Missouri State High School Activities Association - School Classification

School Classification

MSHSAA's member schools are organized into groups based on enrollment, with Class 1 being the smallest. In 11-man football the largest is Class 6, comprising the largest 32 schools based on enrollment. Schools wishing to play 8-man football must have an enrollment smaller than 200 total students. Boys and Girls Basketball has five classifications. Class 5 schools are those with 1,175 students and above; while Class 1 schools are those with 119 students and below. Prior to 2003, the classes were divided into four classes from "A" to "AAAA" (popularly referred to as "1A" to "4A").

However, the number of classes varies by the number of schools that participate in a sport: for example, swimming & diving, along with speech, debate and theater only have one class, while girls softball and girls volleyball use four classes.

Schools in Missouri are able to form their own conferences and play whichever teams they wish in regular season competition. For example, the Ozark Conference, in the southwest portion of the state, has teams from two classes competing against one another.

Schools are assigned into districts for playoff competition only; districts vary depending on sport, size and geographic location. Also unlike other states, there is no "regional" championship designation; during playoff competition schools are generally organized into brackets that are close in geographic proximity.

Wrestling and track districts, for instance, usually have 10 or more teams due to the nature of competition, while football districts have anywhere from four to five. Beginning with the 2012 football season, districts will comprise eight schools. In other sports, district competition is set up like a more traditional tournament bracket at the end of the regular season. The winner of the district tournament advances in the championship series.

Redistricting and regrouping occurs every two years.

Class 5 and Class 4 schools generally come from the state's major metro areas: St. Louis, Kansas City, Springfield, Joplin, and Columbia/ Jefferson City, although there are exceptions. Class 3, 2 and 1 schools are generally rural, although some small private city schools are grouped here as well.