EAST LANSING — Classifications for the Michigan High School Athletic Association for the 2020-21 school year have been announced, including football divisions determined prior to the season for the first time since 1998, along with enrollment breakdowns for postseason tournaments for each sport.

Menominee, Negaunee, St. Ignace, L’Anse and Painsedale-Jeffers are among the Upper Peninsula schools affected in some sports.

Classifications for the upcoming school year are based on a second semester count date, which was Feb. 12. The enrollment figure submitted for athletic classification purposes may be different from the count submitted for school aid purposes, MHSAA noted.

For 2020-21, there are 752 tournament-qualified member schools. Schools recently were notified of their classification, and sport-by-sport divisions were posted to the MHSAA website on Monday morning.

MHSAA Executive Director Mark Uyl said schools may not subsequently lower their enrollment figure. However, if revised enrollment figures are higher and indicate that a school should be playing in a higher division, that school would be moved up.

Football will undergo a significant classification change for the 2020 season, with teams in both 11- and 8-player assigned their divisions before the season for the first time since 1998. From 1999-2019, divisions for the 256-team 11-player field (and later the 8-player tournament) were determined after the regular season. There are no longer any automatic qualifiers to the playoffs in 11-player or 8-player.

The top 32 teams in each division of 11-player will be determined by playoff points, with eight divisions of playoff competition held. A similar format was implemented for the 8-player playoffs last season, with 16 teams per division qualifying for the playoffs in two divisions.

The playoff points formulas can be found on the MHSAA website. A hard enrollment limit also will take effect this fall for teams to be eligible for the 8-player tournament — all schools with 215 or fewer students are eligible for the 8-player playoffs if they play that format of football during the regular season.

Traditional classes (A, B, C, D) — formerly used to establish tournament classifications — are used only for MHSAA board elections. To determine traditional classifications, after all counts are submitted, tournament-qualified member schools are ranked according to enrollment and then split as closely into quarters as possible. For 2020-21, there are 188 member schools in each of the four classes.

Effective for the 2020-21 school year, schools with 831 or more students are in Class A. The enrollment limits for Class B are 392-830, Class C is 182-391, and schools with enrollments of 181 and fewer are Class D. The break between Classes A and B decreased 32 students from 2019-20, the break between Classes B and C decreased three students, and the break between Classes C and D is seven students fewer than the 2019-20 school year.

The new classification breaks will see 18 schools move up in class for 2020-21 while 15 schools will move down, with only two U.P schools among the 18. Menominee will move down to Class C, one student inside the parameters at 361. Painesdale-Jeffers, with an enrollment of 195, moves up to Class C.

There has been some moving of teams in various sports, into different divisons, throughout the U.P. On the football side, there are a couple of U.P changes. However, all area teams remain in their respective divisions, in both 11- and 8-player competition from last season.

Both Munising and Lake Linden-Hubbell made the move from 11-player to 8-player competition for the upcoming 2020 season. With the Mustangs and the Lakes switching from 11-player to 8, they leave the Iron Division (small school) of the Western Peninsula Athletic Conference (West PAC). That also reduces the number of 11-player teams to 20, and increases the number of 8-player teams to 15.

Of the 20 11-player teams, four of them are co-operative teams, while there are five 8-player squads that are co-operatively run.

On the girls side, the enrollment parameters for basketball and volleyball are the same. There are notable changes in Division 3 for both of those sports. Four teams entered Division 3 while Ironwood moved down to Division 4, although the Red Devils Boys will remain in Division 3, due to the enrollment parameters being different for selected girls sports than the coinciding boys sport.

Perennial girls basketball powerhouse St. Ignace moves up from being in Division 4 the last couple of seasons. Longtime Great Northern Conference member Menominee has seen its enrollment drop to the point of the Maroons falling to Division 3 for 2020-21.

Copper Country schools L’Anse and Painsedale-Jeffers also make the move to Division 3 from Division 4, like St. Ignace.

In girls tennis, which is a fall sport, a notable change will see Westwood move up to Division 1. The Lady Patriots have won four straight Division 2 U.P Championships. Kingsford remains in Division 1, while Iron Mountain remains in Division 2.

Another notable change for a Marquette County school will be the Negaunee boys basketball team. The Miners, with an enrollment of 406, will shift to Division 2 and will have the smallest enrollment in Division 2 in the state.

They would potentially face Kingsford in the post-season instead of Iron Mountain, Norway or West Iron. Menominee, meanwhile, could potentially go against Iron Mountain, Norway or West Iron in Division 3.

The Lady Miners will remain in Division 3 for basketball, due to the enrollment parameters being different for selected girls sports than the coinciding boys sport.

Area co-operative teams such as the Kingsford Flivvers hockey team, the Norway ski team, and Kingsford swim team will remain in the same divisions for postseason competition as this past season.

Kingsford and Iron Mountain field their own wrestling teams, and will remain in Divisions 3 and 4, respectively, for 2020-21 season.

Norway and Iron Mountain each field their own competitive cheer teams and both compete in Division 4.

There are only eight competitive cheer teams in the U.P, the other six being Marquette, Manistique, Munising, Negaunee, Escanaba and Gladstone.

More information can be found at https://www.mhsaa.com/.

Matt McCarthy can be reached at mmccarthy@ironmountaindailynews.com or by calling 906-774-2772 ext. 222.