High school football alignment plan bumps LCA, Lexington Catholic up in class
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- The 1.35 multiplier was approved by the board in February.
- Lexington Christian moves from Class 2A to Class 3A and Lexington Catholic to Class 4A in 2027.
- The final vote on the realignment is scheduled for the May 5–6 board meeting.
A new formula aimed at leveling a perceived imbalance between public and private high school football teams means Lexington Catholic and Lexington Christian and a few other programs will bump up into bigger-school divisions beginning in the 2027 and 2028 seasons, according to a proposed realignment approved by the KHSAA Board of Control in a special meeting Wednesday.
The formula, which multiplies a private school’s male enrollment by a factor of 1.35 to inflate its ranking in the KHSAA’s football classification system, had already been approved at the board’s February meeting.
The vote Wednesday via video conference call and streamed later on the KHSAA’s YouTube channel offered the first glimpse of what that means for those private schools and others in the next two-year alignment cycle. The special meeting was called to help speed up the process for schools already trying to schedule games those years.
Sayre, the 2024 Class A champion, barely avoided being bumped up in class because the new plan also increased the number of Class A teams from 32 to 36.
But Lexington Christian, the defending Class 2A champion, moves up to 3A under the new plan, and Lexington Catholic rejoins traditional rival Boyle County in Class 4A beginning in 2027 after four seasons as a 3A school. LexCath won four consecutive district and three straight region titles in Class 3A.
In all, the multiplier rule affected eight of the 16 private school football teams, including defending Class A champion Kentucky Country Day out of Louisville, four-time defending Class 3A champion Christian Academy-Louisville and perennial Class 4A/5A contender Covington Catholic, which only dropped to 4A in the last two-year alignment cycle.
Mixed reaction from Lexington private schools
Outside the public-private debate, it’s also notable that Franklin County, a Class 4A state finalist each of the past two seasons, moves up to Class 5A in the proposal.
LCA coach Oakley Watkins took the Eagles’ promotion to 3A in stride. LCA typically fill its non-district schedule with larger-school teams and has knocked off both CAL and Boyle County during seasons in which those teams later won their division’s state championship.
“I don’t have a huge opinion on it,” Watkins said. “With us, we’re always going to play a competitive schedule. And whether we’re in 2A or 3A, whatever it may be, we know we’re going to have to beat really good teams to reach our ultimate goal.”
Lexington Catholic coach David Clark expressed similar sentiments, although he wondered whether the multiplier rule truly addresses competitive balance considering many public school teams, including Beechwood, Pikeville, Bowling Green and soon-to-be district rival Boyle County, have won multiple state championships over the past 20 years. Boyle County has won five of the past six Class 4A titles.
“When you have the conversation about competitive balance, and you say, ‘OK, but it only applies to eight schools?’” Clark said. “We’re going to play wherever we’re supposed to play, but how big of a difference is the multiplier for each school that’s affected by it? … Does that create a competitive balance? Or does that create a competitive imbalance for the schools that are penalized because of the multiplier?”
Sayre coach Chad Pennnington asked that question of the Kentucky High School Athletic Association this week in a letter cosigned by Kentucky Country Day’s Matt Jones, Bethlehem’s Tim Mattingly and public school coaches Paul Wiggins of Newport and William Griffin of Russellville.
That group asked the KHSAA to consider exempting Class A schools from the multiplier because they fear their enrollments and small roster sizes mean they could potentially face having to shutter their programs if the competitive balance in a larger division becomes too difficult to sustain.
Sayre began playing varsity football in 2020 after more than four decades of dormancy. Its meteoric rise to 2024 Class A champion owed in large part to Pennington’s influence as a former NFL quarterback. But Pennington won’t coach Sayre forever. And he’d like to see the program survive.
“Small-school programs have different challenges than large-school programs,” Pennington said. “There’s not one cookie-cutter approach. I think it really needs to be studied based on what’s best for high school football in the state of Kentucky.”
Another option to strike balance: success
Pennington said he understood the competitive balance issue. His group proposed that success rather than enrollment be a determining factor in whether football teams have to move up in class. Many states, including Indiana, have such a system.
“We play a very competitive sport , and to maintain competitive balance, I think you allow those decisions to be determined on the field and not through arbitrary numbers like enrollment,” Pennington said. “Enrollment doesn’t necessarily dictate competition or competitive balance.”
KHSAA commissioner Julian Tackett acknowledged Pennington’s concerns and said those thoughts and other issues with the next realignment can be brought to the board by representatives of member schools sometime during its May 5-6 meeting, before the final vote is taken.
“We’ll look, and they’ll have a chance to present,” Tackett said. “But there’s 290 members that a lot of them may not agree with them. That’s why we have a board to discuss that kind of thing.”
The multiplier will also be applied to private schools in cross country and track and field, the only other two sports divided by the KHSAA into classes. Those realignments are set to be unveiled in May.
The KHSAA has looked at various ways other states have applied a “success factor” as a way of bumping dominant teams up to another division. Tackett and board members have indicated a success factor might be considered in future realignments.
“We were in a meeting last week with several states that use a success factor,” Tackett said. “They’re all different. … You’ve got to define success before you start talking about a success factor. … Long term, there is some equity discussion that has to go on. This is the first step of what will be a several step process.”
Proposed KHSAA football alignment for 2027-2028
Football classification and district alignment proposal for the 2027-2028 cycle that includes 1.35 multiplier factor to the male enrollment of private school teams. Draft approved by KHSAA Board of Control on Wednesday. Final adoption scheduled May 5-6.
Note: Teams moving down one class (*). Teams moving up one class (^). Private schools in bold.
Class A
District 1: Ballard Memorial, Crittenden County*, Fulton County, Russellville.
District 2: Campbellsville, Caverna, Fort Knox*, Holy Cross (Louisville), W.E.B. DuBois*.
District 3: Bellevue, Dayton, Holy Cross (Covington), Newport Central Catholic, Newport.
District 4: Bracken County*, Eminence, Ludlow, Trimble County.
District 5: Berea, Frankfort, Nicholas County, Paris, Sayre.
District 6: Harlan, Lynn Camp, Middlesboro, Pineville, Williamsburg.
District 7: East Ridge*, Hazard, Phelps, Pikeville.
District 8: Betsy Layne*, Fairview, Paintsville, Raceland.
Class 2A
District 1: Caldwell County, Fort Campbell, Mayfield, Todd County Central, Trigg County.
District 2: Edmonson County*, Hancock County, McLean County, Owensboro Catholic.
District 3: Clinton County, Green County, Metcalfe County, Monroe County, Somerset.
District 4: Bethlehem^, Danville, Kentucky Country Day^, Washington County, Western*.
District 5: Beechwood, Bishop Brossart^, Gallatin County, Gallatin County, Owen County, Walton-Verona.
District 6: Jackson County, Lewis County*, Morgan County, Powell County*, West Carter.
District 7: Breathitt County, Magoffin County*, Martin County, Prestonsburg.
District 8: Belfry, Knott County Central, Leslie County, Pike County Central, Shelby Valley.
Class 3A
District 1: Butler County, Murray, Union County, Webster County.
District 2: Adair County, Casey County, Glasgow, Hart County, McCreary Central.
District 3: Carroll County, Central, DeSales, Henry County, Shawnee^.
District 4: Bardstown, Elizabethtown*, LaRue County, Thomas Nelson.
District 5: Bourbon County, Estill County, Lexington Christian^, Mercer County, Western Hills*.
District 6: Bath County, Fleming County, Lloyd Memorial, Pendleton County, St. Henry^.
District 7: East Carter, Floyd Central^, Lawrence County, Russell.
District 8: Bell County, Clay County, Knox Central, Letcher County Central, Perry County Central*, Rockcastle County.
Class 4A
District 1: Calloway County, Hopkins County Central^, Madisonville-North Hopkins*; Paducah Tilghman.
District 2: Allen County-Scottsville, Franklin-Simpson, Logan County, Ohio County, Warren East.
District 3: Breckinridge County, John Hardin, Marion County, Nelson County, Spencer County, Taylor County.
District 4: Christian Academy-Louisville^, North Oldham, Shelby County, Valley, Waggener.
District 5: Boyle County, Garrard County^, Lexington Catholic^, Lincoln County.
District 6: Corbin, Harlan County, Russell County, Wayne County, Whitley County.
District 7: Grant County, Harrison County, Highlands, Holmes, Mason County.
District 8: Ashland Blazer, Boyd County, Greenup County, Johnson Central, Rowan County.
Class 5A
District 1: Apollo, Graves County, Marshall County, Muhlenberg County, Owensboro.
District 2: Barren County, Bowling Green, Grayson County, Greenwood, Warren Central.
District 3: Bullitt Central, Butler, Doss^, Iroquois, North Bullitt.
District 4: Atherton, Jeffersontown, Moore, Seneca, South Oldham.
District 5: Boone County, Cooper, Covington Catholic^, Dixie Heights.
District 6: Anderson County, Collins, Franklin County^, Scott County.
District 7: East Jessamine, Madison Southern, Montgomery County, West Jessamine, Woodford County.
District 8: North Laurel, Pulaski County, South Laurel, Southwestern.
Class 6A
District 1: Christian County, Daviess County, Henderson County, McCracken County.
District 2: Central Hardin, Meade County, North Hardin, South Warren.
District 3: Fairdale^, Manual, Pleasure Ridges Park, St. Xavier.
District 4: Bullitt East, Fern Creek, Male, Southern.
District 5: Ballard, Eastern, Oldham County, Trinity.
District 6: Campbell County, Great Crossing, Ryle, Simon Kenton.
District 7: Henry Clay, Lafayette, Paul Laurence Dunbar, Tates Creek.
District 8: Bryan Station, Frederick Douglass, George Rogers Clark, Madison Central.
