08/27/2026
IHSA EDITS CLASSIFICATIONS;
SOME SCHOOLS MIGHT BUMP UP
The Illinois High School Association (IHSA) Board of Directors met for its regularly scheduled meeting at the IHSA office in Bloomington on Monday, where the Board approved an update to the Classification Policy and provided revised classification cutoffs in multiple IHSA sports that will go into effect for the 2027-2028 school year.
The Board Classification Policy recently approved called for all cutoffs to be rounded to the nearest 50th or 100th numeral. The Board made a slight modification to that on Monday, giving themselves the ability to set cutoffs to the 25th numeral.
Here are the new classification cutoffs for basketball, baseball, softball, and volleyball that will take effect in the 2027-2028 school year (one year from now).
CLASS 1A: 1 to 275 students
CLASS 2A: 275.01 to 600 students
CLASS 3A: 600.01 to 1600 students
CLASS 4A: 1,600.01 or greater
(AreaSports.net) compared the current enrollments of several area schools and the impact that the new classifications will have on these schools, effectively "bumping them up a class" if their enrollment stays relatively the same next school year as their enrollment is this school year.
Herrin, Carterville, Breese Central, Olney, Freeburg, Taylorville, Salem, Effingham, and Rochester would all become 3A schools in basketball, baseball, softball, and volleyball next year (2027-2028) unless their enrollments drop below 600 students. This year they are all above 600 students, but they are in Class 2A based upon the current Classification cutoffs, which is 301 to 700 for Class 2A. With the upper portion of the 2A cutoff changing to 600 next year, each of the schools listed above could become 3A schools in those IHSA sports activities. Meanwhile, Lawrenceville, Sparta, and Tuscola, who are each 1A this year, could potentially bump back up to Class 2A next year.
“When revamping the Classification Policy, one of our goals was to provide member schools with one year notice in advance of any class cutoff changes to help them prepare accordingly,” said IHSA Executive Director Craig Anderson. “All the changes approved today will go into effect during the 2027-28 school year.”
“In revisiting the Policy (on Monday), we recognized that a significant number of schools can be impacted by 25 students in our four-class sports, which can make balancing the total number of competing teams in each class difficult,” said Anderson. “The overall enrollment within our membership is currently declining, so it makes sense to lower some of these cutoffs to keep in line with that trend. The data shows us that the majority of schools who are moving up in classification were competing in that same class just a year or two ago.”
