The Arkansas Activities Association board of directors gave a "do pass" recommendation to using overtime in nonconference senior high and and junior high football games at its annual summer workshop Wednesday in North Little Rock.
The board, comprised of administrators from AAA member schools, voted 17-0 on a proposal to extend nonconference football games that are tied at the end of regulation.
Arkansas high schools use overtime in conference and postseason games. Only five nonconference football games last season ended in ties -- Benton-Bryant (14-14), North Pulaski-Little Rock Hall (6-6), Fountain Lake-Maumelle (6-6), Marshall-Quitman (42-42) and Spring Hill-Genoa Central (26-26).
The AAA governing body will vote on the proposal at its annual meeting Aug. 5 in Little Rock. The governing body normally follows recommendations made by the board. The proposal will need a two-thirds majority vote to pass. If it passes, the rule will go into effect for the 2015 season, which begins Aug. 31.
The board also recommended to extend the window for spring football practice from 15 days to four consecutive weeks. Currently schools have 15 days to complete 10 days of spring practice, but if the rule change goes into effect schools will have four consecutive weeks to get in 10 days.
Administrators have cited spring sports and graduating ceremonies as reasons it has been difficult for some schools to complete spring practice within the 15-day schedule.
In other business, a proposal to allow golf teams to play six of their 12 regular-season matches before 3:30 p.m. on a school day passed unanimously. Currently boys and girls golf teams can only play a nine-hole match once school starts. The rule change would allow boys and girls teams to play full matches (18 holes) before conference and state tournaments. The proposal will require a majority vote in August.
The board gave unanimous recommendations to ban noisemakers that require an external power source; requiring second-semester eighth-grade and first-semester ninth-grade students to successfully pass four academic classes the previous semester; and allowing junior varsity basketball and volleyball teams to compete in invitation tournaments should an invited school drop out or cannot attend. The JV team must be from the host school or from a team participating in the tournament, and that team would not count against the varsity team's allotted number of varsity tournaments.
A recommendation to increase the swimming and diving classifications from two to three received a do pass recommendation of 12-5. There were two classifications in swimming and diving in the 2014-2015 academic year: Class 7A/6A and Class 5A and below. Should the recommendation pass in August with a two-thirds majority vote, the 6A schools will break off into their own classification.
Proposals that received a "do not pass" recommendation included allowing 7-on-7 football tournaments to be played during the school year and having the top six teams in the Class 7A and 6A conferences make the football playoffs instead of the top four.
Jacksonville High School's appeal of its classification during the 2016-2017 cycle also was denied. Jacksonville, which is in Class 5A, will move to Class 6A in 2016 and will be the second-largest school in the classification behind West Memphis with a listed enrollment of 1,184.67.
Jacksonville is entering its final year in the Pulaski County Special School District and will form its own school district for the 2016-2017 academic year. North Pulaski High School, also in Jacksonville, will close after the 2015-2016 academic year and students from the school will attend Jacksonville. North Pulaski discontinued its football program earlier this year, and the school's football players will be allowed to play for Jacksonville for the 2015 season.
The board is scheduled today to hear recommendations for conference assignments for the 2016-2018 cycle.
Sports on 06/11/2015