MHSAA 2023-24 School Year Classifications Announced
EAST LANSING, Mich. – April 6 – Classifications for Michigan High School Athletic Association elections and postseason tournaments for the 2023-24 school year have been announced, with enrollment breaks for postseason tournaments posted to each sport’s page on the MHSAA Website.
Classifications for the upcoming school year are based on a second semester count date, which for MHSAA purposes was Feb. 8. The enrollment figure submitted for athletic classification purposes may be different from the count submitted for school aid purposes, as it does not include students ineligible for athletic competition because they reached their 19th birthday prior to Sept. 1 of the current school year and will not include alternative education students if none are allowed athletic eligibility by the local school district.
All sports’ tournaments are conducted with schools assigned to equal or nearly equal divisions, with lines dependent on how many schools participate in those respective sports.
For 2023-24, there are 750 tournament-qualified member schools. Schools recently were notified of their classification, and sport-by-sport divisions were posted to the MHSAA Website today (April 6). MHSAA Executive Director Mark Uyl said schools may not subsequently lower their enrollment figure. However, if revised enrollment figures are higher and indicate that a school should be playing in a higher division, that school would be moved up.
Five MHSAA Finals champions awarded so far during the 2022-23 school year are assigned to different divisions for 2023-24. Division 6 champion Grand Rapids West Catholic will play 11-player football in Division 5 this upcoming season. The Holland Christian boys soccer team will be moving into Division 2 after winning the Division 3 Final in the fall, and East Grand Rapids’ girls swimming & diving program is headed back to Lower Peninsula Division 3 after winning in LP Division 2 this past season. A pair of cross country champions are on the move – LP Division 4 boys champion Wyoming Potter’s House Christian to LP Division 3, and Upper Peninsula Division 3 girls champion Munising into UP Division 2 – and the Grass Lake boys bowling team will compete in Division 3 next winter after winning the Division 4 championship last month.
Also set to change divisions among Finals runners-up from head-to-head sports are Cadillac volleyball (Division 2 to D1), Ann Arbor Greenhills boys soccer (Division 4 to D3), Mendon 8-player football (Division 2 to D1) and three 11-Player Finals runners-up – Caledonia (Division 1 to D2), Grand Rapids Forest Hills Central (Division 2 to D3) and Muskegon (Division 3 to D2).
Visit the respective sport pages on the MHSAA Website at https://www.mhsaa.com/ to review the divisional alignments for all MHSAA-sponsored tournament sports. Click the “SPORTS” menu on the home page to access the page for each sport, then the “Assignments” link on the selected sport page and then “DIVISION LIST” to see the 2023-24 division.
Traditional classes (A, B, C, D) – formerly used to establish tournament classifications – are used only for MHSAA elections. To determine traditional classifications, after all counts are submitted, tournament-qualified member schools are ranked according to enrollment and then split as closely into quarters as possible. For 2023-24, there are 187 member schools in Class A, Class B and Class C, and 189 member schools in Class D.
Effective with the 2023-24 school year, schools with 807 or more students are in Class A. The enrollment limits for Class B are 380-806, Class C is 177-379, and schools with enrollments of 176 and fewer are Class D. The break between Classes A and B decreased eight students from 2022-23, the break between Classes B and C decreased 11 students, and the break between Classes C and D is six students fewer than for the 2022-23 school year.
The new classification breaks will see 21 schools move up in Class for 2023-24 while 24 schools will move down:
Moving Up from Class B to Class ABay City John GlennFowlervilleGarden CityLansing EasternOrchard Lake St. Mary’sTecumseh
Moving Down from Class A to Class BDetroit Henry FordDetroit MumfordHarper WoodsPlainwellSault Ste. MarieSpring Lake
Moving Up from Class C to Class BAnn Arbor GreenhillsGrand Rapids Covenant ChristianHartfordIshpeming WestwoodKent CityMason County CentralPinconning
Moving Down from Class B to Class CBlissfieldClawsonClinton Township ClintondaleDetroit NorthwesternElk RapidsFennvilleSanford MeridianStockbridge
Moving Up from Class D to Class CAuburn Hills Oakland ChristianBenton Harbor Countryside AcademyDetroit Crocket Midtown Science & MedicineGrand Traverse AcademyMartinMunisingRudyardSaginaw Michigan Lutheran Seminary
Moving Down from Class C to Class DEau ClaireFowlerJackson PrepL’AnseMarcellusMerrillMesickMorenciMuskegon Heights AcademySt. Ignace
New Postseason-Eligible Tournament Schools in 2023-24Waterford Oakside Prep
Enrollment Breaks by Classes – 2023-24(Number of schools in parentheses)Class A: 807 and above (187 schools) Class B: 380 – 806 (187)Class C: 177 – 379 (187)Class D: 176 and below (189)
