What to Know: AHSAA Cross Country's New Classification Map for 2026

Class 7A is gone, private schools race for their own trophies, and four familiar section sites have vanished. Here's what actually changes for your season.

The 2026 AHSAA cross country handbook is not a light edit. Following the Central Board of Control's January reclassification vote - which eliminated Class 7A, moved public schools into six classifications, gave private members their own two divisions, and scrapped both the 1.35 multiplier and the competitive balance factor - almost every structural assumption from last fall is now obsolete.

Below is what a coach, meet director, or fan needs to understand before the first gun in August.

1. There are seven cross country divisions now, not six

Last fall: 1A-2A, 3A, 4A, 5A, 6A, 7A. This fall: 1A-2A, 3A, 4A, 5A, 6A, Single A, and Double AA.

Fifty-six private schools now compete in their own postseason - 39 in Single A, 17 in Double AA. The rest of the field compressed accordingly.

The insight: the top of the sport barely changed, but the middle got squeezed hard. Thirty-three schools raced 7A sections last fall; 32 are listed in the new 6A. Old 7A essentially became new 6A minus St. Paul's. Everything below that absorbed a wave from above, so most public programs are racing a classification lower on paper while facing a deeper field in practice - the schools they beat last year are still there, and now the schools that used to be a class above are too.

A few big moves:

2. Two team titles will be decided out of a single race

Single A and Double AA run together at the state meet but are awarded separately. That is the most consequential new sentence in the book.

The arithmetic: seven divisions across two genders means 14 team championships contested in 12 races. Last fall it was 12 championships in 12 races.

The insight for meet operations: the combined Single A - Double AA field projects to roughly 20 full teams plus 30 at-large individuals per gender. That's comparable in size to the old 6A race, so the course can handle it - but it will make coaching and team positioning that much more difficult when determining team scores on the fly. Box assignment, live scoring separation, and results splitting are all new problems on the clock.

The insight for coaches: these are the two most forgiving qualifying paths on the board. Double AA runs only two sections, so eight teams per gender advance out of a 17-school division - in Section 2, four of eight listed schools make state. Single A runs three sections: 12 teams advance from 39 schools.

3. The state meet: same course, new date, new running order

Don't skip the course hours line. Oakville is now explicitly open on weekends, 1-4 p.m. Last year's book listed it closed Sundays. If you have wanted to get a preview run in without pulling athletes out of a school day, that door is officially open - and the course contact is a new name, Casey Reed.

The race template itself is unchanged - twelve races, 20 minutes apart, awards at 10:15, 10:45, 11:15 and 12:50 - but nearly every slot got re-labeled, and gender order flipped inside several classes.

4. The section map lost four sites and gained three

There are 27 section meets across 11 venues this fall, up from 26 meets across 12 venues.

Gone as hosts: Central-Clay County High School (which ran three meets last year), Vinemont Sports Complex, Florence-McFarland Park, and Hewitt-Trussville High School. New: Point Mallard in Decatur, Munford High School, and Choccolocco Park in Oxford.

Northwest Alabama took the hit

McFarland Park in Florence hosted two section meets last fall and is off the map entirely. There is now no section site in the northwest corner of the state.

• 1A-2A - Belgreen, Cherokee, Lexington, Phillips, Red Bay, Sheffield, Tharptown, Vina, Waterloo - travel to Decatur.
• 4A - Brooks, Deshler, Hamilton, Good Hope, Cherokee - travel clear across the state to Scottsboro.

That is a genuine budget and bus-time problem for programs that used to drive 20 minutes. Meanwhile 1A-2A Section 4 at Pisgah picks up Piedmont and Saks, hauling Calhoun County schools up the mountain.

John Hunt becomes the private-school hub

John Hunt Running Park hosted the 6A and 7A sections last fall under Huntsville High. This fall it hosts three meets - 3A Section 4, Single A Section 3, and Double AA Section 2 - all directed by James Terwilliger of Randolph School.

Every Huntsville-area private program (Randolph, Westminster Christian, Madison Academy, St. John Paul II, Whitesburg Christian, Huntsville Christian, Lindsay Lane, Covenant Christian) now qualifies on that course. The big public programs - Bob Jones, Grissom, Huntsville, James Clemens, Sparkman, Buckhorn, Hazel Green - report to Scottsboro for 6A Section 4 instead.

5. Seven new names are running section meets

Returning: Joe Swagart (Bayside), Gus Hembree (Pisgah), Luke Robinson (Scottsboro), Casey Howell (Cold Springs), Erika Skidmore (Auburn).

New: Michael Smith (Covington County), Stuart Lamp (Decatur), Bryan Camp (Munford), Landon Delozier (Oxford), Jeff Sparks (Sokol Park), James Terwilliger (Randolph), Keith Wood (Auburn co-director).

6. Calendar and deadlines

The one to circle: every section meet in the book is scheduled for the same Thursday. There is no staggered second day this cycle - last fall one meet ran Oct. 31. If you were counting on a Friday makeup slot, a shared timing crew, or the ability to scout a rival's section, none of that exists in 2026.

Qualifying structure is otherwise untouched: top four teams plus the top six individuals not on those four rosters, 10 entries per school per division at both section and state, three sanctioned meets minimum before sections, 10-meet regular season cap for high schools (eight for junior high/middle).