COLUMBUS — The Ohio High School Athletic Association will try to level the playing field one more time.
The OHSAA’s Board of Directors unanimously approved a competitive balance proposal Tuesday that would determine which division each member school is placed in for tournaments in most team sports. The measure, which was brought to the Board by the OHSAA’s 27-person Competitive Balance Committee, is similar to a plan voted down last spring.
Principals of the OHSAA’s 825 member schools will receive ballots in late April and can vote on the proposition between May 1 and May 15. If passed, the new measure would be put in place for the 2016-17 school year.
The new proposal expands on the 2013 “multiplier” initiative that was voted down last May by a vote of 327-308. That plan sought to determine a school’s athletic count based on school enrollment and roster composition. Under that proposal, a school’s athletic count would increase if players on the roster resided outside the district or enrollment zone.
The new proposal also will take into account how long a student/athlete has been enrolled in the school district or, in the case of non-public schools, has attended a “feeder” school. If the athlete lives outside the enrollment zone but has been enrolled in the district or attended a determined “feeder” school since the start of his or her seventh grade year, the multiplier penalty would not be as severe.
“Everyone on the committee and, I believe, our board — because both votes were unanimous — honestly believe that this is the best proposal we have had so far,” OHSAA commissioner Dan Ross said in a conference call Tuesday afternoon. “While the proposal is similar to last year’s, the modified version is the result of a compilation of input from our superintendents, principals, athletic administrators and coaches.
“I’m most proud that we were able to work together and come up with a solution that will create a better system than we currently have because it looks at how schools secure the enrollment of their students participating in interscholastic athletics.”
The debate over competitive balance was rekindled earlier in the decade by a group of Wayne County school administrators, led by Triway superintendent Dave Rice. The group found that private schools make up about 17 percent of the OHSAA’s membership but had won more than 40 percent of state championships in OHSAA-sponsored team sports.
The first referendum was put on the ballot in 2011 and attempted to address the competitive balance problem by making additions or subtractions to a school’s enrollment figure based on district boundaries and well as socioeconomic and tradition factors. It was voted down by a 332-303 margin.
The 2012 plan again took into account a school’s boundaries and a socioeconomic factor, but significantly altered the tradition portion of the equation. That measure failed 339-301.
The 2013 incarnation of the proposal was the most extreme, calling for a split of the OHSAA team sports tournaments between public and private schools. That referendum was tabled at the last minute and replaced by the multiplier initiative.
“That proposal was narrowly defeated — if 10 schools voted the other way that proposal passes, so it was very very close,” Ross said. “So after the proposal, we surveyed the principals and we did another survey in the fall to talk to our schools about the competitive balance issue and the proposal that was on in the spring.
“The interesting part of that survey (was) the No. 1 issue that our schools felt like we should be dealing with is competitive balance and it was four times greater than the second issue and that second issue was dealing with eligibility and transfers. We knew that our member schools wanted us to continue.”
Meanwhile, Rice and his colleagues planned to put another public/private split proposal on the 2014 ballot. They didn’t get the required signatures on their petition.
“There was a small coalition of schools that strongly believe there should be a separation between the public and non-public schools in our tournaments,” Ross said. “They did send petitions out to our member schools. It takes 75 signatures and it takes five in each geographic athletic district in order to qualify to go on the ballot. Three months ago we did find out that they didn’t have the significant number of signatures so the petition effort to separate the tournaments failed.”
While admitting the proposed system is not perfect, Ross said the competitive balance committee will continue to try to improve on it.
“The Board and Competitive Balance Committee are committed to continuing to study this issue, working on ways to improve the formula,” Ross said. “As we’ve said in the past, this proposal, should it pass, is a starting point and any data and feedback gathered after the plan is rolled out will only help strengthen what changes can take place in the future.
“Any proposed formula changes in the future will also continue to be voted upon by the membership.”
Follow Curt Conrad on Twitter @curtjconrad.
OHSAA commissioner Dan Ross said in a conference call Tuesday afternoon, “While the proposal is similar to last year’s, the modified version is the result of a compilation of input from our superintendents, principals, athletic administrators and coaches.”
