OHSAA rejects super division in high school football setup

January 16, 2009 at 12:00a.m.

Staff/wire reports

COLUMBUS — The Ohio High School Athletic Association has rejected a proposal to create a super division in football made up of the state’s biggest schools.

The association’s board of directors voted unanimously Thursday to continue with six divisions. A subcommittee had suggested dividing Division I in two to address disparities in enrollment within the classification.

High school enrollments in Division I vary in size between 528 boys and 1,246 boys. The subcommittee’s proposal would have placed schools with similar enrollments in the same division.

There’s less variance in enrollment sizes in the state’s other five divisions.

The board said it was voting against the subcommittee’s proposal partly because of opposition from the state football coaches association.

“The board reviewed survey results from Ohio’s Division I schools, and the majority of those that responded were not in favor of making a change,” said Mike Richards, OHSAA Board of Directors president and superintendent at Allen East Local Schools in Harrod.

The OHSAA obtained input from the schools that are currently in Division I to gauge the proposed change. The subcommittee that proposed the change to the OHSAA Board was comprised of superintendents, principals, athletic administrators and coaches from across the state along with OHSAA administrators.

“While it is clear that there is a large variance in enrollment numbers within Division I, the officers of the state coaches association were unanimously against this proposal and felt like any change would not have enhanced the current playoff system,” said Jay Niswonger, president of the Ohio High School Football Coaches Association and head coach at Germantown Valley View High School. “In fact, we are of the opinion that Ohio’s playoff format is one of the best in the nation and we continually hear that from those outside the state, so our position is not to make a change if there is not a problem, or not to fix something if it’s not broken.”