4A Conference coaches, including the Mica Mountain coach Pat Nugent, welcome the Arizona Interscholastic Association (AIA) Executive Board approving Thursday in a special meeting a 4A proposal to remove its teams from Open Division football consideration.
“It’s about time, (the AIA) should have never included 4A,” Nugent, whose Thunderbolts are in the 4A Kino region, mentioned in a text message.
“Due to enrollment, the depth of 4A teams can not compete with the big 6A schools. Now, we can focus on the 4A championship and not worry about what happens if we go 10-0.”
Nugent’s Thunderbolts are 5-0 overall heading into the 4A Kino portion of the schedule. They have a bye week this week and will host Pueblo (2-3) on Oct. 11.
The emergency meeting was scheduled after the 4A Conference met Monday and forwarded the proposal to the AIA.
The first football power rankings for 4A-6A schools of the 2024 season will be posted Tuesday.
The power rankings are used primarily to seed the state tournaments.
Former Canyon del Oro coach Dustin Peace voiced concern last season when the unbeaten Dorados were ranked No. 8 out of the eight Open Division teams with one week left in the regular season.
“Well, it is frustrating for sure,” Peace said at the time. “Hoping that the teams below us win and that is enough to bump them above us. It’s just kinda silly any 4A team would be ranked this high. We won a game by two points this year to another 4A (Mica Mountain) and that gets us in the Open?”
CDO eventually did not make the Open Division and ran the table in the 4A state playoffs to a championship at 14-0.
The conversation to potentially exclude 4A football schools from the Open Division started two years ago, said AIA Executive Director David Hines.
That conversation picked up steam during the 4A Conference’s meeting at the Arizona Interscholastic Athletic Administrators Association’s (AIAAA) September conference in Prescott. A survey was sent to 4A schools, and 59 percent of them said they didn’t want to play in the Open Division if their football teams qualified.
The schools were also asked if 4A football programs should still be considered for the Open Division.
That drew 68 percent who responded with a “no” to that question, according to AIA Board President Matt Belden, the 4A Conference representative on the Executive Board.
“The process that we have had for the last many years has worked, and the teams that needed to move up have been successful after being moved up,” Hines said. “But as we anticipated about six years ago, we are starting to get to that saturation point. We don’t have a dominant team now. Those 4A teams should be competing within their conference now.”
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