[More Cowbell]

The thing is, everyone's perception of what is a "small school" is different. In the end, it's just one person's opinion against another.

Take my school, Shelby Valley, for example. They are frequently targeted around EKY as one of the offending schools in this discussion. Their most recent enrollment in 2011/12 was listed with the KHSAA as 588. Now, that is certainly more than a school like Pikeville, listed at 340. But in comparison to a school like Ballard, who is just shy of 2000 students, SV certainly seemed like the small school to the crowd in Rupp watching them play for the state title a couple years ago. And for that matter, Pikeville and its 340 students probably seems big to a school like Fulton City with 113 kids. It's all about perspective. The funny thing is, when Shelby Valley was first born, it WAS a big school, at least compared to the two schools it consolidated. The first year for SV in 1990, I believe the enrollment was close to 900. But as EKY has seen its population shrink, so have the enrollment numbers at SV, now under 600. I imagine that number will continue to gradually decline in the coming years as well.

Point being, in the end, any enrollment cutoff is simply an arbitrary number. If you set the limit at 450, does that mean that the school with 451 students is not a "small school", but the one with 449 is? No, but you have to cut it off somewhere. No matter what the number, those just on the other side of it will feel left out. Looking at football, schools are not classified based on a random number either, but in comparison to other schools, i.e., the smallest 32 schools become 1A, and so on. When you look at the numbers, the smallest 2A school is just barely bigger than the biggest 1A school. But you have to have a division somewhere, and that's just the way it is.

Then again, if people REALLY wanted to make the All-A just for "small schools", who's to say it shouldn't be for those with enrollment under 300? Or 250? Or even 200?