 All in the Name of InformationAs most people reading this probably know, back in 2020 the Missouri State High School Activities Association (MSHSAA) introduced a championship factor policy to its handbook. If we had a dollar for every time someone said something incorrect about this policy at a cross country meet, we could probably pay to host this website. This post was originally written in 2025 to clear up the confusion about the policy, and hopefully it did some of that. But just when we thought things couldn't get worse, in June of 2026 the state voted to revise the policy to make it even more complicated. I've already seen local news articles making incorrect statements, and soon enough coaches, athletes, and fans will be doing the same. And so for that reason we're back with some revision and expansion. The goal of this post (both the original and revised edition) is to provide as complete and accurate a picture of how this championship factor works and fits into the overall classification of teams. While we have our opinions about the championship factor and its competitive fairness, the hope is to leave as many of them out of what follows as possible. We simply want to give readers information so that they can understand the policy better and form their own conclusions independent of as much bias as possible. So if you're looking for a rant, you came to the wrong place. Who Gets a Championship Factor?The first thing to clear up is that the championship factor does not apply to all high schools. Many times people erroneously claim that the reason a specific school moved up a classification was due to this policy when it was actually simply increased enrollment. So to which schools does the championship factor apply? Per the MSHSAA handbook, the policy only pertains to a member schools who has "the ability to limit its enrollment through selectivity and is exempt from the Missouri School Improvement Program (MSIP) guidelines." Put simply, the MSIP is the system used by the state department of education to help determine accreditation. It covers public and charter schools, but not private schools. That means the championship factor applies strictly to private schools, be they religiously affiliated or not. What's the Rationale?The MSHSAA handbook doesn't give any reasons for the championship factor, but that is consistent with most of its policies. Even in the press release for the updated changes, the state gives no explanation as to why. One must look elsewhere for these or speculate. At the time of its initial 2020 debut, MSHSHAA then-director of communications Jason West explained it as an effort to improve the competitive situation of private schools. "We (MSHSAA) are hoping that this may be more of a compromise for the non-public schools, and that they are not just automatically bumped up a class because they are a non-public school." The word compromise seems to be in reference for calls that the state set up separate postseason structures for private and public schools. At another point, West provided a different angle to the rationale. "What our membership was looking for is there was a thought on the public school side that the multiplier wasn’t doing enough to bridge the gap between what the resources a private school might have against what a public school doesn’t have." What resources West had in mind is left up for interpretation. They could certainly be financial, but another point typically raised is the ease with which a private school--especially in a more population dense area such as St. Louis or Kansas City--could enroll students living across numerous public school districts. In the end, it is important to recognize that this wasn't something forced upon schools unilaterally. The initial factor was voted on by all member schools--private and public--with nearly 70% (including many private schools) in favor of approval. The recent changes were approved by a committee. Out With the OldMuch of the support for adopting the championship factor really amounts to discontent with the former system. From 2002 through 2020, the state had utilized a multiplier system. Under the multiplier, the enrollments of all private schools were increased by 35% for classification purposes. For example, St. Generic High School with 400 students would have been classified as if it had 540. Depending on a school's actual enrollment, this might place them in a higher classification, or it might not. It also affected all of a private school's sports teams uniformly, regardless of their individual success. In contrast, the thought with the championship factor was something that would move up successful sports teams from private schools with certainty without applying equal impact to less successful programs at the same school. For example, let's say the girls soccer team at St. Generic High School has been wildly successful, winning three of the last five state titles, while the boys basketball team hasn't won a single postseason game in that same stretch. Say that a high school with 400 students would have been placed in Class 2 for girls soccer and Class 3 for boys basketball. Under the old multiplier system, St. Generic would actually end up in Class 3 for girls soccer and Class 4 for boys basketball. Both teams would have been bumped up. Their success was irrelevant. With the championship factor, the girls soccer team would get moved up two classes and play in Class 4, while the boys basketball team would actually get to play in Class 3, the class their true enrollment prescribes. Even with the recent changes, this seems to still be the intention. It All Starts With ClassesOne of the things that fuels confusion among average high school sports fans is that even at a public school, the football team might be in Class 4 while the volleyball team is in Class 3 and the boys soccer team is in Class 2. Or even if the teams at their school are in the same class, they might notice that a public school in their class in softball is not in their class in basketball. Conversations are common where fans from public schools explain that the reason for the situation is that their school or the other won districts or placed at state and therefore got moved up. But none of this was likely due to the championship factor. Most people understand that schools are primarily classified based on enrollment. However, one thing many don't realize is that enrollment numbers are submitted during the spring of the previous year and only include students in grades 9-11 at that time (students that would be in grades 10-12 for the year the enrollment affects). This means that a large freshman class at a school won't actually influence the classification of the school teams until their sophomore year. You can find these enrollment totals for every school on the MSHSAA website.  But much of the confusion also stems from the fact that the number of classes in each sport are not equal, as illustrated in the table above. Furthermore, not all schools (even of the same size) participate in the same sports. So how does the state decide the number of classes for each sport and which schools end up in each class? Obviously the more schools that choose to participate in a sport, the more classes it will have. But MSHSAA has a few bylaws in place to govern the process. First, the minimum and maximum number of teams per class are 32 and 128 (64 for football) respectively. As for determining which schools are placed in each class, one would think that schools are just divided evenly, where if there were 500 schools and 5 classes, each class would have 100 schools. But it isn't that simple. The state is concerned with keeping schools from having to compete against significantly larger opponents in the postseason. This is addressed using what the state calls differentials, which is essentially the ratio of the enrollment of the biggest school in a class to that of the smallest school in the class. For example, if the biggest school in Class 4 for some sport had 1200 students and the smallest had 800, the differential would be 1200/800 = 1.5. The state tries to break up the schools with restrictions in mind. First, the number of schools in a class in any sport should be greater than or equal to the number in any higher classes. Second, the differential for any higher class should be 2 or less. The classification process for each sport any given year starts with classifications from the previous year. For example, in the 2023-2024 school year, boys basketball had six classes, with the number of schools in each outlined in the table below.  Going into the 2024-2025 year, once the schools participating in basketball were determined, they were ordered by their enrollment. Then they were placed into classes, starting with Class 6 and including the same number of schools as last year in Classes 2-6. The remaining schools were then placed in Class 1. At this point, the state calculated the differentials for each of the higher classes. If all of them were 2 or below, this phase of classification was finished. Otherwise, the state would have tried moving schools into lower classes in such a way that makes the differentials end up at 2 or lower. If this wasn't possible, or if it put more than the max number of schools in a class, the state would have added an extra class. However, instead it was able to get the numbers to work out as follows.  The Structure of the Championship FactorIt's important to recognize that all of this is done before the championship factor comes into play. The state posts the cutoffs for each class, which they call enrollment breaks, on its website. You can see the initial breaks as well as the the final breaks after the championship factor is implemented. The charts also list the number of schools in each class, as well as the number of teams moved up due to the championship factor. That means now is a good time to discuss in more detail how the championship factor itself works. Essentially, teams at private schools have the potential to earn championship factor points each year based on their level of success. This is where some of the recent changes also come into play. Under the initial system, the point allocation was quite simple:
 The running points total for a team over the previous six years determines the impact on its classification. Under the initial structure, that looked like the following:
Note that under initial system, the maximum move up for a team was two classes. This has changed with the updates. There is now no longer a limit to how many classes a team can move up. That means the new system has more and different tiers, as shown below:
Keep in mind that these totals are specific to individual teams, not to a school as a whole. MSHSAA publicizes the totals for every sport on its website, though for now these totals reflect the old system. Once the state has the initial classifications and a summary of which private schools must move up, it proceeds to phase two of classifications. Essentially this all happens as one-for-one swaps. Let's return to St. Generic. Their girls soccer team was placed in Class 2 by enrollment. But let's say that due to championship factor points, their team needs to move up two classes to Class 4. The idea would be to keep the number of schools in each class after moving up St. Generic and any others the same as it was after phase one. To accomplish this, the school in Class 4 with the lowest enrollment is moved down to Class 3. Then the school with the lowest enrollment in Class 3 is moved down into Class 2. If a school only needed to move up one class, the same sort of maneuver would happen but with just the two involved classes. This is really the only way in which the championship factor can change the classification of a public school. If the smallest school in a class is a public school (or a private school for that matter), they could end up moving down a class if a private school has to move up due to championship factor points. However, the championship factor can never move a public school up a class, though it might appear this way if a team who had been moved up one year returns to a lower classification as points expire, forcing the biggest team in that class to potentially move up. Why the 2026 Changes?The million dollar question is of course why did the state make the recent changes. As mentioned earlier, the state didn't offer a clear rationale. That being said, it seems like there are two issues trying to be addressed. The first is teams that continue to succeed despite moving up one or even two classes. There are numerous cases in the last 5 years of teams making it to the podium despite competing two classes above their enrollment. It seems the state thinks they should continue moving up. The other issue seems to be a common complaint about the length of the impact a run of success can have on a program. When it introduced the championship factor, the state went with a six year running total instead of four in hopes that this would allow higher thresholds for teams moving up classes, making it harder for one graduating class at a school to have an inordinate influence on classifications. In reality, one star-studded class could lead their school to a state title in consecutive years and force the team to play two classes higher for at least the next five seasons. With the new system, the impact is heavy earlier but weaker later. That repeat team would still compete two classes higher than enrollment in the first two years following their second title, but assuming no more points are accumulated, they would only compete one class higher the following 2 years, and by the 5th year they would be back to their class by enrollment. The table below breaks down the difference.
So in the end it seems like the new system will carry greater consequences for programs that become true perennial powerhouse dynasties, whereas teams that saw a small window of success driven by a single group of athletes will actually see lesser consequences than under the previous system. Cross Country as an ExemplarThe upcoming cross country season for our teams can serve as an example. For the 2026 season our true enrollment by all indications should place both the boys and girls teams in Class 1. The results of the 2020-2025 seasons determine championship factor points. Our boys finished 4th in the state in 2018, earning 2 points. In 2019 they won districts on the way to a 12th place finish at state, which earned an additional point. Since those accomplishments are more than 6 years ago, they do not affect the total. Since then, our boys have not won the district or made the podium at state. They did qualify for State in 2023, but that in and of itself doesn't earn any points. That means they have 0 points on their total with both the former system and the upcoming one. On the girls side, our ladies qualified for state in 2020 but as the 2nd place team in the district. Their fifth place finish left them off the podium but also free of any points. The exact same result happened in 2024, so no points there. The other two years they qualified for State were in 2021 and 2025. In 2021 they took second at districts before charging to a 3rd place finish at state. Under the old system, that produced 2 points that would still be part of the total. But going into this season, that accomplishment is 5 years removed, meaning it no longer carries any points. Last year the girls won districts before finishing 4th at State. Under the old system, that would have been 2 more points, pushing the total to 4 and moving the team up a class. But in the new system, since that accomplishment is only one year removed, it contributes 4 championship points. These are the only points currently on the girls ledger under the new system, meaning our girls should narrowly avoid being moved up a class for this coming season. Frequently Asked QuestionsAre boys and girls teams for a sport classified separately? For the most part, yes. Sports like soccer and basketball are classified separately for boys and girls. The two genders don't even have the same number of classes for some sports, but even if they do, not all schools field teams for both. Boys and girls teams can be and sometimes are placed in different classes from the outset, not to mention being moved due to championship factor results. The two exceptions are cross country and track and field. Boys and girls teams in these sports are classified together, even from the outset. Some schools still don't field teams in both, so the gender with more participating schools sets the bar for classification. To make things more confusing, if championship factor points force a track or cross country team for one gender to move up, the team for the other gender stays put. However, if the movement of another school up due to points forces a school to move down, both their boys and girls teams do move down. Do Individual Championships/Places Affect Classifications No. For sports that have both individual and team championships (cross country, golf, tennis, track and field, wrestling, swimming), it is only team performances that accrue championship points. For example, say a cross country team had a boy win the district race while the team finished second. At state the same boy finished runner up while the team ended up in sixth place. The team wouldn't accrue any championship factor points. Can a Team Move Up Two Classes in One Year? Under the previous system, the answer was no, at least not due to the championship factor alone. With the new system, that is generally true, but there are some exceptions. For example, our girls team currently sits at 4 points and won't move up. Next year that 4th place finish will only incur 3 points, but let's say that our ladies go on a tear and win state. That would add 10 more points, bringing the total to 13 points. That would be enough to move the girls up two classes the following year. However, a team would still have to earn points in consecutive years, and the odds of that happening in such a way that gains them less than 5 points in one year and then more than 10 by the next year is fairly low. That being said, if a school's enrollment increased at the same time they accumulated additional championship factor points, it's possible their true enrollment could land them in a higher class. From there, the championship factor total could move them up a class, effectively placing them in a class two higher than the previous year. In ConclusionThere's no guarantee how long the championship factor will be part of the state's system. Many people have expressed their dissatisfaction since its introduction, and that's likely to continue with the updates.
Some argue it unfairly punishes private schools or, more precisely, certain athletes there simply due to the success of their predecessors. Critics argue that if it's unfair to penalize the basketball team for the soccer team's success, then penalizing the 2026 soccer team for the success of the 2022 soccer team that none of the athletes were part of seems just as unreasonable. At the same time, others argue that the championship factor doesn't do enough to address inequalities in resources between public and private schools, especially for large schools already in the highest classifications and therefore lacking any ability to move up. In the end some see it as a compromise between these two factions. Regardless of your specific opinion, hopefully this article was able to add some clarity and depth to the policy itself, so that for however long it is in place, you might have a deeper understanding. Hopefully you have a better idea how the policy affects not only our program but any teams of interest, and this allows you to reach your own informed opinions on its merits. Comments are closed.
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