NSAA Board of Directors Meeting Minutes - March 9, 2016

[Alum-Ni]

The NSAA Board of Directors met March 9, 2016 at the NSAA Office in Lincoln with the following members present:

District I - Mark Norvell, Fillmore Central
District I - Wendy Henrichs, Lincoln East
District II - Dr. Bob Reznicek, Boys Town
District II - Nolan Beyer, Millard Public Schools
District III - Jay Bellar, Battle Creek
District IV - Dan Keyser, Sutherland
District V - Alan Garey, Medicine Valley
District VI - Dr. Troy Unzucker, Alliance
​

Also in attendance were Rick Moses, Department of Education liaison; Rex Schultze, NSAA Legal Counsel; Julia Plucker, NSAA Lobbyist; and Blake Mosel, Football coach, Plainview High School

Meeting was called to order at 8:00 a.m.

1. Moved to approve the Consent Agenda as presented. Items on the Consent Agenda included: the meeting agenda as presented; the minutes of the February 17, 2016 regular meeting; the minutes of the February 17, 2016 Legislative Commission; the minutes of the February 24, 2016 Committee on Classification; and financial statements. Motion carried: 8-0

2. It was moved to approve the following Approved Ruling 2.1.4:

Students who are ineligible for varsity participation due to transfer eligibility rule non-compliance may participate at the non-varsity level; however, such students would be ineligible to participate if their non-varsity team is competing against another school's varsity team.
​

Motion Carried: 7-1 (For: Norvell, Henrichs, Reznicek, Bellar, Keyser, Garey, Unzicker | Against: Beyer)

3. Cozad High School and Gordon-Rushville High School requested mediation in regard to the date of their 2016 regular season football game. It was moved that the date of the 2016 regular season football game between the two schools be held on Friday unless mutually agreed to do something different. Motion Carried: 8-0

4. Plainview High School appeared before the Board to request an enrollment exception for eligibility for the football playoffs. Following a presentation of evidence, those representing the school provided clarifying information and answers to Board members' questions.

5. The Board discussed NFHS Summer Meeting plans.

6. Dr. Tenopir reported on the Special Olympics "Champions of Greatness" award; the NSIAAA Awards Luncheon; NASB Education Forum Presentations; Winter Championships attendance; NFHS Legal Meeting; NRCSA Presentation; the Classification Committee; Representative Assembly; and the reprimand reports.

7. It was moved to enter into Executive Session at 10:00 a.m. to discuss the hearing and staff salaries and benefits. Motion Carried: 8-0

8. It was moved to exit Executive Session at 10:17 a.m.

9. It was moved to approve a 4% staff salary increase for the 2016-17 school year. Motion Carried: 8-0

10. In open session, it was moved to deny Plainview High School's appeal for an enrollment exception for football playoff eligibility. Motion Carried: 8-0

There being no further business, the meeting adjourned at 10:33 a.m.

The next meeting of the NSAA Board of Directors is scheduled for April 7, 2016 at the Association Office in Lincoln.

 

[Alum-Ni]

The minutes from the February 24, 2016 Classification Committee:

The Committee on Classification met on Wednesday, February 24, 2016 at 1:00 p.m. in Grand Island. Jay Bellar, NSAA District III Board of Director, chaired the meeting. Dr. Tenopir reported on the spinoff of a separate committee to look at public and non-public school issues; that this committee would be focusing on football issues first; discussion on whether classifications should be based on total student enrollment or separate boy-girl counts; one or two-year classification cycles; and enrollment ratios from the largest to smallest in each class.

Committee members present were: Wendy Henrichs, Lincoln East; Dana Wiseman, Sutton; Dr. Dan Endorf, North Bend Central; Dr. Bob Reznicek, Boys Town; Jay Bellar, Battle Creek; Todd Strom, South Sioux City; Dave Barrett, Adams Central; Tracy Douglas, Hastings; Jon Davis, Alma; Dr. Troy Unzicker, Alliance; Gus Brown, Valentine; and Mike Brockhaus, Sidney.

Committee members absent were: Jeff Johnson, Papillion-LaVista South and Kyle Hemmerling, Elwood. Ex-officio members included NSAA staff: Dr. Jim Tenopir, Debra Velder, Nate Neuhaus and Dan Masters. Stu Pospisil from the Omaha World-Herald was also in attendance.

Committee members discussed possible options on football classifications which included looking at ratios in each class; the number of schools in each classification; whether a break-off number should be established for each classification (i.e. enrollment of 800 above Class A; etc.); if safety is an issue; what the cut-off number should be in 8-man football; number of classes; and 6-man football.

It was the consensus of the members present that Class B faces the biggest issue in regard to ratio disparity.

The committee showed support for future legislation to classify the 32 largest schools registered for football to be placed in Class A; the next 28 schools registered for football to be placed in Class B and that the remaining schools registered for football be classified as currently done. It was requested that a proposal be prepared for the committee to discuss at their next meeting.

With no further business the committee adjourned at 3:30 p.m.

The next meeting of the Classification Committee will be scheduled in April.

 

[redwhitelincoln]

My guess is you never hear the Chuck Mcginnis', Jeff Gross', Tim Johnks', Randy Hubert/Kyle Peterson or Glen Snodgrass's of the world utter a word about enrollment size to their kids. They just put the work in and become great football programs. They leave the whining to lesser, more unsuccessful programs. Great programs focus on the work and not on things outside their control.

 

[nenebskers]

very well said parotbay

 

[Football2002]

In summation, while it would stand to reason that having a larger enrollment would be an advantage it is not borne out through a brief examination of the data. (My guess is that Class C1 and C2 would not show much of correlation either.)

Actually, you should look into C1 and C2 (specifically C1). Very large correlation. (This is not a dig at the private schools, but take them out of this process - just looking at public schools, there are a number of theories and this is not the post to discuss their success) Yes, there will be a handful of teams who come from the bottom of the classes, but C1 in particular over the last 10-15 years.