High school realignment in Utah is almost a reality and the naysayers are out in force wailing and moaning about the inequities of their favorite team being placed in a bracket that they don’t exactly agree with. This does not surprise me as I have had much to say as the process has played out over the past several months.
The high school activities association tries to keep the five divisions equitable but in a state as diverse as Utah, that is not an easy chore with schools that range in size from 2,500 to eight and from the Idaho border to the Arizona border.
Here locally, Emery is about to return to the 2-A ranks after an absence of about 22 years. Emery will now basically be the largest 2-A school instead of the smallest 3-A school. Their competition will be other rural small town schools spread throughout the state.
Carbon High School will stay in a much tougher 3-A with the addition of nine schools that were previously 4-A schools. Orem, Spanish Fork, Payson, Highland, Tooele, Stansbury, Pineview, Dixie and Snow Canyon will all now play in the smaller bracket. And this will make it nearly impossible for a rural 3-A school to ever win a championship again.
While this process will never be easy and this year is certainly no exception, I believe that the process followed this time is probably the fairest ever. The committee decided the number of schools in each division, waited for the enrollment size of each school and then filled in the blanks. There appears to be no favoritism this time around.
The question is this, is Emery better off? Who knows, only time will tell. But this much is certain, they are not worse off.
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