An ad hoc committee has drafted a final recommendation of a reclassification plan applying to football only and will send it to the Oregon School Activities Association executive board for final approval on Feb. 12.

The special committee, which held its final meeting Jan. 31, is charged with investigating the long-term viability of the current league and special district alignments in all six of Oregon’s athletics classifications with the hope of designing a landscape that would make football more competitive statewide.

In its final recommendation, the committee moved forward with allowing programs that have had low winning percentages in recent years, such as soon-to-be Class 5A Crook County and 4A Madras, to drop a classification for a two-year period (though no criteria have been determined on how to move schools back to their enrollment-appropriate classification). Also during the next two seasons, beginning in 2018, schools with an adjusted enrollment of 89 or fewer students will compete in six-man football.

Also in the committee’s final recommendation, in Class 6A, Bend, Mountain View and Summit high schools were grouped in Special District 6 along with Salem-area schools McNary, South Salem, Sprague and West Salem.

Redmond High and Ridgeview were in the 12-team 5A Special District 2 with schools of similar size from Eugene and Southern Oregon.

Crook County was in 4A Special District 2 for football along with Estacada, Gladstone, Molalla and North Marion, while Sisters was in 4A Special District 3 with Newport, Philomath, Stayton, Sweet Home and Woodburn.

Madras was placed in 3A Special District 1 for football, and La Pine was put in 3A Special District 2. Culver was in 2A Special District 2, and Gilchrist will be part of a pilot six-man program in 1A Special District 1.

As well as creating leagues, the committee has proposed playoff allocation for each classification. In 6A, the top two teams in each of the seven leagues will qualify for the postseason, as will the next 10 highest-ranked teams.

In 5A, Special District 2, which includes Redmond and Ridgeview, will qualify its top five teams for the postseason, and the top two teams in each of the six leagues in 4A, as well as another four teams out of the play-in round, will qualify for the playoffs.

In 3A, the leagues in which Madras and La Pine play will send the top six finishers to the postseason, and the 2A playoffs will be composed of the top two teams in each of the six districts plus another four teams based on rankings. Six-man football will not have a championship during the pilot season.

The committee’s proposal will be sent to the OSAA executive board, which is expected to decide during its Feb. 12 meeting if the proposal will be adopted.