Bowling, Boys Lacrosse Set Fan Records
August 17, 2018
By Geoff Kimmerly
Second Half editor
Two sports repeated in setting postseason attendance records during the 2017-18 school year, as 1,390,590 total fans attended Michigan High School Athletic Association postseason competitions for which attendance is recorded.
The MHSAA Bowling Tournament – including Regionals and Finals for girls and boys, set an attendance record for the seventh consecutive season this past winter with 14,422 fans. Boys lacrosse, which also begins postseason play at the Regional level, set a record for the second straight season this spring with 12,759 fans – including a record 7,344 for Regional games.
The MHSAA annually tracks attendance for all sports except golf, skiing and tennis – for which admission typically is not charged.
The 2017-18 grand total of just under 1.4 million fans was a decrease of 6.8 percent from 2016-17. However, a couple of circumstances likely factored into the majority of that decline.
The first two weeks of 11-player football playoffs generally are among the highest-drawing events every school year – and last year’s saw a 19 percent decrease from 2016-17, as Pre-District games were played in unseasonably frigid weather across the Lower Peninsula and District Finals were played amid storms in many parts of the state.
Also, the Individual Wrestling Finals saw a 33 percent decrease in attendance after moving to Ford Field in Detroit from its previous home at The Palace of Auburn Hills. However, that decrease is misleading; the event went from three days and five sessions (with tickets required for each session) at The Palace to a two-day, three-session event at Ford Field. The average attendance per session this past winter actually increased by 892 fans from 2016-17.
Despite the District level decreases, football remained the highest-drawing tournament sport sponsored by the MHSAA, with 352,946 fans attending during the 2017 Playoffs including 60,435 combined for the 11 and 8-Player Finals – the most at that level of the tournament since the 2009 season. The MHSAA added a second division of 8-player playoffs last fall; however, that additional championship game contributed only a small amount to the overall 68-percent increase in attendance from the 2016 Finals.
Boys Basketball drew the second-most fans in 2017-18 – 311,494 – keyed in part by a 5-percent increase at the Regional level. Girls Basketball remained the most highly attended girls sport with 158,546 fans – including 104,243 at the District level, the second-highest total at that level of the tournament since 2009-10. Volleyball was the second-highest attended girls sport this past school year, with 105,414 fans making for an overall increase of nearly 3 percent from the 2016-17 tournament – with increases in attendance enjoyed at the District, Regional, Quarterfinal and Finals levels.
Two more girls sports saw increased attendance in 2017-18. Girls Swimming & Diving enjoyed increases at both the Diving Qualification and MHSAA Finals levels for a total of 4,946 fans – a 7-percent increase from 2016-17. Girls Gymnastics also enjoyed increased attendance at both levels of its postseason for a grand total of 2,314 fans – the most for that sport since 2002-03 and an increase of 7 percent as well from the previous season.
Two more sports also set MHSAA Finals records. The Softball Finals, held in conjunction with the Baseball Finals at Michigan State University, drew 6,860 fans to set a record for the second straight season (and baseball drew its most Finals fans since the 2006 season). The Team Wrestling Finals – contended for the first time at Wings Event Center in Kalamazoo – enjoyed a 19-percent increase from 2016-17 with an audience of 9,469 fans that broke the record set at the conclusion of the 2004-05 season.
Also of note:
• Although girls lacrosse saw a slight dip in overall attendance to 5,538 fans this spring, that total still was the third-highest since the MHSAA began sponsoring a postseason tournament for the sport in 2004-05.
• Boys Soccer Districts drew 15,438 fans, the sport’s fourth straight increase at that level and the most to watch Districts since 2008-09.
• The Girls & Boys Cross Country Finals drew 10,445 fans, an increase of nearly 3 percent and the highest total in six seasons.
The MHSAA is a private, not-for-profit corporation of voluntary membership by more than 1,500 public and private senior high schools and junior high/middle schools which exists to develop common rules for athletic eligibility and competition. No government funds or tax dollars support the MHSAA, which was the first such association nationally to not accept membership dues or tournament entry fees from schools. Member schools which enforce these rules are permitted to participate in MHSAA tournaments, which attract more than 1.4 million spectators each year.
MHSAA 2025-26 School Year Classifications Announced
By
Geoff Kimmerly
MHSAA.com senior editor
April 7, 2025
Classifications for Michigan High School Athletic Association elections and postseason tournaments for the 2025-26 school year have been announced, with enrollment breaks for postseason tournaments posted to each sport’s page on the MHSAA Website.
Classifications for the upcoming school year are based on a second semester count date, which for MHSAA purposes was Feb. 12. The enrollment figure submitted for athletic classification purposes may be different from the count submitted for school aid purposes, as it does not include students ineligible for athletic competition because they reached their 19th birthday prior to Sept. 1 of the current school year and will not include alternative education students if none are allowed athletic eligibility by the local school district.
All sports’ tournaments are conducted with schools assigned to equal or nearly equal divisions, with lines dependent on how many schools participate in those respective sports.
For 2025-26, there are 754 tournament-qualified member schools. Schools recently were notified of their classification, and sport-by-sport divisions were posted to the MHSAA Website today. MHSAA Executive Director Mark Uyl said a school may not subsequently lower its enrollment figure. However, if a revised enrollment figure is higher and indicates that a school should be playing in a higher division, that school would be moved up.
Three MHSAA Finals champions crowned during the first two seasons of this 2024-25 school year are set to move to new divisions for 2025-26. The Orchard Lake St. Mary’s (11-player Division 2) and Deckerville (8-player Division 1) football teams won titles in November but will move into 11-player Division 3 and 8-player Division 2, respectively, this upcoming season. Holland Christian’s boys tennis team – champion in Lower Peninsula Division 4 this past fall – will move into Lower Peninsula Division 3.
Schools also may request to play in a higher classification or division in a sport for a minimum of two years. Requests to opt up in fall sports for 2025-26 must be submitted by May 1, winter sports by Aug. 14 and spring sports by Oct. 15
Visit the respective sport pages on the MHSAA Website to review the divisional alignments for all MHSAA-sponsored tournament sports. Click the “SPORTS” menu at the top of this page to access the page for each sport, then the “Assignments” link on the selected sport page and then “DIVISION LIST” to see the 2025-26 division. Boys volleyball, which will begin play with MHSAA sponsorship in 2025-26, will be classified in September, providing more time to identify the number of schools that will have varsity teams in that sport for its inaugural season.
Traditional classes (A, B, C, D) – formerly used to establish tournament classifications – are used only for MHSAA elections. To determine traditional classifications, after all counts are submitted, tournament-qualified member schools are ranked according to enrollment and then split as closely into quarters as possible. For 2025-26, there are 188 member schools each in Class A and Class B, and 189 member schools each in Class C and Class D.
Effective with the 2025-26 school year, schools with 788 or more students are in Class A. The enrollment limits for Class B are 370-787, Class C is 171-369, and schools with enrollments of 170 and fewer are Class D. The break between Classes A and B decreased five students from 2024-25, the break between Classes B and C decreased eight students, and the break between Classes C and D is two students higher than for the 2024-25 school year.
The new classification breaks will see 22 schools move up in Class for 2025-26 while 22 schools will move down:
Moving Up from Class B to Class A
Adrian
Bloomfield Hills Marian
Fruitport
Hastings
Marysville
Niles
Owosso
Moving Down from Class A to Class B
Battle Creek Harper Creek
Detroit East English
Linden
Sault Ste. Marie
Sparta
St. Johns
Wayland
Moving Up from Class C to Class B
Clawson
Detroit Central
Hartford
Kent City
Napoleon
Taylor Prep
Warren Michigan Collegiate
Moving Down from Class B to Class C
Clinton Township Clintondale
Constantine
Erie Mason
Fennville
Ishpeming Westwood
Ovid-Elsie
Quincy
Moving Up from Class D to Class C
Benton Harbor Countryside Academy
Detroit Crockett Midtown Science & Medicine
Kalamazoo Phoenix
Fulton
New Buffalo
New Haven Merritt Academy
Traverse City Greenspire
Ubly
Moving Down from Class C to Class D
Ann Arbor Central Academy
Eau Claire
Fowler
Ishpeming
Marine City Cardinal Mooney
Southfield Manoogian
Three Oaks River Valley
Whittemore-Prescott
New Postseason-Eligible Tournament Schools in 2025-26
Ann Arbor Michigan Islamic Academy
Athens Factoryville Christian
Flint Cultural Center
Enrollment Breaks by Classes – 2025-26
(Number of schools in parentheses)
Class A: 788 and above (188 schools)
Class B: 370 – 787 (188)
Class C: 171 – 369 (189)
Class D: 170 and below (189)
The MHSAA is a private, not-for-profit corporation of voluntary membership by more than 1,500 public and private senior high schools and junior high/middle schools which exists to develop common rules for athletic eligibility and competition. No government funds or tax dollars support the MHSAA, which was the first such association nationally to not accept membership dues or tournament entry fees from schools. Member schools which enforce these rules are permitted to participate in MHSAA tournaments, which attract more than 1.4 million spectators each year.