OHSAA Meeting to decide re-classify divisions (again)

[Logangrad]

The Ohio High School Athletic Association will meet on Friday to consider making changes to how Division I schools are classified.

Currently, some Division I schools are three times the size of others. The OHSAA may decided to break Division I schools in all sports into two classes; for instance Division I-A and Dvision I-AA.

Currently there are six divisions in football, four in sports such as basketball and baseball).


Blanchester principal George Rise will chair the meeting, which he said will be in Columbus.

Division I discrepancies between big schools and small schools are at the heart of all this.

"Basically, those smaller Division I schools don't have a lot of hope of ever advancing very far in the state tournament," Rise said. "This might give more of them a chance."

For example, Fairfield, the largest Cincinnati area school in boys' enrollment, has 1,246 boys (upper three grades) per the most recent OHSAA enrollment figures.

Aiken, also a Division I basketball school, has just 407 boys, but is right at the cutoff to be in Division I.

Moeller boys' basketball coach Carl Kremer, whose 2007 team won the Division I state title and is ranked No. 1 in Ohio again this year, said he welcomes the discussion.

"There are some cases where bigger Division I schools have hundreds and hundreds more kids than some of the smaller ones," Kremer said.

Western Brown athletic director Tim Cook, who is also on the OHSAA committee that will meet Friday, works at a school that plays Division II in football but is small Division I for boys' basketball and girls' basketball.

"We're one girl over the Division I limit in girls' basketball," Cook said. "Schools like us, Harrison, Amelia, West Carrollton, you're just never going to see us do that well in the Division I tournament.

"It's tough to compete against Division I schools with hundreds more in enrollment. ... Basically, this meeting is to sit down and put down some ideas about what we might be able to do."

There was an OHSAA realignment proposal, with football the main issue, adopted in June 2006. That measure was rescinded in January 2007 after some schools raised issues. This latest proposal would, again, affect all sports.

The 2006 plan would have placed a smaller number of schools in Division I tournaments and distributed the other schools among the remaining divisions, with the result being that schools with more similar enrollments would have been assigned to the various divisions.

After consulting with the OHSAA Board and staff members along with hearing feedback from the OHSAA membership, the OHSAA Board of Control decided to rescind that decision.

The result was that the OHSAA retained its longstanding tournament regulation, which says that as equal number of schools as possible will be assigned to each division of OHSAA tournaments that have multiple divisions.

This time, it appears the theory is just to split up Division I and not touch the other divisions.

"We'll have members of the committee from different parts of the state," Rise said. "This originally was portrayed as a football thing, but it goes beyond football."

[noreply66]

If they have more schools playing basketball than football--why don't they have six divisions too

Just wanting to get the answer out there.

[loganlocos]

noreply -

Because it would make too many games for the Final Four weekend.

That's the honest answer!

[Logangrad]

Well there are teams in D6 that will never see a playoff game in football or go deep in the tourney in hoops and I think they should chop them all up to give other schools a shot down the road. 7 divisions in football isnt out of the question and chopping up baskteball would be good as well as all sports. Look at the Central District in boys baskteball. D1 has 43 schools in that district, just in D1; where D2 has 23. There is room for realignment.

[MTSWNGRVSG]

I like the idea of adding a division instead what they were talking before. Heck Michigan has 8 divisions and high school football in Ohio is alot better than the state up north.

[1987chieftains]

I like the idea of adding a division instead what they were talking before. Heck Michigan has 8 divisions and high school football in Ohio is alot better than the state up north.

I AGREE. WHATS IT GOING TO HURT TO ADD 1 OR 2. YOU'D THINK THEY'D WANT TO HAVE MORE OF THE SAME SIZE SCHOOLS PLAYING INSTEAD OF A DAVID AND GALITH (SP) THING. OR SEPERATE PUPLIC AND PRIVATE SCHOOLS.

[chieflineman06]

This would be a great decision for the OHSAA. Breaking up the divisions to allow for smaller schools to push farther into the playoffs.

I see this as a bonus for everyone. Schools that set at the bottom of Division 1 spend year in and year out staring up at the Goliaths that rule the roost. Now these schools will be pitted against schools closer to there size and people will become more interested.

If people get interested, they show up at the games instead of reading about it in the Saturday Morning paper or catching it on the Friday Night late football call in show.

If more people show up at the games, more money gets put into the system.

I know when it's the playoffs, the OHSAA takes a portion out, but this would be a good way to get some money flowing for these schools that have sat stagnate since they have been commissioned.

CL06

[Dbzshibainu]

sounds like a good idea to me

[Orange and Brown]

If they split D-1 into 2 divisions, how will that effect D-2 through D-6?

[constantine]

they should look into classifying some of the other divisions with a (aa) ranking as well and cutting the play-off teams to 4....this way u have the same numbe of teams making the play-offs just two champions in each division......what do ya'll think?

[fish82]

Just give every school a trophy and be done with it.

[Mad-Dogg]

I like the idea of adding a division instead what they were talking before. Heck Michigan has 8 divisions and high school football in Ohio is alot better than the state up north.

I AGREE. WHATS IT GOING TO HURT TO ADD 1 OR 2. YOU'D THINK THEY'D WANT TO HAVE MORE OF THE SAME SIZE SCHOOLS PLAYING INSTEAD OF A DAVID AND GALITH (SP) THING. OR SEPERATE PUPLIC AND PRIVATE SCHOOLS.

i agree. i mean do you really think that a smaller D6 school like green, Notre Dame, and east could possibly hang with or beat teams like marion local when they were in D6, mogadore, or delphos st. johns. i really doubt it.

[FaberGrad62]

I like the idea of adding a division instead what they were talking before. Heck Michigan has 8 divisions and high school football in Ohio is alot better than the state up north.

I AGREE. WHATS IT GOING TO HURT TO ADD 1 OR 2. YOU'D THINK THEY'D WANT TO HAVE MORE OF THE SAME SIZE SCHOOLS PLAYING INSTEAD OF A DAVID AND GALITH (SP) THING. OR SEPERATE PUPLIC AND PRIVATE SCHOOLS.

i agree. i mean do you really think that a smaller D6 school like green, notre darn, and east could possibly hang with or beat teams like marion local mariah stein when they were in D6, mogadore, or delphos st. johns. i really doubt it.

NOTRE DARN?????????HA HA HAHAHAHAHA HA HAHAHA!!!!!


MARIAH STEIN?????????

Is that Mariah Carey's school????


Only the dogg can post something like that

[FaberGrad62]

I like the idea of adding a division instead what they were talking before. Heck Michigan has 8 divisions and high school football in Ohio is alot better than the state up north.

I AGREE. WHATS IT GOING TO HURT TO ADD 1 OR 2. YOU'D THINK THEY'D WANT TO HAVE MORE OF THE SAME SIZE SCHOOLS PLAYING INSTEAD OF A DAVID AND GALITH (SP) THING. OR SEPERATE PUPLIC AND PRIVATE SCHOOLS.

i agree. i mean do you really think that a smaller D6 school like green, notre darn, and east could possibly hang with or beat teams like marion local mariah stein when they were in D6, mogadore, or delphos st. johns. i really doubt it.

NOTRE DARN?????????HA HA HAHAHAHAHA HA HAHAHA!!!!!


MARIAH STEIN?????????

Is that Mariah Carey's school????


Only the dogg can post something like that

[constantine]

That is a good idea too there is just to large a gap between the top schools in and bottom schools in the divisions

[91Buckeye]

This whole topic really chaps my butt. There are winners and losers in life, like it or not. Are we trying to tell our kids it's better to have a championship in a watered down division than to fight the good fight and be proud of your efforts? And if a fair shot is the motivation for this, why isn't there a meeting to determine what limitations should be placed on private schools that are classified to a smaller division? In my eyes these inequities make the victory that much sweeter. The division IV championship game was the highlight of this years state championships. The reason being noone, including myself, gave Coldwater a snowballs chance in that game. Somehow they managed to get the job done. In my eyes high school athletics are about working hard, overcoming personal obstacles, and being proud of doing your best, win, lose, or draw. Not winning championships.

[constantine]

Were not trying to tell our kids anything about winning championships....it would just be nice and motivating to allow these kids to know that they may have the chance to play for a championship.....is it fair for teams to be in the same division that may have at least one hundred more boys to choose from to field a team?

[91Buckeye]

Everyone has a chance at winning a championship. There are fewer schools in D1 than in any other division, but it seems that they are the only division that screams about inequity. I think they need to get over it and just play ball.

[YOU'RE TIGER BAIT]

I REMEMBER IN 1972 , WHEN A SMALL SCHOOL CALLED IRONTON, PLAYED AN ENOURMOUS CLEVELAND BENEDICTINE FOR A STATE CHAMPIONSHIP GAME.

nobody complained then, and there were only 3 divisions. AAA,AA,A-----WE WERE AA. BENEDICTINE IS NOW A D2 SCHOOL I BELIEVE. everybody can get in now with halfway decent records. ironton allmost did last year at 5-5. but played a killer schedule full of larger schools.

THEY'LL BE BACK.

[Orange and Brown]

I think that we have plenty of divisions in Ohio. 6 is a lot, but I am fine with that. That needs to be the limit though.