The Board of Trustees for the Alabama Independent School Association (AISA) has voted to eliminate athletic programs from all member schools beginning in the the 2027–2028 school year.

According to a story from WTVY, the currently sanctioned AISA sports are baseball, basketball, cheerleading, cross country, football, golf, soccer, softball, tennis, track and field, and volleyball, and with more than 100 member schools, numerous students will be impacted.

The decision comes in the wake of the AHSAA restructuring which began this school year that split up public and private insitutions from competing against one another for state titles.

“This is an emotional decision because athletics has been an important part of AISA for more than half a century,” said AISA Executive Director Michael McLendon. “It’s a strategic initiative to allow the AISA to continue to grow and expand more than it already has.

The AISA itself is not shutting down rather than no longer sanctioning athletics, so schools who want to continue participation will have to find a new affiliation. 21 of the 108 schools academically under AISA already compete athletically in the AHSAA while another 21 of those schools do not serve grades 9–12, meaning 66 schools rely on AISA for sports, only 44 of which field at least one athletic team.

Whether those schools wind up under the AHSAA umbrella or find another solution moving forward remains to be seen, but it’s safe to say the landscape of high school sports in Alabama has changed a great deal and will continue to do so.