Syracuse, N.Y. — The New York State Public High School Athletic Association (NYSPHSAA) on Tuesday approved a proposal that would set up a statewide, standardized process for classifying non-public high schools.
Section III’s classification committee meets every other year to determine the classification of non-public schools and is made up of 26 members across Section III’s six leagues, including three representatives from non-public/charter schools. Before Tuesday’s proposal, each section had its own process for classifying non-public schools.
Private, both religious and non-religious, and charter schools are considered non-public schools.
There are 11 non-public schools in Section III — Bishop Ludden-Grimes, Christian Brothers Academy, Faith Heritage, Living Word Academy, Manlius Pebble Hill, Mater Dei Academy, OnTECH, Syracuse Academy of Science, Utica Academy of Science, Utica Notre Dame and Watertown Immaculate Heart Central.
Under the new rules, which come into effect at the start of the 2026-27 school year, Section III’s classification committee will meet yearly and decide on classification based on a standardized process that all 11 sections in the state will follow.
Non-public school teams can move up if they meet at least one of the following criteria:
1. The team achieves a winning percentage of .750 or higher in any of the following categories: overall record, league record or in-class record (with a minimum of four games played).
2. The team is recognized as a league and/or playoff champion.
3. The team is a sectional semifinalist.
4. The team wins a state championship.
They can remain in their current classification if they meet at least one of the following categories:
1. a winning percentage of .500 or above in-class, overall regular season or league competition.
2. the team qualifies for sectionals or wins a first-round sectional game.
They can drop down if they were previously moved up but don’t meet either of the categories for staying in their classification.
“I think it just establishes consistency across all 11 sections,” NYSPHSAA executive director Robert Zayas said Wednesday. “It provides clarity for how non-public schools are going to be moved up in classification and I think it’s a step to address membership concerns.”
The proposal adopted Tuesday also gives authority to the NYSPHSAA’s Classification Oversight Committee. Under the new rules, if one section feels another section is not moving up a non-public schools team as they should, they can appeal to the Classification Oversight Committee, which will decide whether the team will move up.
Previously, the Classification Oversight Committee could only refer the matter back to the section.
“What this would in effect do,” Section III executive director Jason Czarny said. “Say if we, as Section III, felt that another section’s school that is a non-public [school] is just always running away with it, and those sections aren’t doing anything about it, that’s when this would invoke the NYSPHSAA Oversight Committee.”
“Now, the oversight committee has the ability to say,” Zayas added. “‘You should have placed this non-public school up in classification. Therefore, we’re going to do it, since you won’t.’ So they have the ability to do that, which is a huge change for this whole process.”
Section I was the only section to vote against Tuesday’s proposal. It was one of several the NYSPHSAA’s ad hoc committee on Schools Without Boundaries considered after more than a year of discussion. One alternative was a proposal from Section I that offered a completely separate postseason for non-public schools.
“If a school or a section was interested in saying we want separate public-private championships,” Zayas said. “This is not going to meet their needs.”
The debate over non-public schools’ participation in the NYSPHSAA playoffs has intensified in recent years, and a bill was even reintroduced in the state assembly last winter that would separate non-public schools from the NYSPHSAA playoffs.
Three of the four Class AA football state semifinalists last season were non-public schools — Section V’s Aquinas Institute, Section III’s Christian Brothers Academy and Section II’s Christian Brothers Academy.
Tuesday’s proposal will not result in any classification changes for those schools since they are already in the highest class. Syracuse’s Christian Brothers Academy won the state championship in Class A in 2021 and moved up to Class AA the following year. The Brothers are now two-time defending state champions in Class AA and are looking to complete a fourth straight undefeated regular season on Thursday.
Four of the six girls basketball state champions in 2024 came from non-public schools, and several could be moved up in class in the future under the state’s new rules. In back-to-back seasons, Liverpool has reached the Class AAA state title game, only to lose by double-digit sums to non-public schools from Section IX – Our Lady of Lourdes in 2024 and Albertus Magnus in 2025.
Utica Notre Dame beat fellow non-public school Albany Academy to win the Class B title in 2024 before moving up to Class A last year.
Non-public sectional champions from Section III last season were Bishop Grimes (Class B girls basketball), Bishop Ludden (Class AAA boys basketball), Christian Brothers Academy (Class AA football, Class B boys lacrosse) and Utica Notre Dame (Class A girls basketball).
Under the new rules, Section III’s classification committee will meet every January to classify the upcoming season’s fall sports, every April for winter sports and every June for spring sports.
“Because we’ve been proactive and we have a pretty good system already in place,” Czarny said, “the impact on us is fairly minimal.”
Also on Tuesday, the NYSPHSAA executive committee approved the JMA Wireless Dome to host the football state finals from 2026-28. The Dome has hosted the state championships in every season since their inception in 1993.
Cicero-North Syracuse was also approved as a site for football state semifinals.
