New Math: Division & Multiplication Problems
July 25, 2017
By Jack Roberts
MHSAA Executive Director
This is the second part in a series on MHSAA tournament classification, past and present, that will be published over the next two weeks. This series originally ran in this spring's edition of MHSAA benchmarks.
High school tournament classifications went viral before there was social media and most of us knew what “viral” meant.
Much as a virus infects computers today or has created epidemics of disease around the world for centuries, high school tournament classification – once introduced – tends to spread uncontrollably. Once started, it tends to keep expanding and rarely contracts.
While we are still some distance from providing every team a trophy as a result of expanding high school tournament classification across the country, there is criticism nevertheless that we are headed in that direction – a philosophy which is supposed to exist only in local youth sports for our youngest children.
Michigan could be blamed for all this. Michigan is generally accepted as the first state to provide different classifications for season-ending tournaments for different sized schools. It started a century ago. Today, every state has various classifications for its tournaments in most if not all sports. And it is a bit ironic that Michigan – creator of the classification chaos – more than most other states has kept the number of tournament classes or divisions under control.
Yes, there is evidence that tournament classifications have expanded over the years in Michigan, especially with the relatively recent introduction of tournaments in football and the late 1990s’ move from classes to divisions in most MHSAA tournaments. But the MHSAA Representative Council has held true to its word when it expanded the playoffs for football from four classes to eight divisions: this is needed because of unique factors of football, factors that exist in no other sport; and all other sports should be capped at a maximum of four classes or divisions.
Kentucky is the preeminent defender of single-class basketball. All of its 276 high schools compete for the single state championship for each gender. In Indiana, there are still open wounds from its move in 1998 from one to four classes for its 400 schools in basketball.
Multi-class tournaments have tended to increase the number of non-public school champions, which some states are trying to lower through enrollment “multipliers,” and also tend to increase the number of repeat champions, which some states are trying to affect with “success factors” which lift smaller schools into classifications for larger schools if they take home too many trophies.
While there is considerable evidence that state tournaments do as much bad as good for educational athletics, state associations persist in providing postseason tournaments because, on balance, the experiences are supposed to be good for student-athletes. And once we reach that conclusion it is just a small leap to believe that if the tournaments are good for a few, they must be better for more – which leads to creating more and more tournament classifications. One becomes two classes, then three, then four and so forth.
While the argument is that more classifications or divisions provides more students with opportunities to compete and win, it is undeniable that the experience changes as the number of tournament classifications expands. It is not possible for state associations to provide the same level of support when tournament classifications expand to multiple venues playing simultaneously. For example, there is less audio and video broadcast potential at each venue, and less media coverage to each venue. Focus is diluted and fans diminished at each championship.
No one can argue reasonably that today's two-day MHSAA Football Finals of eight championship games has the same pizazz as the one-day, four-games event conducted prior to 1990.
In some states the number of divisions has grown so much that it is difficult to see much difference between the many season-ending state championship games and a regular-season event in the same sport.
It is a balancing act. And Michigan has been studying that balance longer than any other state, and charting a steadier course than most.
Addition by Division
The shift to Divisions for MHSAA Tournament play in numerous sports has added up to a greater number of champions for teams and individuals across the state. Following are the sports currently employing a divisional format, and the procedures for determining enrollment and classification.
In 23 statewide or Lower Peninsula tournaments, schools which sponsor the sport are currently divided into nearly equal divisions. They are:
- Baseball - 4 Divisions
- Boys Bowling - 4 Divisions
- Girls Bowling - 4 Divisions
- Girls Competitive Cheer - 4 Divisions
- LP Boys Cross Country - 4 Divisions
- LP Girls Cross Country - 4 Divisions
- LP Boys Golf - 4 Divisions
- LP Girls Golf - 4 Divisions
- Ice Hockey - 3 Divisions
- Boys Lacrosse - 2 Divisions
- Girls Lacrosse - 2 Divisions
- Boys Skiing - 2 Divisions
- Girls Skiing - 2 Divisions
- LP Boys Soccer - 4 Divisions LP
- Girls Soccer - 4 Divisions
- Girls Softball - 4 Divisions
- LP Boys Swimming & Diving - 3 Divisions
- LP Girls Swimming & Diving - 3 Divisions
- LP Boys Tennis - 4 Divisions
- LP Girls Tennis - 4 Divisions
- LP Boys Track & Field - 4 Divisions
- LP Girls Track & Field - 4 Divisions
- Wrestling - 4 Divisions
Lists of schools for each division of these 23 tournaments are posted on MHSAA.com approximately April 1. Listings of schools in Upper Peninsula tournaments for their sports are also posted on MHSAA.com. The lists are based on school memberships and sports sponsorships in effect or anticipated for the following school year, as known to the MHSAA office as of a date in early March.
In football, the 256 schools which qualify for MHSAA 11-player playoffs are placed in eight equal divisions annually on Selection Sunday. Beginning in 2017, the 8-player divisions will be determined in a like manner on Selection Sunday as well, with 32 qualifying schools placed in two divisions.
Schools have the option to play in any higher division in one or more sports for a minimum of two years.
The deadlines for "opt-ups" are as follows:
- Applications for fall sports must be submitted by April 15
- Applications for winter sports must be submitted by Aug. 15
- Applications for spring sports must be submitted by Oct. 15
Subsequent to the date of these postings for these tournaments, no school will have its division raised or lowered by schools opening or closing, schools adding or dropping sports, schools exercising the option to play in a higher division, or approval or dissolution of cooperative programs.
When the same sport is conducted for boys and girls in the same season (e.g., track & field and cross country), the gender that has the most sponsoring schools controls the division breaks for both genders.
Seaholm Dominates in Team Title Repeat, Mattawan's Cheng Makes Finals Dream Come True
By
Keith Dunlap
Special for MHSAA.com
June 4, 2026
MIDLAND — After being in such firm control, Mattawan senior Ana Cheng admitted there was a sense things were slipping away a bit Thursday.
Mired in the No. 1 singles final against Harriet Ogilvie of Grand Rapids Forest Hills Northern at the MHSAA Lower Peninsula Division 2 Finals, the top-seeded Cheng won the first set and was up 4-3 in the second after breaking Ogilvie.
But the second-seeded Ogilvie answered back, winning the next two games to go up 5-4.
“Honestly, I was thinking, ‘I couldn’t have dropped this set? Just win the third,” Cheng said. “Oh goodness. I just thought that I really needed to lock in on my shots and figure out the best plan to win.”
Cheng did that, rallying to win the next three games to earn a 7-5 victory in the second and a straight-set win over Ogilvie, an opponent she also defeated three weeks ago.
Cheng – who will play at the next level at Oberlin College in Ohio – had reached the quarterfinals last season as the seventh seed.
“When you play in high school, this is something you always dream about happening,” Cheng said. “You’re a senior and you always want to win states, so this is a dream come true for me.”
In the team event, it came as little surprise that Birmingham Seaholm repeated as champion and won its third title in four years, given the Maples entered the tournament with top seeds in seven of the eight flights.
Seaholm finished with 33 points, finishing well ahead of Forest Hills Northern and Farmington Hills Mercy, which shared runner-up honors with 22 points apiece.
In the midst of the celebration afterward, it was a big sigh of relief for Seaholm head coach Casey Cullen, who knew his squad was the hunted all season.
“It was all in our heads that, ‘Hey, we need to work harder than we have, because we have a target on our back,’” Cullen said. “I mean, everyone wants to beat us since we won last year. We didn’t want to get complacent. So it was in my head a lot of the days. I think they felt it and worked their butts off, and this is the end result.”
Seaholm advanced to the championship match in five flights and received flight titles from sophomore Devon Rusk at No. 2 singles, junior Sabrina Dunn at No. 4 singles, the team of Cate French and Kate Crowley at No. 3 doubles and the duo of Alina Villager and Jacqueline Supancich at No. 4 doubles.
“It was a total team effort,” Cullen said. “You look at our state seeds, we were the one seed in seven out of eight flights. I’ve never seen that. That’s a testament to how locked in they were during the season. Not a lot of silly losses that screwed up their seeds.”
Even better for Seaholm is there is a core of 11 juniors on the roster who should make a three-peat next year a likely possibility.
“The future is still bright,” Cullen said.
The No. 1 doubles title was captured by Forest Hills Northern’s fourth-seeded team of Clare Knoester and Kylie Hatfield. They defeated Seaholm’s top-seeded tandem of Lucy Jen and Sophia Arndt in the semifinals, bouncing back after losing the first game 6-0 to win 7-6 (4) and 6-2.
The other two flight winners were from Mercy. Senior Scarlett Manchinger claimed the title at No. 2 singles, while Mercy’s team of Anna Naida and Gabby Owens won at No. 2 doubles.
PHOTOS (Top) Birmingham Seaholm’s six flight winners stand together for a photo with the championship trophy Thursday at Midland Tennis Center. (Middle) Mattawan’s Ana Cheng rallied to win her No. 1 singles championship match in straight sets. (Click for more from High School Sports Scene.)