The Arizona Interscholastic Association’s executive board approved the Basketball Advisory Committee’s state tournament qualification recommendations for the 2016-17 school year for each division during Monday’s monthly meeting.

Division I opted not run region tournaments for boys and girls, but the regions in D-II-V will have the option to do so to determine their automatic state qualifiers. The regular season region champs will earn the automatic state berths in the D-I state tournaments, beginning in 2016-17.

Instead of running region tournaments, D-I teams will be allowed to play two extra games between Feb. 8-11. D-I’s regular season champ will receive a top-8 state seed and a bye.   

In D-II for boys and D-III for girls, automatic state qualifiers will earn a top-12 seed. A top-11 seed will go to the automatic state qualifiers in D-II girls, D-III boys, D-IV boys and girls and D-V boys and girls.

Executive director’s report

Since the AIA is adding a division and switching back to the conference/region format after the 2015-16 school year, the board agreed with Dr. Harold Slemmer, the AIA’s executive director, to form a committee of business managers to address any budget issues that may surface in the future.

AIA board members and administrators from the AIA’s schools will serve on that committee.

During his monthly report to the board, Dr. Slemmer also gave the board an update on the results of a survey schools returned to the AIA.

The AIA sent the survey to gather opinions on how the AIA can better serve its member schools. Of the more than 4,000 surveys that were sent, 1,700 were opened, about 700 recipients clicked through the survey but only 372 completed the survey so far. The final results have not been compiled yet, though.

The AIA wants to send the survey out again to give schools another chance to respond. 

Dr. Slemmer gave the board an update on conference placement during his report as well.

Schools seeking a conference appeal have until 2 p.m. Tuesday to do so with the AIA. If an appeal reaches the board, the board requested a written summary explaining why a conference denied an appeal.

The board also wants the conference appeal chairperson to be present during the conference appeals the board hears.

Items that were also addressed during Dr. Slemmer’s report:

---The annual audit of the AIA is scheduled to take place Nov. 20-26, Denise Doser, the AIA's finance director, said.

---The spirit line state championships have a new home, Dr. Slemmer and AIA associate executive director David Hines informed the board. Grand Canyon University will host the Jan. 23 state cheer events.

Cheer teams will no longer have to wait a couple of day to receive their regional and state scores. They will know the results on the day a qualifier and state championship event are held.

Board member Sister Lynn Winsor said that she’s looked over the tournament/qualifier guide, and it’s the most comprehensive one she’s seen so far for cheer, she said.      

Financial report

The AIA has a new banking partner, Doser said during her monthly report.

Doser also said that the membership fees were returned to schools that declined to continue to being members.

The fees were returned before the schools started competing. During Doser’s report, Dr. Slemmer said that the participation of officials in some winter sports, including wrestling (22 percent increase), is expected this year.

More notes

These are agenda items that that board approved Monday:

---A replacement game-day complimentary AIA pass request from Marcus Williams, Chandler Unified District's athletic director.

---Chandler High School’s request to allow football coach Shaun Aguano to participate in the Under Armour Bowl game in Florida on Jan. 2.

---Antelope Union High School’s request to play an additional junior varsity game.

---Ganado’s request to play in a third basketball tournament instead of a traditional regional tournament.

School violations

During the school violation segment of Monday’s meeting, the board rescinded the football and track forfeitures of Alhambra High School for the 2013-15 school years.

Because of recent turnover in the school’s athletic administration and complicated life circumstances a student athlete faced, Alhambra wasn’t able to keep track of where the student athlete lived. That forced Alhambra to forfeit games the student athlete participated in, including two football games the team won this year, because the proper domicile paperwork wasn’t filed for the student athlete.

But Alhambra worked with the AIA’s Ron Halbach to get everything in order. The board voted unanimously to rescind the forfeits after Alhambra’s new athletic director, Dr. Wendy Truvillion, gave a detailed report on the corrections the school made.

Like Alhambra, the schools on Monday’s agenda that violated rules self reported those violations to the AIA.

The following are the violations and the punishment the board gave, based on the AIA’s recommendations. Advisement is the least severe punishment.

These schools received an advisement:

Odyssey Institute for playing a junior during a play in a freshman game. Odyssey Institute forfeited the game.

Coconino for playing a charter school student in a volleyball game. The student was homeschooled but moved to a charter school without notifying Coconino.

Sabino’s activities program for allowing an international athlete to participate without getting clearance from an administrator.

Barry Goldwater’s swim program for allowing swimmers to compete in five events at a duel meet. Swimmers may only swim in two individual and two team events.

Kingman’s football program for using sophomore players in a freshman game.

Valley Vista’s volleyball program for allowing junior varsity team to participate in a varsity tournament.

Chinle’s football program for holding an open conditioning camp a week prior to the official start of practice.

The following schools received a warning, the next highest form of punishment:

American Leadership football for allowing a former student to participate in two varsity football practices in Nov. 2014. The student participated as a quarterback on the scout team.

Cholla football for allowing a varsity football player to practice without completing proper paperwork.

Copper Canyon’s spirit line for allowing a student to participate in practice without being cleared by the athletic office.