What the BEDS does is count students in Grades 9 through 11 at the many high schools across New York State. This number is to help determine funding and helps schools set budgets for the coming school year.
In the sports world, this number is used to place teams in classifications, so that similar schools play each other.
Schools that are private institutions have their enrollment doubled, as not to give them an unfair advantage over schools with similar enrollment numbers because of their power to recruit pupils.
Underneath the jump are the BEDS for 2014, and what that means for football in the coming school year.
Please Note: These numbers are from the NYSPHSAA list, and although I have doubled numbers for private institutions, there may be errors on my end. In addition, these does not account for combined schools, like Duanesburg and Schoharie, who joined forces to field Schoburg last year.
ALSO NOTE: This is not official. Just because a team here is noted to be "A" doesn't mean that's what they will get scheduled. Some teams may opt to play down in classification at the expense of being ineligible for the playoffs.
ALSO NOTE: This is not official. Just because a team here is noted to be "A" doesn't mean that's what they will get scheduled. Some teams may opt to play down in classification at the expense of being ineligible for the playoffs.
Let's start at the top and work our way down:
Class AA
Teams gained: None
Teams lost: LaSalle (to A)
The new enrollment cutoffs help keep Columbia and Ballston Spa as AA teams, but doesn't help LaSalle stay in the class as their doubled-to-908 enrollment is below the 930 cutoff for AA teams. But more about this in a moment.
Class A
Teams gained: LaSalle (from AA), Albany Academy (from B), Lansingburgh (from B), Scotia (from B), Green Tech (from B)
Teams lost: None
Look out. It looks like Class A has gone from being all-but-one to a tightly-packed classification in one quick swoop. The addition of FIVE teams will make the classification interesting for the perennials. All five teams added to the mix made the playoffs last year. If all teams whose BEDS put them in Class A end up playing in the classification, you can expect cross-division games to be at a minimum with a field of 14.
Class B
Teams gained: None
Teams lost: Albany Academy (to A), Lansingburgh (to A), Green Tech (to A), Scotia (to A)
B's going to be interesting. The departure of three Reinfurt Division schools will mean someone will have to leave the West, otherwise there will be a big imbalance as the Reinfurt will be down to four teams compared to the West's seven. It would be best, geographically, if the two teams south of the Mohawk River, Schalmont and Cobleskill, made the transition, but anything can still happen in this classification.
Class C
Teams gained: Greenwich (from D), Schoburg?*
Teams lost: None
I'm not sure about Schoburg. If my math's right, their BEDS after the merged districts of Schoharie and Duanesburg will place them above the cutoff for Class C. But Greenwich's numbers are definitely above the cutoff and thus they will find themselves locking horns with the likes of Hoosick Falls this year.
Class D
Teams gained: None
Teams lost: Greenwich (to C), Schoburg* (?)
As noted above, I'm not certain on Schoburg's placement. Nor can I be certain that all of the remaining 10 teams are going to make it onto the field, as both Fort Edward and Salem had issues fielding their teams and both had to take forfeits during the course of the 2013 season.
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