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11 schools across West Virginia were reclassified for the upcoming football season earlier this week, and now, 11 more schools have followed suit, the West Virginia Secondary Schools Activities Commission announced Friday, leaving the state's newly-made Class AAAA with few teams.
On Tuesday of this week, the Review Board, composed of seven members appointed by the West Virginia Superintendents of Schools, directed that 11 schools, including John Marshall and Tyler locally, were to be reclassified for the upcoming football season only. They also remanded additional changes to school classifications based on cut scores from the 2024 football season, the result of which was 11 more reclassifications for gridiron action.
The SSAC has adopted a four-class system for four sports- football, baseball, softball, cheer and volleyball- for the upcoming season. Basketball, both boys and girls, had been operating in a four-class system since 2020.
The newest changes are as follows:
Class AAAA reclassified to Class AAA: Buckhannon-Upshur, Capital, Riverside and South Charleston
Class AAA reclassified to Class AA: Chapmanville, Independence, Lincoln, Nicholas County and PikeView
Class AA reclassified to Class A: Ritchie County and Summers County.
With one week before the season begins, Class AAAA football in the Mountain State currently has 16 teams in it. The WVSSAC football playoffs, as currently ordered, makes 16-team fields for each of the classes. Those facts would indicate that every Class AAAA football team will be in the playoffs this season, barring changes.
The reclassification notices from the Review Board only affect football teams, and- currently- are only effective for the upcoming season, not indefinitely.
One of the remaining 16 Class AAAA teams is Wheeling Park. The other 15 are Morgantown, Musselman, Huntington, Cabell Midland, Spring Mills, Parkersburg, Martinsburg, Jefferson, Hedgesville, Washington, Parkersburg South, University, Hurricane, George Washington and Woodrow Wilson.
There are 31 teams in each of Class AAA and Class AA football, and 34 in Class A.