OHSAA committee recommends divisional changes


January 13, 2011 at 4:53p.m.

Acting on a recommendation from the Ohio High School Athletic Association Competitive Balance Committee, the OHSAA Board of Directors today unanimously placed a new bylaw up for vote of the organization's membership that would be the first step toward possible changes on how schools are assigned to tournament divisions.

If the bylaw is passed, enrollment numbers would no longer be the sole component in deciding which tournament division schools compete in. Instead, the OHSAA would assign schools based on a three-part formula:

  1. A school boundary factor: How students are obtained – non-public schools with no boundaries; non-public schools with limited boundaries; public schools with statewide open enrollment; public schools with adjacent open enrollment, and public schools with no open enrollment.

  2. A socioeconomic factor: The number of free lunch participants.

  3. A tradition factor: State championship game appearances, state tournament appearances and regional finals appearances.

The school boundary and tradition factors could increase a school’s enrollment while the socioeconomic factor could decrease a school’s enrollment. The tradition factor is the only one of the three that would be implemented on a sport-by-sport basis.

Once all three factors are applied to the enrollment count, each school will have a sport-by-sport “athletic count” for purposes of tournament division assignments.

For more details, read Friday's Vindicator or visit Vindy.com.