The MHSAA announced last week that it will be adding a multiplier for private schools that are members of the association.
A 1.5 multiplier will go into effect with the next round of reclassification in 2027, MHSAA executive director Rickey Neaves said in a video posted on the association’s website. A multiplier is used by several high school athletic associations to artificially inflate enrollment numbers, which are used to determine a school’s classification. So if a school’s enrollment is 300, for example, the multiplier makes that number 450.
The MHSAA, which reclassifies every two years, uses enrollment numbers for grades 9 through 11.
The purpose of a private school multiplier is to ensure competitive equity against public schools. The multiplier forces private schools to compete in a higher classification.
“This was done because private schools are perceived to control what classification they’re in by limiting the number of people that attend there,” Neaves said.
Eleven private or parochial schools are members of the MHSAA, and all are Class 3A or lower. This past school year, private schools won a combined 14 state championships. St. Patrick claimed four titles – two in soccer, one in cross country and one in swimming. Presbyterian Christian, which joined the MHSAA this past year, won three titles (baseball, boys golf and tennis).
Presbyterian Christian defeated Booneville in the 3A baseball finals last month. The Bobcats have several players who live outside the normal 20-mile radius from which the MHSAA allows private schools to pull students. One PCS player is listed as a resident of Hammond, Louisiana, according to his profile on Perfect Game; Hammond is about 125 miles from Hattiesburg, which is where PCS is located. Another player is listed as living in Perry County, which is about 25 miles from Hattiesburg.
Booneville coach Jake Scott said he was glad to see the multiplier rule passed.
“I think the multiplier is just a way to make it a little more even, whenever you consider the 20-mile radius that they get to get players from,” Scott said. “Normally – not everywhere – but normally a private school is in a more populated area. It’s a way of making it a little more fair.”
Tupelo Christian Prep, the lone MHSAA-affiliated private school in North Mississippi, won state championships this past year in girls cross country and girls track and field. Head football coach and athletics director Trent Hammond, who spent years coaching at public schools, has mixed feelings about the new multiplier rule.
“Where we’re sitting with a 1.5 is a little high,” he said. “Like Alabama did a 1.35. … When’s a private school won the 1A state football championship? Last one I think (was) Cathedral years ago.”
Cathedral won that title in 2014 – its final year in the MHSAA before joining the Mid-South Association of Independent Schools. MHSAA private schools tend to be more dominant in so-called minor sports, such as golf, soccer and tennis. TCPS has won several state titles in cross country and track and field, and Hammond believes a move up to Class 2A would not adversely affect those programs.
“We could’ve competed in 2A this (year), in just our numbers,” he said. “It’s not that we’re faster than anybody, we just have a bunch of kids that do it, and that’s how you get points.”
However, baseball is a different story. TCPS has won two baseball titles, most recently in 2021.
“Is that two too many?” Hammond asked.
While Scott did not voice any criticism of a school like PCS being in the MHSAA, Hammond did.
“The MHSAA grandfathered those kids in,” he said. “And it’s OK. You knew that they were spread out. You knew that they violated rules, that they live too far away. But you grandfathered them in, and then when they show up and they are what they are – it doesn’t make sense.”
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