Tuesday at the Marriot Macon City Center, 50 Georgia High School Association executive committee members will vote on what has become known as the 4/8 plan, a proposal that would significantly alter the format in which the large majority of high schools compete.

The meeting will be held at 10 a.m. and is open to the public.

For the past decade, the GHSA has operated under a five-classification format. The 4/8 plan proposes dividing schools into four classifications that split to eight for the playoffs, producing eight state champions.

Should the plan win majority vote, the 4/8 plan would go into effect during the 2012-13 school year. If it doesn’t pass, the current classification format will remain in place.

The 4/8 plan, designed by reclassification committee chairman Earl Etheridge, aims to reduce travel for schools, particularly in the sparsely populated south. The plan divides schools into regions with upper and lower tiers. Those tiers then split for the playoffs.

The plan was originally proposed at an executive committee meeting in March, but was tabled so its details could be ironed out. The 4/8 plan was favored 7-5 by the reclassification committee over a six-classification plan the day before the meeting.

While Etheridge has fine-tuned the 4/8 plan, answering questions like how playoff spots will be allotted to regions with varying number of teams, it’s tough to say if it will gain the 26 votes required to pass.
Etheridge says he believes the plan is gaining support, but admitted not everyone on the executive committee agrees with it.

“It won’t be totally right for everyone,” Etheridge said. “But as long as it accomplishes decreasing time out of school to travel, and creates more championships and opportunities to compete, I see it as an opportunity to do some things we haven’t before.”

Reclassification committee member Dave Hunter assures the 4/8 plan won’t receive majority vote. The architect of the six-classification plan, Hunter has said repeatedly he’s “philosophically opposed” to the plan and there are too many holes in it.

“It’s too watered down,” Hunter said. “I don’t think we’re capable of hosting eight state championships, and in the case of basketball (and other sports in which both boys and girls compete) 16.”

Follow Adam Krohn at twitter.com/gtimesakrohn.