Pine Bluff to play 5A football for two more seasons

Pine Bluff High School, which was previously expected to return to Class 6A football next year, will instead remain in 5A for the next two seasons.

The Arkansas Activities Association released the football conferences for the 2024-26 alignment cycle Thursday afternoon. Pine Bluff, White Hall and Watson Chapel all remain in 5A Central for the coming two seasons.

Joining the three Jefferson County teams in the conference will be current conference foes Beebe, Maumelle and Joe T. Robinson along with newcomers Jacksonville and Searcy. The latter two are dropping down from 6A.

Pine Bluff, Jacksonville, Searcy and Texarkana were previously announced as the four smallest 6A football schools for the coming cycle but will instead play in 5A. Pine Bluff will be the largest public 5A football school.

The change comes after a decision by the AAA to standardize conferences sizes.

Previously, the 16 largest public schools played in 7A, the next largest 16 in 6A, and the next largest 32 in 5A. Private schools were then added to these classifications afterward, meaning there were 19 6A schools and 33 5A schools in the previous cycle. This led to conferences varying in size. While most conferences had eight schools, 5A Central and 6A West had nine, and 6A East had 10.

Now, every 11-man football conference has exactly eight teams. This, combined with several private schools moving up, pushed a few public schools downward.

Little Rock Christian and Pulaski Academy moved up to 7A, pushing Jonesboro and Fort Smith Southside down to 6A. Shiloh Christian moved up to 6A, which keeps Pine Bluff in 5A as 6A shrinks to 16 total teams. Of note, 4A state champion Harding Academy has moved up to 5A.

Former 5A Central teams Vilonia and Morrilton shift to 5A West, while Mills University Studies drops to 4A.

Elsewhere in southeast Arkansas, Sheridan remains in a smaller iteration of 6A East. The Yellowjackets will continue to play Benton, El Dorado, Little Rock Catholic, Marion, Sylvan Hills and West Memphis. Jonesboro will be the lone newcomer with Jacksonville, Searcy and Greene County Tech all dropping to 5A.

In 4A, Stuttgart will leave behind 4A-2 to play its southeast Arkansas neighbors in 4A-8. The Ricebirds are joined by DeWitt, Monticello, Star City, Warren, Hamburg, Crossett and Helena.

McGehee and Dumas drop to 3A, joining Drew Central, Fordyce, Rison, Lake Village Lakeside, Barton and Palestine-Wheatley in 3A-8.

Dermott, Hermitage and Woodlawn remain in 8-man South alongside Brinkley, Marvell-Elaine, Strong and KIPP Delta.