MHSAA 2026-27 School Year Classifications Announced
By
Geoff Kimmerly
MHSAA.com senior editor
April 7, 2026
Classifications for Michigan High School Athletic Association elections and postseason tournaments for the 2026-27 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. 11. 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 2026-27, there are 755 tournament-qualified member schools. Schools recently were notified of their classification, and sport-by-sport divisions were posted to the MHSAA Website today (April 7). 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.
Five MHSAA Finals champions from fall and winter this school year will change divisions for 2026-27, including a few which have dominated over the first half of this decade.
Whitmore Lake’s girls cross country team will compete in Lower Peninsula Division 3 this upcoming fall coming off three straight Division 4 titles, and Farmington Hills Mercy’s girls swimming & diving team will be moving to Division 3 after winning the last three Division 2 championships. Allen Park’s competitive cheer team, which has won the last three Division 2 championships, will compete in Division 1 next winter. Reigning LPD4 girls golf champion Grand Rapids NorthPointe Christian will move into Division 3 this fall, and Division 3 girls volleyball champion Kingsley will be moving into Division 2.
Among spring sports teams currently competing, Pickford’s boys track & field team won the last three Upper Peninsula Division 2 titles and will move to Division 3 for 2027 after competing in Division 2 again this spring, while Newberry – winners of the last two UP Division 3 titles – will move into Division 2 in 2027 after competing in Division 3 this season. The Pickford and Newberry girls teams, both coming off Finals championships last spring as well, will make the same switches for 2027. Powers North Central boys golf, which won the last two UP Division 3 titles, will compete in Division 3 again this spring but move to Division 2 next year.
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 2026-27 must be submitted by May 1, winter sports by Aug. 15 and spring sports by Oct. 15
Visit the respective sport pages at MHSAA.com to review the divisional alignments for all MHSAA-sponsored tournament sports. Click the “SPORTS” menu above to access the page for each sport, then the “Assignments” link on the selected sport page and then “DIVISION LIST” to see the 2026-27 division.
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 2026-27, there are 188 member schools in Class A and 189 each in Class B, Class C and Class D.
Effective with the 2026-27 school year, schools with 783 or more students are in Class A. The enrollment limits for Class B are 358-782, Class C is 167-357, and schools with enrollments of 166 and fewer are Class D. The break between Classes A and B decreased five students from 2025-26, the break between Classes B and C decreased 12 students, and the break between Classes C and D decreased four students from the 2025-26 school year.
The new classification breaks will see 20 schools move up in Class for 2026-27 while 18 schools will move down:
Moving Up from Class B to Class A
Battle Creek Harper Creek
Chelsea
Harper Woods
Linden
Parma Western
Pontiac
Wayland
Moving Down from Class A to Class B
Adrian
Bay City John Glenn
Fruitport
Grand Rapids Kenowa Hills
Marysville
Owosso
Stevensville Lakeshore
Moving Up from Class C to Class B
Detroit Communication Media Arts
Detroit The School at Marygrove
Ecorse
Fennville
Lake City
Ovid-Elsie
Moving Down from Class B to Class C
Flint Hamady
Manistee
Napoleon
Taylor Prep
Waterford Oakside Prep
Moving Up from Class D to Class C
Brimley
Coldwater Pansophia Academy
Ishpeming
Jackson Prep
Newberry
Petersburg Summerfield
Vestaburg
Moving Down from Class C to Class D
Fulton
Kalamazoo Phoenix
Mayville
Taylor Trillium Academy
Traverse City Greenspire
Vandercook Lake
New Postseason-Eligible Tournament Schools in 2026-27
Calumet Copper Island
Interlochen New Covenant Christian
West Branch Alternative Education Academy
Jackson da Vinci
Enrollment Breaks by Classes – 2026-27
(Number of schools in parentheses)
Class A: 783 and above (188 schools)
Class B: 358 – 782 (189)
Class C: 167 – 357 (189)
Class D: 166 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.
Applications Available for 2025-26 MHSAA/Farm Bureau Insurance Scholar-Athlete Awards
By
Geoff Kimmerly
MHSAA.com senior editor
September 30, 2025
One of the Michigan High School Athletic Association’s most popular programs, the Scholar-Athlete Award, will again with Farm Bureau Insurance present 32 $2,000 scholarships to top student-athletes at member high schools during the 2025-26 school year.
The MHSAA/Farm Bureau Insurance Scholar-Athlete Award highlights the value extracurricular activities play in the total education of high school students, often improving their academic achievements in the process. The Scholar-Athlete Award is in its 37th year. Since the award’s inception in 1988-89, Farm Bureau Insurance has presented $1,152,000 in scholarships through this program.
The first 30 scholarships will be presented on a graduated basis across the MHSAA’s traditional class structure. From Class A schools, six boys and six girls will receive scholarships; from Class B schools, four boys and four girls; from Class C schools, three boys and three girls; and from Class D schools, two boys and two girls will be honored. The final two scholarships will be awarded at-large to minority recipients, regardless of school size. The scholarships may be used at the institution of higher learning the recipients attend during the first year at those colleges.
Applications from individual schools will be limited to the number of available scholarships in their enrollment class. Class A schools may submit the names of six boys and six girls, Class B schools may submit four boys and four girls, Class C may submit three boys and three girls and Class D may submit two boys and two girls.
Students applying for Scholar-Athlete Awards must be graduating during the 2025-26 school year, carrying an unrounded 3.5 (on a 4.0 scale) grade-point average and have won a varsity letter in a sport in which the MHSAA sponsors a postseason tournament: baseball, girls and boys basketball, girls and boys bowling, competitive cheer, girls and boys cross country, field hockey, football, girls and boys golf, gymnastics, ice hockey, girls and boys lacrosse, girls and boys skiing, girls and boys soccer, softball, girls and boys swimming & diving, girls and boys tennis, girls and boys track & field, girls and boys volleyball and wrestling.
Applicants will be required to show involvement in other school and community activities and submit an essay on the importance of sportsmanship in educational athletics.
Information – including answers to a number of frequently asked questions – and links to the application are available online on the Scholar-Athlete Award page. Applications are available in digital format only and must be submitted online by 4 p.m. Dec. 5.
A committee composed of school administrators from across the state will select finalists and winners in late January, with the winners to be announced throughout February. All applicants, finalists and scholarship recipients will be announced on the MHSAA Website. The 32 scholarship recipients will be recognized during the 2026 MHSAA Boys Basketball Finals at the Breslin Student Events Center in East Lansing.
Farm Bureau Insurance of Michigan was founded in 1949 by Michigan farmers who wanted an insurance company that worked as hard as they did. Those values still guide the company today and are a big reason why it is known as Michigan’s Insurance Company, dedicated to protecting the farms, families, and businesses of this great state. Farm Bureau Insurance agents across Michigan provide a full range of insurance services – life, home, auto, farm, business, retirement, Lake Estate®, and more – protecting more than 660,000 Michigan residents.
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.