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How high school sports will operate in the 2025-26 season in North Carolina is now a little clearer.

The North Carolina High School Association Board of Directors capped a busy spring meeting Wednesday by finalizing changes in a number of areas, most notably playoff qualification, in advance of the move to eight classifications beginning this fall.

The Board of Directors – comprised of coaches and administrators from schools across the state – considered a number of proposals from member schools during the two-day session.

 

Playoff changes

 

Perhaps the most notable changes to come out of the meetings relates to how the playoffs will work.

Effective this fall, there will no longer be any automatic qualification for playoffs for conference champions. The provision preventing a school from leapfrogging another school in its conference for playoff qualification has also been removed.

Instead, all playoff qualifiers will be determined by a modified MaxPreps rating. The new formula will be based on a 40-40-20 scale (winning percentage, opponents’ winning percentage and opponents’ opponents’ winning percentage), with no point differential included. All teams in a classification will be ranked and seeded by this formula – conference finish will have no bearing on qualification or seeding.

 

For individual sports, the board approved the following:

 

• Swimming & Diving: To run two championships at one time with the projected increase in time of one hour. They will go from having three regionals – East, Central, and West – to two regionals with one in the East and one in the West.

 

• Golf: One class will start off the front nine and one off the back nine, with two championships conducted at one site. There will be three regional sites for men, two for women.

 

• Wrestling: Qualifiers reduced from 16 to 8; there will be two regionals for each class in wrestling and the top four from each regional will advance to the state championships.

 

• Cross Country: Classes 1A-7A would have three Regional Meets (East, Central and West); 8A will have 2 Regional Meets (East and West); the top 6 teams and the top 7 individuals not on a qualifying team will advance to the state championships The State Championships will go to a 2-day event with four (4) classifications competing each day.

 

• Indoor Track and Field: The top twelve entries in relay events and 12 entries in the individual events.

 

• Outdoor Track and Field: The top 16 entries in relay events and 16 entries in the individual events.

 

• Tennis: Each school will send two doubles teams and two individuals to a pre-regional to compete for the opportunity to advance to the regionals. From pre-regionals, 16 doubles, and 16 singles will advance to regionals. The top two from each regional will advance to the state tournament for a total of eight qualifiers per class. Note: Conference tournaments will be optional. The board also approved using the USTA High School Digital Platform (a component of the USTA’s Serve Tennis Software) for the state individual tennis tournaments for ranking.

 

Tickets

 

The board approved the use of a cash option for payment at playoff games and also approved the first increase in playoff ticket prices since 2018.

First and second-round games in almost every sport will now cost $10 per ticket. Prices will then rise in the rounds that follow at various levels, with the highest-priced ticket being $20 for a state championship football game.

Schools and conferences set prices for regular-season games while playoff ticket prices are controlled by the NCHSAA.

 

Mercy rule

 

The board approved changes to the mercy rule for football and basketball.

A running clock will now be triggered if a team leads by 35 points at halftime or later in both sports.

 

Miscellaneous

 

The board approved extended skill development sessions from 1.5 hours to two hours.

Approved adopting the five-quarter rule in basketball, ending its status as a pilot program

Three new schools – Macon County Early College, Onslow Early College and The Math & Science Academy of Charlotte – will join the NCHSAA in 2025-26. That will bring the total number of schools to 447. Macon Early College won’t be part of any conference in 2025-26 but is expected to draw a few athletes away from Franklin, where its students currently take part in athletics.

Per a report earlier this month in the Smoky Mountain News, the Macon County Board of Education approved having athletics at Macon Early College primarily to keep that school’s enrollment from being counted in Franklin’s enrollment total for the recent NCHSAA realignment.