Ohio’s big schools may move up to super class

The OHSAA’s subcommittee is looking into the idea.

COLUMBUS (AP) — Ohio’s largest high schools could end up in a super-sized division for state tournaments as a way of leveling the playing field for smaller schools.

Although the Ohio High School Athletic Association subcommittee will look at all sports when it meets Friday to discuss the idea, many fans believe it will address in particular the inequity in the football playoffs.

“What we’re trying to look at is any way to help those smaller schools to compete without any adverse effects,” association commissioner Dan Ross said Thursday.

The state’s schools have always been put in the same division as schools of comparable size for purposes of tournament play. In most sports, that means one school will seldom have a huge advantage in terms of enrollment over another.

Football teams in Division I, the largest of the six divisions, this past fall had 524 or more boys in the top three grades.

That meant that schools such as Fairfield (1,246 boys in the top three grades), Cincinnati St. Xavier (1,173), Cincinnati Oak Hills (1,161) and Mentor (1,148) competed in the same division as Lyndhurst Brush (532), Harrison (536), Fremont Ross (540) and Delaware Hayes (544).

This is not the first time the association has tackled the problem. In June 2006, another subcommittee recommended that a smaller number of schools be put in Division I, with the other schools distributed evenly among the remaining divisions. But the association’s board of control turned down that recommendation.

Even if the current subcommittee, which includes football coaches and school administrators, were to come up with another divisional setup, it would have to be approved by the board. The group could ask the association to survey member schools for ideas.

The association also announced that the board has approved a recommendation to split the girls golf tournament into two divisions.