New IHSAA enrollment figures: How it all adds up for Bloomington area programs
The IHSAA released it's official enrollment numbers for the 2024-26 school years and in conjunction with the new 20-25-25-30 classification formula announced last June, it could mean some big changes in the postseason, especially for Edgewood.
The new splits will see the biggest 20% of schools in 4A, then the next 25% in 3A, the next 25% in 2A and the remaining 30% in 1A. These will be consistent across all sports with four classes of competition (volleyball, basketball, baseball, softball) save for soccer, which has just three classes.
The IHSAA will announce the official classifications for each school in each sport in the coming weeks, a press release said. After that, sectional assignments will be doled out and put up for approval at the IHSAA Executive Committee's April meeting.
Here's what the numbers mean for our local schools:
Bloomington South, North in top 60
South checks in 52nd at 1,681 students while North is 55th at 1,589 and solidly in the lower half of Class 5A for football and middle of the pack 4A for other sports.
In Conference Indiana, Southport is the biggest school now, 23rd at 2,368 with Columbus North 26th at 2,267. Terre Haute South is 53rd at 1,609 and Terre Haute South is 60th at 1,467.
Class 5A in football will have 32 schools, with Whiteland now the biggest at 2,074. Valparaiso and Lafayette Harrison both bumped up to 31st and and 28th, which would put them in 6A. Fort Wayne South, Kokomo and Mt. Vernon (Fortville) are dropping to 5A, so the only southern sectional lineup change likely comes in Sectional 9 where Harrison was playing.
Mooresville grew from 70th to 68th (1,398) and Martinsville was 75th (1,315). Bedford North Lawrence dropped from 69th to 79th at 1,242, making it one of the smallest in 4A.
Changes coming for Edgewood
As for Class 4A, Sectional 13 could be losing Greenwood, which came in 82nd and would be the largest 3A school. At 20%, the math puts 81 of the state's 407 teams in 4A and 25% means 3A should have 102 schools.
Also slated to move down to 3A: New Palestine, Cathedral, Crispus Attucks, Jennings County, Evansville Central, Shelbyville and Roncalli.
Edgewood came in 133rd at 761 students and Owen Valley is 150th with 650. Northview remains the biggest school in the Western Indiana Conference at 112th (894). With 2A-3A cut off math at 183 schools, dropping to 2A would be West Vigo (189th), Monrovia (196th), Brown County (205th at 488 students) and South Vermillion (212th). Sullivan (503) climbed from 215th in 197th.
Soon to be former WIC members, Cascade (178th) will jump to 3A while Greencastle (201st) and North Putnam (224th) remain in 2A. Cloverdale, however, dropped to 303rd and end up in 1A.
That leaves Cascade, Tri-West, Danville, Speedway, Indian Creek and Greenwood as the closest 3A neighbors to the north and Washington, Vincennes and Jasper to the south, but those schools are more connected to the Evansville area.
Few changes for small schools
Linton is 248th (387) and Eastern Greene 272nd (351) to stay firmly in 2A but Mitchell plummeted from 222nd to 335th with a school body of just 212 and will now play in 1A.
Lighthouse Christian came in 398th out of 407 schools with an enrollment of 74, one of 16 schools with fewer than 100 students.
Seven Oaks Classical, which will become a fully participating IHSAA member in the 2026-27 school year, was listed at 106.
A complete list of school enrollments is posted at IHSAA.org.
Contact Jim Gordillo at jgordillo@heraldt.com and follow on X @JimGordillo.
This article originally appeared on The Herald-Times: New IHSAA enrollment figures, classifications could mean big changes
