OHSAA Board of Directors Approves Expansion Proposal

[Yappi]

OHSAA Board of Directors Approves Expansion Proposal
Soccer, girls volleyball, basketball, baseball and softball adding divisions starting in 2024-25

COLUMBUS, Ohio – After months of discussion and meetings around Ohio to gather feedback, the Ohio High School Athletic Association Board of Directors unanimously approved a proposal Thursday morning to utilize a new formula to determine how many divisions will be offered for postseason tournaments. The change affects OHSAA General Sports Regulation 17 and will result in girls and boys soccer now having five divisions, while girls volleyball, girls and boys basketball, softball and baseball will all have seven divisions. In those sports, Division I and Division II will only include 64 schools.

The new divisions will go into effect in the fall of 2024. The board will continue to discuss additional sports, noting several recent meetings regarding track and field. There are no changes to the number of football divisions, which is already at seven. In addition, any changes to the current deployment of the Competitive Balance process would need to be voted upon by OHSAA member schools during the annual referendum voting process.

Doug Ute, OHSAA Executive Director, praised the board’s decision as a step toward to level the playing field of OHSAA tournaments.

“It’s the right thing to do for the student-athletes who have been competing at this disadvantage,” said Ute. “For too long, the largest schools in our divisions have been so much larger than the smaller schools in the same division, which has resulted in many schools accepting that they realistically have little chance at making a run in the tournament. In some of our sports, there have been more than 200 schools competing for a state title in that division, which is significantly more than what most other states do, and what we do in many of our own sports.

“We know that there is a lot of work to do in the coming months to prepare for additional divisions this fall,” Ute said. “We have already started working on the details to accomplish this, but one thing we know for sure is that having two or three more state champions in these sports doesn’t water them down or diminish winning a state title. And we anticipate that this new format will be revenue neutral, since every school makes the tournament already.”

Each year, the Board of Directors would still have final authority in determining how many divisions to be used that school year, but the proposal calls for the following scale to be used to guide the board’s decision on the number of divisions for girls volleyball, football, soccer, basketball, softball and baseball, however note that the sports of lacrosse, field hockey, ice hockey and boys volleyball would not change from their current division numbers:

199 or fewer teams: 1 Division
200 to 299 teams: 2 Divisions
300 to 399 teams: 3 Divisions
400 to 499 teams: 4 Divisions
500 to 599 teams: 5 Divisions
600 to 699 teams: 6 Divisions
700 and more teams: 7 Divisions

For girls volleyball, soccer, basketball, softball and baseball, the largest 64 schools would be placed into Division I. The next largest 64 schools would be placed into Division II. The remaining schools would be divided as evenly as possible into the remaining divisions. The OHSAA already does something similar to this in football, in which the largest 10 percent of schools are placed into Division I and the remaining schools are divided evenly in Divisions II through VII.

The proposal does not call for a change to the formula that the OHSAA uses for individual sports to determine the number of student-athletes required for team designation, which includes five in bowling, five in cross country (who score for their team at the district tournament), four in golf, three in girls gymnastics, seven in swimming and diving, four in tennis, nine in track and field and seven in wrestling.

The proposal calls for the following number of divisions to be used for individual sports:

200 or fewer teams: 1 Division
201 to 450 teams: 2 Divisions
451 to 700 teams: 3 Divisions
701 and more teams: 4 Divisions

OHSAA member schools vote to determine any changes to the bylaws or constitution via the referendum process each spring. Member schools also vote for representatives for their District Athletic Boards, who are then selected to serve on the State Board of Directors on a three-year term. The Board of Directors are then charged with reviewing and approving the General Sports Regulations on behalf of the OHSAA membership. The OHSAA General Sports Regulations do not go to the member schools for voting and are posted at: https://ohsaaweb.blob.core.windows.net/files/Sports/GeneralSportsRegulations.pdf

The OHSAA will announce structural and dates changes for future state tournaments at a later date.

 

[zski71]

Quick look at first 64 from last year places only St Joseph Academy as an all girls school in D1. Magnificat and MND just out. Last year's D1 champ Kings would drop. SJA was just above cut line. D1 could potentially be all public schools.

 

[FourthAndOne]

D2, D3, and D4 are going to be the power divisions. It is just weird that most of the traditional volleyball powerhouses are not going to be in D1. I like the fact all of the big public schools kind of get their own division in D1, but we all know a couple of those public schools in Columbus and StJoe's are going to rule D1.

I think the most interesting scenario is will this help some of the Big Public schools keep players instead of them going to some of the private schools. We all know families go to some of those private schools because they have no shot at winning a state title, but now the formula has changed.

 

[Vincent for President]

D2, D3, and D4 are going to be the power divisions. It is just weird that most of the traditional volleyball powerhouses are not going to be in D1. I like the fact all of the big public schools kind of get their own division in D1, but we all know a couple of those public schools in Columbus and StJoe's are going to rule D1.

I think the most interesting scenario is will this help some of the Big Public schools keep players instead of them going to some of the private schools. We all know families go to some of those private schools because they have no shot at winning a state title, but now the formula has changed.

It probably will not be as much as you think because most Parochial schools coaches are club coaches (except for SUA which made this a full time position to avoid conflicts) that influences players so they get chances with their club team.

Also, keep in mind, the numbers will be "recalibrated" each year and the wild card is how the competitive balance is calculated. There are three catholic schools right on the doorstep of D1 - Magnificat (1 away), MND (13 away) & SUA (24 away). Seton has a ways to go at 77 but their enrollment is increasing- let's see how creative they get redefining their "feeder schools". It will be surprising to see what their CB #'s will be next year. Up to now, they had no worry to get aggressive as they were considered D1 - now they are incentivized. OHSAA never has challenged these calcs before other than Roger Bacon and that was because other schools thought that their CB number should have been a lot higher.

Ursuline will be interesting as they are in D3 and over 140 away from D1 and 19 away from D2 - they have been hampered by poor enrollment the past 3-4 years. I am sure the GMC schools are licking their chops about keeping girls but again, that school has such a history with Elevation that I would be surprised if many girls don't go there from that club.

At the end of the day, if it is important to the administration to be D1 in this sport, they will be creative enough to get them there. If not, then they will let the chips fall where they fall each year.

 

[Auggie]

In NEO girls are generally speaking not moving much from publics to privates to play for winning volleyball programs. Yes there are some instances where a girl makes a jump but it is more to play with club friends or for a specific coach. Most of the catholic HS girls played for catholic grade schools and pick a school for a reason outside of volleyball: Mags, St. Joes, Beaumont for single sex; Lake Catholic, Padua, Holy Name, and NDCL because they are coed; Gilmour because of killer facilities etc... There is also the mom/family connections side too.

The bottom line is for decent players it is mostly about the club and many are not even aware of what is going on with the OHSAA. It is nice to play on a decent HS team with their friends but their volleyball focus is on club season.

 

[zski71]

PlainDealer story today says schools will be voting to allow programs to opt into the highest division only on a sport by sport. So you could go from any division to D1 and could do it for just 1 year. GMC probably not happy about that.