[Harry Doyle]

I would do exactly what they are doing in Oklahoma.

This is what they instituted in Oklahoma last year.

B. In athletic activities, a member school shall be placed one classification above the classification in which the member school would be placed according to ADM if the member school meets any three of the following four
criteria:

i) the school has the ability to decline admission or enrollment to a student, even if the student and the
student's parents (or custodial parent or court-appointed guardian with legal custody of the student) reside
within that school's public school district or designated geographic area;

ii) the school is located within a fifteen (15) mile radius of a school placed in the 5A or 6A classification
according to ADM;

iii) fewer than twenty-five (25) percent of the children enrolled at the school in grades nine through twelve
qualify for free or reduced lunches;

iv) the school's ADM in grades nine through 12 has increased by fifty (50) percent or more over the previous
three school years.

C. A school moved up one classification pursuant to the above criteria will be moved back down in classification in a
particular activity if the school's team has not finished among the top eight teams in that activity in at least three of
the previous five school years.

Indiana has instituted a new "success factor" rule. Each championship (from state to regional) is assigned a point value. If you exceed that point value over a certain period of time, then you move up a class. I'm not really sure how I feel about this one.

However, I'm one of these people that strongly feel that demographics and other geographical factors have a lot more to do with the success that all programs have (athletic and academic). I know that "work harder" is commonly used. If only it was that easy.