula the AAA uses to determine whether a non-public school has been "overly competitive" in its assigned classification over a four-year span. If the formula says yes, the school gets bumped up a classification — a penalty for success, administered by administrators who've never suited up.
Three programs stand to benefit if Proposal 13 passes: Little Rock Christian, Pulaski Academy, and Shiloh Christian. All three have been marched up the classification ladder in recent years.
Little Rock Christian and Pulaski Academy were Class 5A schools until 2021, then moved to 6A for two seasons before being pushed into 7A for the past two. Neither made a deep playoff run last year — Pulaski Academy lost in the first round to Fayetteville, and Little Rock Christian fell to Rogers in the quarterfinals.
Shiloh Christian's trajectory has been even steeper. The Saints were a 4A program from 2008 until the Competitive Equity Factor was adopted in 2021. They were bumped to 5A, then 6A in 2024, and now land in the 7A-West Conference this season after winning the 6A state title last fall.
Shiloh Christian Coach Tucker Barnard said he's not obsessing over the proposal. "We're going to play wherever they put us and do our best," he told Arkansas Online. But he added: "If I were really being transparent about what I thought, I think 6A is the right place for Shiloh — probably. We won a state championship last year, but two years ago we were close to being a .500 football team in Class 6A."
First-year Pulaski Academy Coach Mark Kelley was more direct about the numbers disparity his team faces in 7A. "The reality of it is, 'Are we at a disadvantage as far as numbers?' and we are," he said. "I don't think anybody is running from competition, but I also know the reality of it."
Arkansas Online framed the proposal as a potential adjustment to the competitive landscape; the competitive equity penalty system itself — and the question of whether bureaucrats should be engineering outcomes at all — went unexamined.
The core tension remains: the AAA built a formula to punish private schools for winning, and now it's offering a conditional escape hatch that requires them to lose. Meanwhile, the public school programs that have to adjust their schedules and travel every time the classification carousel spins get no vote on the formula itself — just a seat at Monday's meeting where the governing body decides for them.
The open question is whether Arkansas high school football will be governed by the communities that build it or by the formulas of administrators who keep redrawing the lines.
