Football 6A west, others 5A west

Wednesday, August 8, 2018

Siloam Springs will play in the 6A-West football conference for the 2018-2020 Arkansas Activities Association Re-Classification cycle, but the Panthers will be in the 5A-West Conference for all other sports.

The AAA determined last year that football will have six classifications from 2A to 7A, with the largest 16 teams in 7A, the next largest 16 in 6A, and the next 32 in 5A, and so on for football only.

2018-2020 Classification/Conferences

For all sports, except football

5A-East

Greene County Tech

Jonesboro

Marion

Mountain Home

Nettleton

Paragould

Searcy

West Memphis

5A-Central

Little Rock Hall

Jacksonville

Maumelle

Little Rock Parkview

Pine Bluff

Sylvan Hills

Watson Chapel

White Hall

5A-South

Benton

El Dorado

Hot Springs

J.A. Fair

Lake Hamilton

Hot Springs Lakeside

Sheridan

Texarkana

5A-West

Alma

Beebe

Greenbrier

Greenwood

Little Rock Christian

Russellville

Siloam Springs

Vilonia

However for all other SSHS sports -- baseball, basketball, cross country, golf, soccer, softball, swimming, tennis and track and field -- the breakdown is the largest 16 teams are in 6A and the next 32 are 5A, followed by 4A, 3A, 2A and 1A.

This means Siloam Springs will compete in Class 5A for those sports.

The 32 teams in 5A were broken up into the 5A West, East, Central and South with Siloam Springs in the West Conference along with Alma, Beebe, Greenbrier, Greenwood, Little Rock Christian, Russellville and Vilonia.

There won't be any conference tournaments in volleyball, basketball, baseball, softball and soccer to determine postseason eligibility like there have been the previous two seasons.

"For us this does away with the conference tournaments and the seedings and allows our team to earn their state playoff qualification during the regular season," said athletic director Kevin Downing. "We play 14 conference games and that's how you earn your spot. It's not coming down to a conference tournament."

Siloam Springs previously played in the 5A-West Conference in 2011-2012 prior to moving up to Class 6A from 2012-2018.

"It goes back to the way they used to be," Downing said. "It's going to have a feel of what it was like prior to the changes three cycles ago when we moved up to 6A."

The top four conference teams will advance to the playoffs in volleyball, basketball, baseball, softball and soccer. The top six advance in the 6A-West in football as Siloam Springs competes with Benton, El Dorado, Greenwood, Lake Hamilton, Little Rock Hall, Russellville and Sheridan.

Sports on 08/08/2018