The Cross Country Coaches' Committee is set to meet on November 29th. Among items that I imagine will be discussed is the possible separation of Class A and Class AA, or at least some methodology to ensure that the best Class A teams compete at the State Meet, which should be essential if we are to crown a Class A Team Champion. As far as I can tell, there are three schools of thought on the matter. I'll try to deal with each.
The first amounts pretty much to "suck it up buttercup." The WVSSAC has done things this way for a long time, and they've certainly provided the Cross Country community with a lot of positive changes over the last several years. And the WVSSAC has long held to the notion that competitive balance is not something that they consider when proposing alignments. With A and AA combined, this isn't a huge issue, because the best overall teams are going to get out of the Region. However, when you award a Class A champion without a mechanism to advance the top Class A team, you are still doing a disservice to the Class. The past two years, Region I in Class A-AA has been loaded. In both cases, Ritchie County ended up on the short end of the proverbial stick. In both cases, they very likely would have been on the podium. These athletes have been denied their opportunity. It was especially egregious this year as Ritchie had not been beaten by a Class A team all season, and the 4 representatives from Region I that did advance took the top 4 places at the State Meet. But again, the WVSSAC has claimed to not care about competitive balance. They do, however, seem to care about Regional representation, and that could be the best counter to the "suck it up" school of thought. We are awarding a Class A champion without ensuring Class A Regional Representation. That somewhat leads us into the 2nd school of thought.
The second school of thought is one that has been proposed to the WVSSAC already with no action taken. This is the simple act of guaranteeing a State Meet bid to the top Class A team in each Region. This year, Regions I and III did not advance a class A team in the boys division, and Region I did not advance a Class A team in the girls division. This proposal would have advanced 3 additional teams to the State Meet this year (Ritchie boys, Charleston Catholic boys, and Ritchie girls). It's seemingly pretty simple, and would satisfy the WVSSAC's desire to have regional representation. When you delve into the numbers, though, it gets a little more complicated. Region IV had 7 complete Class A Boys teams. Region III had just 3. Region I had 4 complete Class A Girls teams. Region III had 1. Is it going to be equitable to guarantee one of seven vs. one of three? The Class A and Class AA teams aren't evenly distributed in the current alignment. Based on the schools listed in the alignment, Region II has 15 Class A schools. Region III had just 8. Region III has 13 Class AA schools while Region II and Region IV had just 8. However, as stated before, the WVSSAC doesn't care about competitive balance, so this inequity may not matter to them.
The third school of thought is to go ahead and separate Class A from Class AA. The WVSSAC By-Laws used to have a provision that would separate divisions if a certain number of schools sponsored a sport. That doesn't appear to be in there now. "127-3-10.4. The Board of Directors may structure the WVSSAC tournament series in each sport by classification (AAA-AA-A). Each sport will be structured according to the level of interest and accommodation for tournament alignment. Prior to any change of structure of any given sport, a survey of the membership must be conducted by the WVSSAC." This indicates that the separation of Class A and Class AA is at the discrection of the WVSSAC Board of Directors. Petitioning for that survey could be on the table, though. Let's take a quick look at the numbers. Per the Regional Alignments in the Interscholastic, there are 44 Class A and 39 Class AA Schools that sponsor Cross Country. That is easily sufficient numbers to warrant separation of the classes. However, all is not as it seems. Among the 44 Class A schools are 14 that had no one, boys or girls, on their roster (7 from Region II alone). Class AA had 3 such teams. That lowers our numbers to 30 Class A and 36 Class AA. We also have to determine what constitutues a sufficient level of interest. If we shift these numbers to include only those that were capable of fielding a complete team, we're down to 22 Class A Boys teams and 31 Class AA Boys Teams and down to 12 Class A Girls Teams and 24 Class AA Girls teams. If we shift the numbers to include only those the finished the Regional with a complete team, we drop even further. We're down to 19 Class A Boys teams and 30 Class AA Boys Teams and 9 Class A Girls Teams and 20 Class AA Girls Teams. We're left to contemplate what constitutes a team. In track, if you have just one athlete, you're capable of scoring in a meet (and in fact, capable of placing in the top 4 or 5 at the State Meet). In Cross Country, you cannot. So what do we consider sufficient to count toward determining a split of the divisions? Do we count simply offering the sport? Do we count any level of participation? Do we count only those that field scoring teams? In determining Regional Alignment, the WVSSAC only considered if the school offered the sport and not whether or not anyone participated. That could provide ammunition for those that want the split. If those that offer the sport but don't have any participants can count for Regional alignment, why would they not count in determining a split of the divisions? The Boys Team numbers warrant consideration as 49 combined complete teams finished the regional, with 19 of those being Class A. On the girls side, though, only 29 complete teams finished the Regional with just 9 being Class A. If the divisions had been separate this year with the Regional Alignment the same, we would have advanced 9 Class A Boys Teams (vs. 4 that did) and 7 Class A Girls teams (vs. 3 that did). We would have advanced 13 Class AA Boys teams (vs. 12 that did) and 10 Class AA Girls teams (vs. 9 that did). This results in 11 additional teams competing at the State Meet. This isn't an insignificant expense, and that will matter to the WVSSAC. It would also result in 2 more races and another awards ceremony for Cabell Midland. Are they willing? There is a tremendous volunteer effort on their part to put on the meet in the manner that they do. Is it too much to ask for 6 races? There is certainly an argument to be made for the "Field of Dreams" scenario. If you build it, they will come. That has somewhat come to fruition in Track. The first couple years in the Class A Division were pretty ugly, but the Class A Division has been quite competitive in performance level to the Class AA Division in recent years. Could the same thing happen in Cross Country? Conceivably. I know a lot of people argue that we could just approach the schools that sponsor the sport that aren't getting the numbers and get someone to be proactive and things would fall into place. I think they underestimate the fact that it's hard to get 5-7 kids out there willing to do the running that needs done. There are certainly AAA teams out there with over 1000 kids in the school that aren't able to field complete teams. It's unreasonable to think it would be easy to generate complete teams from schools of less than 200. Can it happen? Sure. But it certainly wouldn't be easy.
So, we're left with the three options above. Ultimately, I'd like to see the divisions split, but I don't really think we're there yet with the numbers. Further, if we do split, it would require realignment, and I don't think the WVSSAC will tackle that in a non-classification/alignment year. I do think, despite the mild inequities listed above, that advancing the top Class A team in each Region is a very reasonable thing to do, wouldn't create much in the way of additional expense, would create no additional time, and would assure the top Class A team of the opportunity to compete at the State Meet. Pushing for more at this time will likely fall flat and result in gaining nothing. For my $0.02, I think we're best served waiting until the next classification cycle to pursue a separation of divisions. Hopefully, Class A can improve their numbers in that time.
If you have thoughts on the matter, I do urge you to contact your representative on the Coaches' Committee. The most current listing I've seen has Craig Kellar (Doddridge), Paul Martin (Preston), Allen Stump (Nicholas), Holli Vaughn (Ritchie), George Smith (Oak Hill), Eva Robinson (Grafton), Bryan Canterbury (Ravenswood), Chris Parsons (Cabell Midland), and Dan Erenrich (Morgantown - representing ADs). I know that Allen Stump isn't coaching any more, but I don't know if a replacement for him has been named.
I'm also providing a link to an additional file of participation numbers compiled by St. Marys' Steven Nutter.