EAST LANSING — Classifications for Michigan High School Athletic Association elections and postseason tournaments for the 2021-22 school year were recently announced, with enrollment breaks for postseason tournaments posted to each sport’s page on the MHSAA website.

Classifications for the upcoming school year are based on a second semester count date, which for MHSAA purposes was Feb. 10.

The enrollment figure submitted for athletic classification purposes may be different from the count submitted for school aid purposes, as it does not include students ineligible for athletic competition because they reached their 19th birthday prior to Sept. 1 of the current school year and will not include alternative education students if none are allowed athletic eligibility by the local school district.

All sports tournaments are conducted with schools assigned to equal or nearly equal divisions, with lines dependent on how many schools participate in those respective sports.

For 2021-22, there are 746 tournament-qualified member schools. Schools recently were notified of their classification, and sport-by-sport divisions were posted to the MHSAA Website on April 5.

MHSAA Executive Director Mark Uyl said schools may not subsequently lower their enrollment figure. However, if revised enrollment figures are higher and indicate that a school should be playing in a higher division, that school would be moved up.

Traditional classes (A, B, C, D) formerly used to establish tournament classifications are used only for MHSAA elections. To determine traditional classifications, after all counts are submitted, tournament-qualified member schools are ranked according to enrollment and then split as closely into quarters as possible.

For 2021-22, there are 186 member schools in Class A and Class B and 187 member schools in Class C and Class D.

The new classification breaks will see 13 schools move up in Class for 2021-22 while 24 schools will move down.

In the U.P. moving down from Class C to Class D will be Ironwood, Munising and Norway.

The Knights were in Class D in 1979 for a handful of years into the early 1980s, winning three Class D state championships –football and girls basketball in 1979 and football in 1980, becoming the first school in state history to win back-to-back state championships at the Pontiac Silverdome.

Coopersville will move up from Class B to Class A, while Bloomfield Hills Marian, Ionia and New Boston Huron will be moving down from Class A to Class B.

Five lower peninsula schools will be moving up from Class C to Class B, while nine lower peninsula schools will be moving down from Class B to Class C. Seven lower peninsula schools will be moving up from Class D to Class C.

Enrollment Breaks by Classes: 2021-22

(Number of schools in parentheses)

Class A: 835 and above (186 schools)

Class B: 399-834 (186)

Class C: 189-398 (187)

Class D: 188 and below (187).

Visit the respective sport pages on the MHSAA Website at https://www.mhsaa.com/sports to review the divisional alignments for all MHSAA-sponsored tournament sports.

Changes in divisional alignment that effect schools in the U.P. in basketball for the 2021-22 Winter Sports season are:

— Norway will also move down to Division 4 in both boys and girls hoops for ’21-22.

— Negaunee, which became a Class B school prior to this current school year, sees their girls basketball team move up to Division 2 to join their boys team who competed there this past season.

— Gladstone remains a Class B school, but bumps down to Division 3 for both boys and girls basketball. Ironwood’s boys team, joins their girls hoops team in Division 4 for ’21-22.

— Re-entering Division 4 on the girls side will be Painesdale-Jeffers, with an enrollment of 197, which will make the largest Division 4 girls hoops school in the state.

— L’Anse will drop to Division 4 in both boys and girls hoops for ’21-22.

Daily News Sports Writer Matt “Sweets” McCarthy contributed to this story.