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LHSAA football split deemed unconstitutional

Staff Report

The Louisiana High School Athletic Association announced today that the Select/Non-Select split of the football postseason, which was passed by member school principals in January 2013, has been deemed unconstitutional as per the association’s handbook.
“Last week, in looking to verify that we were procedurally correct in our presentation of a Metro/Non-Metro postseason plan, it came to light that a prior administration had failed to ensure those same steps were taken three years ago,” LHSAA Executive Director Eddie Bonine said in a news release.
Rule 8.7.2 of the LHSAA Constitution states, “Divisions involving two or more classifications may be created by the Executive Committee to provide competition in certain sports.”
Any proposed rule amending divisions of postseason play must be approved by the Executive Committee prior to being heard and voted upon at the Annual Convention.
Leading up to the 2013 Annual Convention, Proposal 18, which split the football postseason into Select and Non-Select, did not travel through the necessary and appropriate steps to be voted upon at the general business meeting.
“The final outcome of splitting all LHSAA football schools into Select and Non-Select postseason brackets is not the issue here,” Bonine said in the release. “The issue was the process that the proposal and its authors failed to complete.”
The LHSAA will continue to analyze the scope of this decision in the coming days among its legal team, Parliamentarian and Executive Committee.
However, as it appears, the LHSAA football postseason shall return to five classifications (1A-5A) with proposals to be heard on the morning of Jan. 29 at the annual convention to potentially amend it further. Any such proposals at that meeting and moving forward must be affirmed by the LHSAA Executive Committee before moving to a vote from member school principals.

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