Maricopa High School will be in the new 5A conference after an appeal down was rejected. Photo by William Lange

Maricopa High School withdrew its appeal to the Arizona Interscholastic Association to drop from the 5A conference to the 4A conference during the first step of the organization’s realignment.

After the initial conference placements were announced, Maricopa Unified School District Athletic Director Mark Cisterna made the decision to appeal in hopes of being placed in a lower division to face a fairer level of competition. However, the AIA did not see the need and denied the appeal.

The AIA’s decision ensures the future of Rams’ athletics will take place in the 5A conference for at least the 2016-17 and 2017-18 school years.

“We’ll be in 5A,” Cisterna said. “They denied everyone. I believe 29 appeals were submitted and they only accepted one. It was Seton Catholic (Preparatory High School) and St. Mary’s (Catholic High School) moving from 3A to 4A, and Notre Dame (Preparatory High School) moving from 4A to 5A that was approved. Otherwise everyone was turned down.”

Overall, according to AIA, 33 schools appealed to go down a conference, 29 were denied, three were withdrawn and one was approved.

The mass denial, and conference realignment as a whole, was in large part due to the last few years of conference disarray within the AIA Division I through VI structure. Over the last two years, dozens of appeals were approved, and the divisions have became imbalanced.

Currently, for Division I football, there are only 17 teams. Of those 17 teams, 16 will make the playoffs. According to the most recent AIA Power Rankings, the Boulder Creek High School Jaguars would make the playoffs with a 1-8 record.

This is a stark comparison to Maricopa’s Division III, which has been the landing point for many schools after their appeals were approved. Presently Division III has 57 teams, and teams with just two losses could miss out on the playoffs.

The new conference alignment is expected to restore balance to the number of teams in each division. Changes to the appeals process are expected to help ensure the conferences remain balanced as well.

In previous years, schools have been able to appeal up or down divisions based on each sport. The new process will require each school to appeal as an athletics program as a whole instead.

“We’ll be all in the same conference,” Cisterna said. “It won’t be spread out like it is now. All our sports will be in the 5A category. From an AD standpoint, it makes it easier. We can avoid the situation we currently have where girls’ basketball in Division II but the boys are in Division III. It’ll give us a chance to compete on the same level as a school and improve.”

The next step in the realignment is splitting each conference into geographic divisions. The athletic directors from each district will have a few weeks to discuss and decide what region fits each school the best. The initial division placement is expected to be announced between Nov. 17 and Nov. 25. Appeals will be heard the following week and a final decision in expected on Dec. 7.

“At this point, we’ll likely be with the southeast schools (such as Queen Creek High School and Williams Field High School) or the central schools (such as Arcadia High School and McClintock High School), but none of that is official yet,” Cisterna said. “I’ll be talking with the other athletic directors to find the best fit for us regionally and competitively.”

Once the divisions are set, conference committees will begin generating schedules for the upcoming season.

Conferences by enrollment as of Oct. 22.