New IHSAA sectional alignments are out. Here are takeaways with teams on move.
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The Indiana High School Athletic Association unveiled the new sectional alignments for the next two years in six team sports.
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The IHSAA executive committee unanimously accepted the recommendations of the respective realignment committees, which determined the sectional groups in meetings earlier this month for the 2026-27 and 2027-28 school years. The changes are for football, boys and girls basketball, boys and girls soccer and volleyball.
The baseball and softball realignment committee will meet late this summer, and their recommendations will be made to executive committee at a later meeting.
While there are not as many major changes as there were two years ago to the new classification metrics, which place the largest 20% of schools in 4A, next 25% in 3A, next 25% in 2A and smallest 30% in Class A, there are some changes. Here are some of my initial major takeaways from the realignment:
Football
>>>My eyes are always drawn to Class 6A football. One of the biggest changes will come in the north side of the bracket with Carmel, Westfield, Fishers and Hamilton Southeastern in the same sectional. Wow. No easy route there. It was split up during the last two-year period with Carmel and Westfield in one group and HSE and Fishers in another.
>>>Zionsville jumps from the north to south side of the bracket in 6A and joins Avon, Ben Davis and two-time defending state champion Brownsburg in Sectional 5. Pike moves over to Sectional 6 with Lawrence North, Lawrence Central and North Central.
>>>Decatur Central, which has one more year in 6A due to the tournament success factor, moves from Sectional 6 to 7 with Franklin Central, Perry Meridian, Southport and Warren Central.
>>>Franklin Central had been lumped in with Center Grove in Sectional 8. But with Whiteland moving up from 5A to 6A, the Warriors now join the mix there with Center Grove, Columbus North and Jeffersonville.
>>>Class 5A still has New Palestine and Cathedral going head-to-head in Sectional 13. Greenfield-Central, Mt. Vernon and Pendleton Heights join them in the five-team group.
>>>Bishop Chatard and Roncalli and in different Class 4A football sectionals. Chatard is in Sectional 21 with Brebeuf Jesuit, Danville, Guerin Catholic and Lebanon, among others. Roncalli is in Sectional 22 with Greenwood, Crispus Attucks, Martinsville, Mooresville and others.
>>>Check this out: In Class 2A Sectional 38 reside both last year’s 3A state champion (Cascade) and last year’s Class A state champion (South Putnam). Crazy.
Basketball
>>>In boys’ basketball, New Palestine is moving up to Class 4A and will join Sectional 10 with Tech, Lawrence Central, Lawrence North, North Central and Warren Central. A little weird.
>>>Mooresville moves into Class 4A Sectional 11 with Avon, Brownsburg, Plainfield, Ben Davis and Pike. Greenwood, up from 3A, takes Mooresville’s place in Sectional 12.
>>>Class 3A has a major change with Brebeuf Jesuit moving into Sectional 26 with Cathedral and Crispus Attucks. Brebeuf had been in Sectional 25.
There are not a lot of major changes in football and basketball as two years ago.
This story will be updated.
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This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: IHSAA sectional realignment: Major takeaways from changes