Leaderboard

I do think Harding is a bit of an anomaly though. I would argue that they had more talent per capita than any school in the state.

The change to success factor to become a rolling 2-year cycle was made to prevent the rule from being applied differently based upon when a team has 2 years of success. Under the previous rule, one team could win two consecutive championships during the two years of an alignment cycle and have to move up, while another team could win two consecutive championships during the second year of one cycle and the first year of the next cycle and not have to move up. Some teams benefitted from the timing of their success and avoided the application of the rule. The change to the rule eliminated that issue. Now it is 6 points or more in any 2 consecutive years. The part that gets confusing for fans is that they may not know the history of a team’s success factor points accumulation and bumps to a higher class. Adams Central had already accumulated 6 SF points from playing in the 1A state finals in 22-23 and 23-24, which was a 2-year alignment cycle. This meant that no matter what their enrollment was, they would be in 2A for the 24-25 and 25-26 cycle. They did move up to 2A by enrollment for the 24-25 and 25-26 alignment cycle, but they would be in 2A for the same 2 years due to SF anyway. They are guaranteed to stay in 2A for the next alignment cycle (26-27 and 27-28) even if their enrollment decreases enough to be classified in 1A again because they have already accumulated at least 3 points during the 2-year period they are bumped up by SF. If they win at least a regional in 25-26, they will bump up to 3A. Decatur Central accumulated 6 or more points from the 23-24 and 24-25 seasons. That means they will play in 6A for at least the 25-26 and 26-27 seasons, even though 26-27 will be the start of a new 2-year alignment cycle. When ALL schools are realigned for the 26-27 and 27-28 cycle, DC will be aligned to 6A and stay there for at least the first year of the cycle. If their enrollment is below the 6A level and they don’t earn at least 3 points in the next two years, they can move back to 5A in 27-28.