I spoke directly with a member of the NMAA Commission yesterday. The Commission has approximately 15 members and it makes recommendations to the board of directors (whose members are all superintendents) regarding changes to the rules.
This Commissioner told me that, after next year, the NMAA will likely be going to "conferences" and that the conferences will consist of schools from 1 or 2 different classifications located in a particular region. Schools will then only play schools from their conference for non-district games. Apparently, 6A will be gone and there will only be 1A through 5A. There will still be districts and you will have district games against teams in your own classification and there will be state playoffs for each classification.
However, the whole conference structure sounds like it is meant to limit travel for non-district games to your geographic area. For schools in more rural areas, it sounds like your non-district games in all sports may involve having to play more schools from different classifications (one class higher or lower). If I understand it correctly, the conference structure would eliminate the Las Cruces schools playing Albuquerque schools in non-district games. I have no idea how baseball tournaments would fit into the conference structure.
Here is the exact quote from the February Commission meeting minutes:
"Future Classification / Alignment: Ms. Marquez discussed the future of classification and alignment for the 2018-2020 block. The classification and alignment committee has put together a proposal using Cost/Travel and Class Time as the main priorities that would decrease classes from six to five and use a conference model instead of districts. This proposal would be presented to the Board of Directors for feedback and approval."
The Commissioner I spoke to said that there would be conferences AND districts, but the quote above doesn't reflect that. Obviously, all of this could change and the board of directors has the final say on all rule changes, but it sounds like the Commissioners are already working on putting together this new structure.
This Commissioner told me that, after next year, the NMAA will likely be going to "conferences" and that the conferences will consist of schools from 1 or 2 different classifications located in a particular region. Schools will then only play schools from their conference for non-district games. Apparently, 6A will be gone and there will only be 1A through 5A. There will still be districts and you will have district games against teams in your own classification and there will be state playoffs for each classification.
However, the whole conference structure sounds like it is meant to limit travel for non-district games to your geographic area. For schools in more rural areas, it sounds like your non-district games in all sports may involve having to play more schools from different classifications (one class higher or lower). If I understand it correctly, the conference structure would eliminate the Las Cruces schools playing Albuquerque schools in non-district games. I have no idea how baseball tournaments would fit into the conference structure.
Here is the exact quote from the February Commission meeting minutes:
"Future Classification / Alignment: Ms. Marquez discussed the future of classification and alignment for the 2018-2020 block. The classification and alignment committee has put together a proposal using Cost/Travel and Class Time as the main priorities that would decrease classes from six to five and use a conference model instead of districts. This proposal would be presented to the Board of Directors for feedback and approval."
The Commissioner I spoke to said that there would be conferences AND districts, but the quote above doesn't reflect that. Obviously, all of this could change and the board of directors has the final say on all rule changes, but it sounds like the Commissioners are already working on putting together this new structure.
