First, this is not final and won’t be until May, but KHSAA football programs got a glimpse of what their respective classes and districts will look like for the 2025-26 football seasons at Tuesday’s KHSAA Board of Control meeting in Lexington.
Yes, the current alignment of teams have only been with their current districts for one season and will have one more in 2024, but the KHSAA Board of Control agreed to realign after the two-year period due to enrollment numbers out of the ordinary due to the COVID pandemic. The enrollment figures for the 2023-24 realignment was based off the Kentucky Department of Education enrollment numbers for 2019-20 and 2022-23 school years. To ensure an up-to-date status, it was determined and announced that the 2022-2023 numbers would be doubled for the purpose of averaging since 2020-2021 and 2021-2022 enrollment/membership numbers were not collected due to COVID-19.
As far as the new alignment, the most glaring adjustment for NKY will be Highlands moving down from 5A to 4A and in a district with Covington Catholic, Holmes, Grant County, Harrison County and Mason County. The Bluebirds are one of 15 schools dropping in class.
St. Henry will be playing their inaugural varsity season in 2025 and the draft has them slotted in the Class 2A, 5th District with Beechwood, Bracken County, Gallatin County, Owen County and Walton-Verona. That would move Carroll County out of the current district, as they’re slated to move up to 3A.
With the 1A class and Districts 3-4 that consist of primarily NKY schools, those will remain the same with Class 1A, District 3 consisting of Bellevue, Dayton, Newport and Newport Central Catholic while Class 1A, District 4 will be Bishop Brossart, Holy Cross, Ludlow and Trimble County.
Lloyd Memorial won’t have to worry about Lexington Catholic anymore in the Class 3A, 5th District as the Knights are proposed to move to the 4th District in Class 3A. The Juggernauts proposed district would consist of Bourbon County, Carroll County, Henry County and Pendleton County.
The stout Class 5A, 6th District will now be the Class 5A, 5th District with Highlands proposed to no longer be in it. Last season, the Bluebirds and Cooper made it to the state semifinals, facing off against one another while Dixie Heights also collected a playoff win at Woodford County before losing to Highlands. The new Class 5A, 5th District would have Cooper, Conner, Boone County, Scott and Dixie Heights.
The Class 6A, 6th District will look the same with Campbell County, Great Crossing, Ryle and Simon Kenton.
Overall, as previously mentioned 15 programs would drop in class while nine programs would jump up in class. The 15 dropping are Bardstown, Barren County, Belfry, DeSales, Hancock County, Harlan County, Henry County, Highlands, Letcher County Central, McLean County, Thomas Nelson, Trigg County, Warren Central, Western and West Carter.
The nine programs moving up in class are Carroll County, Edmonson County, Elizabethtown, Franklin-Simpson, Hopkinsville, Jeffersontown, Marion County, Murray and South Warren.
During the board meeting, the board decided the draft realignment for football will not include less than four teams in a district.
Here is the proposed draft for the 2025-28 realignment (reminder this isn’t final until May’s board meeting):
Class 1A
District 1- Ballard Memorial, Caverna, Fulton County, Russellville
District 2- Bethlehem, Campbellsville, Holy Cross (Louisville), Kentucky Country Day
District 3- Bellevue, Dayton, Newport, Newport Central Catholic
District 4- Bishop Brossart, Holy Cross (Covington), Ludlow, Trimble County
District 5- Berea, Eminence, Frankfort, Sayre
District 6- Fairview, Nicholas County, Paris, Raceland
District 7- Harlan, Lynn Camp, Middlesboro, Pineville, Williamsburg
District 8- Hazard, Jenkins, Paintsville, Phelps, Pikeville
Class 2A
District 1- Caldwell County, Crittenden County, Fort Campbell, Mayfield, Todd County Central, Trigg
County
District 2- Fort Knox, Hancock County, McLean County, Owensboro Catholic
District 3- Clinton County, Green County, Metcalfe County, Monroe County, Somerset
District 4- Danville, Lexington Christian, Shawnee, Washington County, WEB DuBois
District 5- Beechwood, Bracken County, Gallatin County, Owen County, St. Henry District, Walton-Verona
District 6- Breathitt County, Jackson County, Morgan County, West Carter
District 7- Floyd Central, Knott County Central, Leslie County, Martin County, Prestonsburg
District -8 Belfry, Betsy Layne, East Ridge, Pike County Central, Shelby Valley
Class 3A
District 1- Hopkins County Central, Murray, Union County, Webster County
District 2- Adair County, Butler County, Edmonson County, Glasgow, Hart County
District 3- Bardstown, Central, Christian Academy-Louisville, DeSales, Thomas Nelson, Western
District 4- Casey County, Garrard County, LaRue County, Lexington Catholic, Mercer County
District 5- Bourbon County, Carroll County, Henry County, Lloyd Memorial, Pendleton County
District 6- Bath County, East Carter, Fleming County, Lewis County, Russell
District 7- Bell County, Clay County, Knox Central, McCreary Central, Rockcastle County
District 8- Estill County, Lawrence County, Letcher County Central, Magoffin County, Powell County
Class 4A
District 1- Allen County-Scottsville, Calloway County, Franklin-Simpson, Logan County, Paducah
Tilghman, Warren East
District 2- Breckinridge County, Elizabethtown, John Hardin, Marion County, Nelson County
District 3- Doss, North Oldham, Valley, Waggener
District 4- Franklin County, Shelby County, Spencer County, Western Hills
District 5- Covington Catholic, Grant County, Harrison County, Highlands, Holmes, Mason County
District 6- Ashland Blazer, Boyd County, Greenup County, Johnson Central, Rowan County
District 7- Boyle County, Lincoln County, Russell County, Taylor County, Wayne County
District 8- Corbin, Harlan County, Perry County Central, Whitley County
Class 5A
District 1- Apollo, Graves County, Madisonville-North Hopkins, Marshall County, Muhlenberg County,
Owensboro
District 2- Barren County, Bowling Green, Grayson County, Greenwood, Ohio County, Warren Central
District 3- Atherton, Butler, Iroquois, Seneca
District 4- Bullitt Central, Fairdale, Jeffersontown, Moore, North Bullitt
District 5- Boone County, Conner, Cooper, Dixie Heights, Scott
District 6- Anderson County, Collins, Scott County, South Oldham, Woodford County
District 7- East Jessamine, Madison Southern, Montgomery County, West Jessamine
District 8- North Laurel, Pulaski County, South Laurel, Southwestern
Class 6A
District 1- Christian County, Henderson County, Hopkinsville, McCracken County
District 2- Central Hardin, Daviess County, Meade County, South Warren
District 3- DuPont Manual, North Hardin, Pleasure Ridge Park, St. Xavier
District 4- Bullitt East, Fern Creek, Male, Southern
District 5- Ballard, Eastern, Oldham County, Trinity (Louisville)
District 6- Campbell County, Great Crossing, Ryle, Simon Kenton
District 7- Henry Clay, Lafayette, Paul Laurence Dunbar, Tates Creek
District 8- Bryan Station, Frederick Douglass, George Rogers Clark, Madison Central