Staff report

Columbus

Ohio’s muddied high school playoff picture became a little bit more clear on Friday.

The Ohio High School Athletic Association released details on its proposal to bring more competitive balance to playoff tournaments for state sports.

The OHSAA’s Competitive Balance Committee will meet in May to vote on the proposal, which would move teams up or down one division for the playoffs depending on variables.

Under the new proposal, a school would “jump” a division depending on three factors: school boundary, socioeconomics and tradition.

Previously, only enrollment numbers determined a sport’s division.

Under the plan, a school would take its enrollment number for a particular sport, and then either add or subtract percentages based on the three new criteria.

The new figure would represent a school’s “athletic count” and would determine its division standing for the playoffs.

The criteria are:

School Boundary Factor

The committee identified this as the “key” factor and represents how a school acquires its students. The factor is broken into five categories that each have a percentage added to its athletic count. They are:

• Non-public schools with no boundaries, 10 percent times enrollment figure will be added.

• Non-public schools with limited boundaries, eight percent times enrollment figure will be added.

• Public schools with statewide open enrollment, six percent times enrollment figure will be added.

• Public schools with adjacent districts open enrollment, four percent will be added.

• Public schools with no open enrollment, no percentage will be added.

These percentages will be multiplied by enrollment numbers and they will be added to original enrollment number.

Socioeconomic Factor

This factor takes the number of students who receive free lunches as part of a state program. The number of free lunch participants is multiplied by 10 percent. That figure is then subtracted from the enrollment figure.

Tradition factor

This factor takes a four-year sample size to determine a team’s recent success. Multipliers are used to counter a team’s trips to regional finals (six percent), as well as the state tournament (eight) and state finals (10). Those numbers are added to the enrollment figures.

When all three criteria are factored, a team will either remain at its present division or move up or down one spot as allocated.