AISA to End Athletics Following 2026-27 School Year
One of the longest-running chapters in Alabama high school athletics is coming to an end.
The Alabama Independent School Association will discontinue its athletics program following the conclusion of the 2026-27 school year, bringing an end to more than five decades of AISA athletic competition.
The AISA Board of Trustees voted Wednesday to end the athletics program during a meeting in Montgomery.
The decision does not mean the AISA itself is dissolving. The organization, which currently has 108 member schools, will continue to provide accreditation, academic programs, government relations and other services to its membership. Athletics, however, will no longer operate under the AISA banner after this school year.
For Alabama high school sports, it marks the end of an era that dates back to 1970.
More Than Five Decades of AISA Athletics
The AISA was formed in 1966, and athletic competition began four years later.
Its first football state championship was played in 1970, when Monroe Academy defeated Lowndes Academy 6-0. Monroe went on to win the first three AISA football championships, beginning a championship history that would span generations of private-school athletes across Alabama.
Over the decades, programs such as Morgan Academy, Bessemer Academy, Edgewood Academy, Autauga Academy, Patrician Academy, Lee-Scott Academy, Glenwood School, Chambers Academy and many others became synonymous with AISA athletics.
The association eventually grew to crown football champions across multiple classifications, with three AISA champions being crowned in 2025: Chambers Academy in Class AAA, Abbeville Christian in Class AA and Macon-East Academy in Class A.
The 2026 season will now be the final football season played under the AISA banner.
A Changing Private-School Landscape
The announcement comes after years of change in Alabama’s private-school athletic landscape.
Over time, 21 schools have left the AISA for the Alabama High School Athletic Association, according to River Region Sports.
That movement accelerated in recent years.
Tuscaloosa Academy and Pike Liberal Arts made the transition from the AISA to the AHSAA ahead of the 2022 season. Both had been among the AISA’s most successful football programs immediately before departing, meeting in the 2021 AISA Class AAA championship game.
Another major wave followed in 2024.
Lee-Scott Academy, Glenwood School, Pickens Academy and Autauga Academy moved from the AISA to the AHSAA. Lee-Scott and Glenwood had met for the 2023 AISA Class AAA championship, making their departures particularly significant for the association’s largest classification. Autauga Academy’s stay in the AHSAA lasted only two seasons. The Generals returned to the AISA for the 2026-27 school year.
The departures were part of a larger shift that gradually reduced the number of traditional AISA programs competing under the association’s athletic umbrella.
The GSIAA Emerges
The latest shift in Alabama’s private-school athletic landscape came during the summer of 2026 with the formation of the Gulf States Independent Athletic Association.
Representatives from private schools in both the AISA and AHSAA met in Montgomery on July 24 as organizers presented a framework for the proposed association, including potential classifications, governance and bylaws.
Those in attendance voted to approve the name Gulf States Independent Athletic Association, but the meeting did not represent a collective vote by AISA schools to leave their current association and join the GSIAA.
The new association is being built with the goal of beginning competition for the 2027-28 school year. Its 18-member founding board includes nine representatives from AISA schools and nine from private schools currently competing in the AHSAA.
With AISA athletics now officially set to end following the 2026-27 school year, its individual member schools will have to determine where their athletic programs compete next.
What Happens Next?
The end of AISA athletics does not automatically determine where its current athletic programs will compete beginning in 2027-28.
Individual schools will have to determine their next destination.
The newly formed GSIAA represents one potential path. The organization is currently being developed by a founding board and is expected to open its membership process later this fall.
AISA itself, meanwhile, will remain in operation outside of athletics and plans to expand the academic services it provides to member schools.
Whatever the next chapter looks like, the 2026-27 school year will serve as a farewell tour for a name that has been part of Alabama high school sports since 1970.
From Monroe Academy’s first football championship to the hundreds of championships, rivalries, coaches and athletes that followed, the AISA became its own distinct piece of Alabama’s high school sports history.
After this season, that athletic history will be complete.
