Quote:COLUMBUS — Supporters of changing the way Ohio High School Athletic Association conducts its post-season tournaments received strong support from the OHSAA’s Board of Directors on Thursday.

The board voted unanimously to accept a report from a “competitive balance” committee that calls for considering several factors beyond enrollment for determining which division schools will be assigned to for tournaments.

The proposal now will be voted on by all OHSAA high schools in May.

The new bylaw, if approved, would divide schools enrollment using figures and three other factors — a school boundary factor (where students come from), a socio-economic factor (how many free lunch participants a school has) and a tradition factor (state and regional tournament success).

Once those factors are applied to the enrollment count, each school would have a sport-by-sport determination of what division it would be in.

While the OHSAA was quick to point out this applies to all schools, “competitive balance” between public and private schools is something commissioner Dan Ross has talked about since he took over the top spot in the OHSAA in 2004.

Two statewide referendums of high schools, the most recent in 1993, rejected the idea of separate tournaments for public and private schools.

But in recent years, complaints about an uneven playing field between public and private schools have intensified.

Private schools have won 29 of the 60 state football championships in the last 10 years. They have won 12 of the 40 boys basketball state titles in the last decade and 23 of the 40 girls basketball state championships.

According to the OHSAA, private schools make up 17 percent of the high schools in Ohio.

“The issue of competitive balance has been discussed for years, not only in Ohio, but also in other states,” OHSAA commissioner Ross said in a statement.

“Ohio is unique in that our public schools have the option to approve open enrollment policies. But, at the same time, there’s no question that most non-public schools in the state have no geographical boundaries in which they can secure students and the result has been a disproportionate number of championships won by those schools,” he said.

“The meetings we have conducted with the Competitive Balance Committee have been both productive and professional, and I believe the proposal from the group is fair and equitable and we will see some leveling of the playing field.”

If the new formula is approved, it would be applied to football, soccer, volleyball, basketball, baseball and softball only. Others sports could be added in the future.

Let's see, parents are unhappy the way high schools recruit and strive for competitive advantage, but everybody is fine and dandy the way that ZSU does things?

Apparently so. Too much money involved in ZSU to change that I guess.

Seems like its going to get confusing to try to follow. How often would they change the division alignments?

My high school has been moved down recently. We went from playing against schools with enrollments 7-8 times ours ( Cardinal Mooney, Archbishop Alter etc.. ) in D4 to schools more like our size. I believe those two moved up to D3 and we moved down to D5. I enjoyed playing up, we were 2-0 vs Mooney ( both state championships ) and 1:1 vs Alter ( winner won the state each year ) in D4. The best tiny town football in Ohio ( the MAC - Midwest Athletic Conference ).

It will be interesting to see which way we go with this new set of rules if they pass. Tradition will move us up but the other two maybe not. We had a rebuilding year in 2010 and made it to state finals losing again like last year to another catholic school, Cardinal Ursiline. We lost our conference to the D6 state champion, Delphos St Johns. No matter which way we turn our best competition are catholic schools. By the way, we are not a catholic school but somehow we compete. Not that I'm bragging or anything.

Trivia question: Can you name my high school?

(01-14-2011 05:10 PM)DrTorch Wrote:  Let's see, parents are unhappy the way high schools recruit and strive for competitive advantage, but everybody is fine and dandy the way that ZSU does things?

Explain.

Coldwater...

(01-14-2011 08:26 PM)ilovegymnast Wrote:  Coldwater...

You are correct. They have a BG alum as Coach right now too. Old #31 Chip Otten played tailback for BG in the early 80's.

Hey, I am as liberal as they come, but affirmative action is not meant to create equal results, but equal opportunity.

(01-14-2011 08:37 PM)Siborg Wrote:  

(01-14-2011 08:26 PM)ilovegymnast Wrote:  Coldwater...

You are correct. They have a BG alum as Coach right now too. Old #31 Chip Otten played tailback for BG in the early 80's.

One of my all-time favorite Falcons. Dove into the endzone for the winning TD against the Rockets one year but forgot to take the ball along. Rocket win at Perry.

Is Chip related to Mac Otten, former BG basketball player? I remember him well, pumping up three-point shots in a triple OT game at Ball State.

Who was that lil' sparkplug running back for BG back in the 80's...wasn't that something like Chip Otten? I remember one Cal Bowl where BG was way up and then blew the game late...Otten (think that's the right name) was the running back piling up lotsa yards for BG early in the game.

Yup, that's the guy. 5'7" about 190. He battled Cowboy Jones for playing time until Jones either got injured or graduated, can't remember which.

BTW..I choose to forget the goal line fumble. Although Chris Bullock's goal line fumble vs Temple a few years ago which helped them break a 20 game losing streak ( or something like that ) brought back some bad memories of Otten's mishap.

(01-14-2011 05:10 PM)DrTorch Wrote:  Let's see, parents are unhappy the way high schools recruit and strive for competitive advantage, but everybody is fine and dandy the way that ZSU does things?

What in the world does this have to do with tOAMU? You're reaching......poorly.

(01-15-2011 08:21 AM)MAC tOAMU Wrote:  

(01-14-2011 05:10 PM)DrTorch Wrote:  Let's see, parents are unhappy the way high schools recruit and strive for competitive advantage, but everybody is fine and dandy the way that ZSU does things?

What in the world does this have to do with tOAMU? You're reaching......poorly.

Agee.

In effect, by matching teams into divisions by how well they traditionally have done, what the OhioHSAA is doing is setting up a privileged and a underclass state championship system - where the traditionally powerful teams play their own playoff/championship system (like - oh I don't know...a BCS system), and the little non-contenders play each other to an acknowledged lesser championship (like being declared the best non-BCS team, or I-AA playoff champ, etc). It doesn't make things "equal" - it makes them "separate". After a little while - no one will care who won the also-ran championships.

At least in states where divisions were set up by just enrollment, you could claim to be "the best little school team" - now if you win the lower division, you are declared to be the "best team that usually stinks".

nice.

I dont see it being any different then it already is. D1 schools are already the powerhouse schools and send the most kids to D1 colleges. I think this will actually help kids at the smaller schools if they continue to play well on the field. A school like Mogadore who is a "traditonal power" in D6 sending most of its players to D3 colleges. Now they might get a chance to move up the college ranks if they succeed or it could hurt them if they fail.

"Traditional Powers" is code for "Catholic schools." This is a move by the public school AD's to keep some of the private schools who recruit players from all over but have smaller school populations from dominating their divisions by moving them up divisions relative to their size.

It's an issue in a lot of states. Some simply have separate championships for public and private schools. I don't see that ever happening in Ohio.

It's tricky but not unreasonable. Some smaller town schools are trying to compete with private schools who have the resources of much bigger schools and recruit players students who are top athletes, and the small publics are at a perpetual disadvantage.

That said, I have no idea if this plan will be effective or not.

Except in high school is is probably not as driven by money, and is more driven by self esteem issues.

Let us not even discuss the public schools in Ohio accused of recruiting players.

(01-14-2011 10:04 PM)LongtimeFan Wrote:  Is Chip related to Mac Otten, former BG basketball player? I remember him well, pumping up three-point shots in a triple OT game at Ball State.

I'm not sure.

(01-16-2011 07:31 PM)Siborg Wrote:  

(01-14-2011 10:04 PM)LongtimeFan Wrote:  Is Chip related to Mac Otten, former BG basketball player? I remember him well, pumping up three-point shots in a triple OT game at Ball State.

I'm not sure.

My mistake. The guy was Matt Otto, not Mac Otten.