One problem Nebraska faced when considering the multiplier are the boys only or girls only schools. I believe we have about 4 or 5 of those types of schools. The problem is that the multiplier would become a double multiplier for those schools, since their enrollments are already doubled for classification purposes, due to the missing gender. The administration at those schools felt that they would be unjustly hurt by another multiplier being added to their formula.

I offer Creighton Prep, the all-boys Jesuit school here in Omaha as an example. Their true enrollment (the one reported to the state department of education) is 790. The NSAA doubles that to 1580 to classify them in Class A (the biggest class we have). Now, take that 1580 times 1.35 (what was proposed as the multiplier a couple of years ago), and Prep would have an enrollment of 2133, which would make them the biggest school in the state. Now, do the math, how big is this multiplier in the end for Prep? It turns out to be a multiplier of 2.7 in the end. Some argue this doesn't matter since Prep is already a Class A school, but it does make a difference in which district they are placed because Class A is not only set up according to geographic location but by enrollment as well when assigning districts.

The one school that this type of multiplier would affect would be Omaha Mercy, an all-girls Catholic school. They are small enough (just on raw enrollment) to be a Class C-1 school (3rd largest class). The doubling for missing gender puts them in Class B (the second largest class). If the multiplier would have passed, Mercy would actually have been bumped all the way up to Class A.

So, if any state argues that the multiplier doesn't affect anything, they're joking themselves. They need to look at how they classify schools and the effect multipliers have on classifications, etc., before voting for it. I hope Georgia did a thorough study before putting this to a vote.