After months of discussion, the PIAA's debate over expanding the number of football classifications appears to be settled.

On Thursday afternoon at the District 11 media luncheon hosted by St. Luke's University Health Network, Northwestern High School Athletic Director Jason Zimmerman said that all signs point to the approval of a six class system when the PIAA meets on Oct. 7."We are speculating that the votes of support are there for this to pass," said Zimmerman.District 11 falls in line with the statewide support the proposal appears to have.Zimmerman said that District 11 chairman Robert Hartman has sent out a couple of surveys to district coaches, athletic directors and principals to gauge their thoughts and the responses have been nearly unanimous in favor of adding the extra classes."The overwhelming majority wanted to see six classes," said Zimmerman. "I think it's good for the sport, it's good for the kids, and it's been a long time coming."Right now, it appears that the six classes would be equally divided with each class having the same amount of teams, although Zimmerman said that the Super 700 proposal "is not a dead issue." That proposal would have any school with more than 700 male students in the top class and the remaining schools divided equally among five classes.If passed, plans have already been drawn up to put the six-class system into effect next season.The biggest change that six class system will bring is the elimination of either one scrimmage or one regular season game. In District 11, that choice is being left up to the individual leagues. Zimmerman said that both the Colonial League and Eastern Pennsylvania Conference have already decided that they will go with one scrimmage and 10 regular season games. The Anthracite League will be meeting in the near future to decide its plans."Going with one scrimmage means that schools will actually play two games before Labor Day next season," said Zimmerman.Right now, only seven states - Alasaka, Hawaii, New Hampshire, North Dakota, Vermont, West Virginia and Wyoming - have fewer classifications than Pennsylvania and all of them have significantly fewer schools playing high school football. Currently, California is the only state in the nation that has more schools per class than Pennsylvania.The increase to six classes will bring Pennsylvania more in line with other states its size across the country.Zimmerman pointed out a couple of other reasons why he is thrilled with the decision."The additional classes will help reduce the (enrollment) gap between teams in the same class. It levels the playing field," he said. "It also gives more kids a chance to play a meaningful football game in week 11."Although football was the main topic, the district committee members in attendance touched on several other topics:STATUS QUO ... The 10 percent rule which was passed at the last PIAA meeting, (public schools now will count just 10 percent instead of 100 percent of their home-schooled and cyber-schooled students as part of their enrollment) will lower the enrollment numbers of most public schools. But Hartman said there is "zero momentum" for making any adjustment for charter schools or private schools. That includes percentage increases, a mandatory bump up in class, or any other enrollment changes.STEPPING DOWN ... Tamaqua's Herbie Welsh was mentioned along with Betsy Wilson as district committee members who will be retiring at the end of the year. Both Welsh and Wilson have served the district for decades. Welsh, the officials representative on the board, was also a longtime football and basketball referee in the district.MORE, MORE, MORE ... Hartman said he wouldn't be surprised if other team sports also saw an increase in the number of classes, although they all won't necessarily jump to six classes. He said those changes could be voted on and passed as early as December of this year. Sports that already have four classes would likely jump to six while other team sports that have two or three classes right now might see their numbers increase by one extra class.LOW TECH ... Hartman said the District 11 cross country championships will go back to the "stone ages" this year - something he said will be a good thing. "The championships have been a mess the last couple of years and we're going to fix it," said Hartman. That means after struggling with automated timing and results the last couple years, the districts will have bib tags and printers to get the results out this year -- although the results will still also be available electronically. By having several options for results, the district is trying to prevent long delays in getting results out.TENNIS DOUBLEHEADER? ... After playing the Class AA and AAA tennis championships simultaneously the last few years, the district is considering playing them back-to-back this year. The finals will once again be held at Lehigh University.HOOP DREAMS ... Because more facilities are being made available at cheaper costs there is a chance more basketball playoffs games be single games this season. The district still prefers doubleheaders, but they are also trying to avoid the over-crowded conditions they had for some doubleheaders last year.BUSY WEEKEND ... This year, the District 11 basketball, wrestling and swimming championships will all be held the same weekend. Hartman explained that it is a situation that occurs "only every 10 years or so" because of the way dates line up for the PIAA championships.TRACK AND FIELD VENUE ... This year, it was the Eastern Pennsylvania Conference's turn to select the site for the D-11 Track and Field Championships. The district alternates which league gets to choose the site each year. For the 2016 championships, the EPC choose Whitehall High School as the site. In 2017, the Schuylkill League will have the choice.