MONTGOMERY- The Alabama High School Athletic Association (AHSAA) has approved spring sports alignments for the next two school years. There will be no change in the number of divisions for each spring sport, but baseball, softball and outdoor track, the schools will be divided into seven classifications (1A, 2A, 3A, 4A, 5A, 6A, 7A). For soccer, tennis and girl’s golf, the schools will be divided into four divisions (1A/3A, 4A/5A, 6A, 7A). In boy’s golf, the schools will compete in six divisions (1A/2A, 3A, 4A, 5A, 6A, 7A).

The AHSAA school reclassification for the upcoming 2020-2021 and 2021-2022 school years was announced last November while fall and winter sports alignments were released earlier this year.

For Madison Academy, the overall Mustangs’ athletic programs will be classified in Class 4A, but some sports will change classifications. The football program will drop to Class 4A from 5A a season ago. Basketball will move up to Class 6A. Both baseball and volleyball will participate in Class 5A beginning in the new school year.

Madison Academy had an average daily enrollment of 302.40 students surveyed by the State Department of Education, which classifies each member school of the AHSAA.

The three remaining high schools in the immediate area of Madison will remain in Class 7A.

Sparkman remains the largest of those schools with 1,810.20 average students, which keeps the Madison County school the fourth largest in Alabama behind Hoover, Auburn and Baker Highs. James Clemens has moved past its Madison rival, Bob Jones, into the seventh largest school in the state with a population of 1,603.05. Bob Jones is ranked No. 14 with an average attendance of 1,386.00.

Meanwhile, the AHSAA also adopted the latest rules changes from the National Federation of State High School Associations (NFHS) including further clarifying when a basketball contest is to be forfeited and a proposal, which was not approved to allow for a shot clock.

Among the latest news in the rules changes for high school basketball is the rule (5-4-1) that a game is declared a forfeit if a coach is removed for unsporting conduct and no authorized school personnel are present to assume responsibility of the team.

Rule 10-6-1 was amended to clarify that an official is not required to provide a warning to a coach before a technical foul is given.

According to the NFHS, a total of 540,769 boys participated in basketball among 18,617 schools and 399,067 girls participated in the sport with 18,210 schools across the country. Basketball is the third-most popular sport for boys and girls.