KHSAA aims to level private vs. public playing field in football, other sports
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- KHSAA to use a 1.35 multiplier: boys for football, total for track/cross country.
- Multiplier likely bumps LCA, Lexington Catholic and Sayre up in football in 2027.
- Rule aims to level private vs. public competition by adjusting playing classes.
Lexington’s three private schools — Lexington Christian, Lexington Catholic and Sayre — could see their sports teams move up a division in football and potentially cross country and track beginning in the fall of 2027 after a measure approved by the Kentucky High School Athletic Association Board of Control on Thursday.
By a 15-3 vote, the board approved a new rule that treats students at 14 of its 16 football-playing private schools differently than their public-school counterparts when it comes to the enrollment figures used to place them in the KHSAA’s six football and three cross country and track and field classes. It’s a tactic already used in several states, including Ohio and Arkansas, to “level the playing field” between public and private schools.
The KHSAA will multiply every private school’s enrollment by a factor of 1.35 to determine where the school will fall into its two-year classification system cycle. For football, the 1.35 multiplier applies only to the boys enrollment. For track and cross country, the multiplier applies to total enrollment.
The multiplier likely will bump all three Lexington private schools up in class in football when the alignment for the 2027 and 2028 seasons is unveiled in May.
Sayre, the 2024 Class A football state champion, will see its 159 male students count as 214 for the purposes of the next football alignment cycle, which will likely bump the Spartans into Class 2A in 2027. Bracken County, a public school with a male enrollment of 207, is in 2A this cycle. Sayre likely would remain in Class A for the other sports.
Lexington Christian, the 2025 Class 2A state football champions, would bump up to Class 3A in football, and its multiple Class A-state-title-winning cross country and track and field programs would compete in Class 2A.
Finally, Lexington Catholic, which has competed in football’s Class 3A since 2023, would rejoin longtime rival Boyle County in Class 4A beginning in 2027. Its multiple Class 2A-state-title-winning cross country and track and field teams would remain in 2A.
The multiplier rule targets private schools because of the nature of their ability to draw students regardless of geographic area or school district boundaries, KHSAA board president Greg Howard said. Other states use multiplying factors of anywhere from 1.3 to 3 full students private vs. public, and some have a sports team “success factor” built into their alignments as well.
“It’s something that’s been tried,” Howard said. “We’re going to try and see if it helps mitigate some of that. We hear ‘private vs. public,’ and I’m blue in the face about that. This is just an opportunity to see if we can level the playing field.”
Lexington Catholic athletic director Dave Nurnberg declined to comment until he studied the issue more closely. Athletic directors at Sayre and Lexington Christian could not immediately be reached for comment.
The rule comes in the wake of four private schools winning six of last season’s state football championships. Sayre and Kentucky Country Day have won the past two Class A titles. LCA beat Owensboro Catholic, another private school, in Class 2A.
Christian Academy-Louisville has won the past four Class 3A titles, all in blowouts of public school opponents.
KHSAA commissioner Julian Tackett said the call from the association’s member schools about making some kind of adjustment for private schools has been “tremendous.”
The other private schools athletic programs potentially affected by the multiplier rule include Covington Catholic, an eight-time state football champion, Newport Central Catholic, a five-time winner, DeSales, a two-time winner, Bethlehem, Bishop Brossart, Covington Holy Cross, Louisville Holy Cross and St. Henry District.
Lexington Christian and Lexington Catholic have each won two state football titles.
Class 6A private-school powerhouses Trinity and St. Xavier can’t be affected because they are in the biggest school classifications for all three sports.
In other action Thursday, the board …
- Approved using Legends Field as the home of the first two rounds of the state baseball tournament beginning this season. The semifinals and finals remain scheduled for the University of Kentucky’s Kentucky Proud Park.
- Extended the soccer seasons an extra week this season; the season will move back a week going forward to better align its state championships with availability dates for Lexington Sporting Club Stadium and eventually move it out of one of the hottest weeks of the year to start.
- Approved including questions about three new sports in its next triennial survey to be sent to school administrators soon — stunt (cheer), girls flag football and pickleball.
This story will be updated.
This story was originally published February 19, 2026 at 5:11 PM.
