OHSAA Board of Directors Approves Expansion Proposal

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OHSAA Board of Directors Approves Expansion Proposal
Soccer, girls volleyball, basketball, baseball and softball adding divisions starting in 2024-25

COLUMBUS, Ohio – After months of discussion and meetings around Ohio to gather feedback, the Ohio High School Athletic Association Board of Directors unanimously approved a proposal Thursday morning to utilize a new formula to determine how many divisions will be offered for postseason tournaments. The change affects OHSAA General Sports Regulation 17 and will result in girls and boys soccer now having five divisions, while girls volleyball, girls and boys basketball, softball and baseball will all have seven divisions. In those sports, Division I and Division II will only include 64 schools.

The new divisions will go into effect in the fall of 2024. The board will continue to discuss additional sports, noting several recent meetings regarding track and field. There are no changes to the number of football divisions, which is already at seven. In addition, any changes to the current deployment of the Competitive Balance process would need to be voted upon by OHSAA member schools during the annual referendum voting process.

Doug Ute, OHSAA Executive Director, praised the board’s decision as a step toward to level the playing field of OHSAA tournaments.

“It’s the right thing to do for the student-athletes who have been competing at this disadvantage,” said Ute. “For too long, the largest schools in our divisions have been so much larger than the smaller schools in the same division, which has resulted in many schools accepting that they realistically have little chance at making a run in the tournament. In some of our sports, there have been more than 200 schools competing for a state title in that division, which is significantly more than what most other states do, and what we do in many of our own sports.

“We know that there is a lot of work to do in the coming months to prepare for additional divisions this fall,” Ute said. “We have already started working on the details to accomplish this, but one thing we know for sure is that having two or three more state champions in these sports doesn’t water them down or diminish winning a state title. And we anticipate that this new format will be revenue neutral, since every school makes the tournament already.”

Each year, the Board of Directors would still have final authority in determining how many divisions to be used that school year, but the proposal calls for the following scale to be used to guide the board’s decision on the number of divisions for girls volleyball, football, soccer, basketball, softball and baseball, however note that the sports of lacrosse, field hockey, ice hockey and boys volleyball would not change from their current division numbers:

199 or fewer teams: 1 Division
200 to 299 teams: 2 Divisions
300 to 399 teams: 3 Divisions
400 to 499 teams: 4 Divisions
500 to 599 teams: 5 Divisions
600 to 699 teams: 6 Divisions
700 and more teams: 7 Divisions

For girls volleyball, soccer, basketball, softball and baseball, the largest 64 schools would be placed into Division I. The next largest 64 schools would be placed into Division II. The remaining schools would be divided as evenly as possible into the remaining divisions. The OHSAA already does something similar to this in football, in which the largest 10 percent of schools are placed into Division I and the remaining schools are divided evenly in Divisions II through VII.

The proposal does not call for a change to the formula that the OHSAA uses for individual sports to determine the number of student-athletes required for team designation, which includes five in bowling, five in cross country (who score for their team at the district tournament), four in golf, three in girls gymnastics, seven in swimming and diving, four in tennis, nine in track and field and seven in wrestling.

The proposal calls for the following number of divisions to be used for individual sports:

200 or fewer teams: 1 Division
201 to 450 teams: 2 Divisions
451 to 700 teams: 3 Divisions
701 and more teams: 4 Divisions

OHSAA member schools vote to determine any changes to the bylaws or constitution via the referendum process each spring. Member schools also vote for representatives for their District Athletic Boards, who are then selected to serve on the State Board of Directors on a three-year term. The Board of Directors are then charged with reviewing and approving the General Sports Regulations on behalf of the OHSAA membership. The OHSAA General Sports Regulations do not go to the member schools for voting and are posted at: https://ohsaaweb.blob.core.windows.net/files/Sports/GeneralSportsRegulations.pdf

The OHSAA will announce structural and dates changes for future state tournaments at a later date.
 
 
GrizzlyDad said:
Money grab and sticking with the notion that everyone deserves a medal.
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We will have to see the books to know if this is a money grab. This change has been something the Coaches Association has been wanting for years. The smaller D1 schools have been complaining about the gap in enrollment from top to bottom of the D1 division since the 1990s. Now they finally have a guy running the OHSAA that listened to them.
 
spirit454 said:
We will have to see the books to know if this is a money grab. This change has been something the Coaches Association has been wanting for years. The smaller D1 schools have been complaining about the gap in enrollment from top to bottom of the D1 division since the 1990s. Now they finally have a guy running the OHSAA that listened to them.
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So they listen to a small segment of large school coaches who complain about this but ignore the football coaches association who was not in favor of 16 teams but wanted 12. Got it.
 
Insane92 said:
So they listen to a small segment of large school coaches who complain about this but ignore the football coaches association who was not in favor of 16 teams but wanted 12. Got it.
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Apples to oranges.
Not everyone in the football coaches association had that feeling. There are not as many football coaches complaining about making the playoffs. Plus, with 12 teams it created a bye week for top teams and not everyone wanted that.
 
In the past the association votes on things like this...Athletic directors etc.

This was voted on by 9 people in the OHSAA. Money Grab.....

Schools need to drop their membership on the OHSAA and let them f'ing starve.
 
Insane92 said:
So they listen to a small segment of large school coaches who complain about this but ignore the football coaches association who was not in favor of 16 teams but wanted 12. Got it.
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Yeah, they got a bunch of heat for not listening to the coaches, so this time they did.
 
Tesoro said:
In the past the association votes on things like this...Athletic directors etc.

This was voted on by 9 people in the OHSAA. Money Grab.....

Schools need to drop their membership on the OHSAA and let them f'ing starve.
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No, ADs have never voted on Sports regulation changes at any point in OHSAA history. That’s always been the board of directors who are…ADs and other administrators from around the state.

Schools vote on bylaw changes, and it’s the principals who vote on those, not the ADs.
 
hammer89 said:
No, ADs have never voted on Sports regulation changes at any point in OHSAA history. That’s always been the board of directors who are…ADs and other administrators from around the state.

Schools vote on bylaw changes, and it’s the principals who vote on those, not the ADs.
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Gotcha.

So....my statement was partially, correct?

Meaning....it wasn't voted on by the schools...just 9 members on a board.
 
Tesoro said:
Gotcha.

So....my statement was partially, correct?

Meaning....it wasn't voted on by the schools...just 9 members on a board.
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I would say your statement was 1% correct. It was voted on by 9 people. Those 9 people are ADs/principals from around the state who are elected to their position on the board of directors by the schools. So they aren’t really “9 people in the OHSAA.”
 
hammer89 said:
Yeah, they got a bunch of heat for not listening to the coaches, so this time they did.
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To a smaller segment of coaches it seems which led to the biggest expansion in the history of the OHSAA at one time to solve a “problem” that basically the small D1 schools complained about. Split D1 in half and create a 5th division seemed like the better option.
 
hammer89 said:
I would say your statement was 1% correct. It was voted on by 9 people. Those 9 people are ADs/principals from around the state who are elected to their position on the board of directors by the schools. So they aren’t really “9 people in the OHSAA.”
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Oh come on....maybe 99% correct...not 1 % :)

How many people cast votes? 9.

....it's bullcrap and should have been voted on by all involved.
 
Tesoro said:
Oh come on....maybe 99% correct...not 1 % :)

How many people cast votes? 9.

....it's bullcrap and should have been voted on by all involved.
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Schools voted for BOD members to make these types of decisions, as they have for the last century or so. And if it was put to a vote of all schools, I think it would have passed easily.
 
Insane92 said:
To a smaller segment of coaches it seems which led to the biggest expansion in the history of the OHSAA at one time to solve a “problem” that basically the small D1 schools complained about. Split D1 in half and create a 5th division seemed like the better option.
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I think if you were able to poll every coach in every sport that was affected by this, the majority would be in favor.
 
Insane92 said:
To a smaller segment of coaches it seems which led to the biggest expansion in the history of the OHSAA at one time to solve a “problem” that basically the small D1 schools complained about. Split D1 in half and create a 5th division seemed like the better option.
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Like the NCAA football sub division. Lol
 
Tesoro said:
In the past the association votes on things like this...Athletic directors etc.

This was voted on by 9 people in the OHSAA. Money Grab.....

Schools need to drop their membership on the OHSAA and let them f'ing starve.
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In the past things like this have not been voted on. Tournament divisions have always been set by OHSAA with input from different sources.
 
Insane92 said:
To a smaller segment of coaches it seems which led to the biggest expansion in the history of the OHSAA at one time to solve a “problem” that basically the small D1 schools complained about. Split D1 in half and create a 5th division seemed like the better option.
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Realistically, the D1 coaches have been talking about this for years but coaches in all divisions supported their idea and understood their grief having an enrollment of 400 boys and being in a tournament with a school of 900 boys.
 
Insane92 said:
I doubt that but we’ll never know.
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This would have not happened had it not been supported by enough coaches across the state to support it. This has been a topic of talks for years. I first starting hearing comments or complaints in the mid to late 90s about the enrollment gaps in divisions. Then when football went to 7 Div. it really picked up over the last 10 years.
 
spirit454 said:
This would have not happened had it not been supported by enough coaches across the state to support it. This has been a topic of talks for years. I first starting hearing comments or complaints in the mid to late 90s about the enrollment gaps in divisions. Then when football went to 7 Div. it really picked up over the last 10 years.
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Ice hockey, with a total of like 78 schools, has been demanding at *least* two divisions for years. Coaches love the smaller overall division makeup idea.
 
hammer89 said:
Ice hockey, with a total of like 78 schools, has been demanding at *least* two divisions for years. Coaches love the smaller overall division makeup idea.
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Some times the play quality is an issue for some coaches and they want an easier path. Splitting 78 schools into two divisions because 30 coaches are complaining is slightly different then having 600 coaches complain from basketball.
 
Tesoro said:
Um....i never said it was. Other decisions have been. This one wasn't.
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Not topics of this kind. You stated in the past things like this were voted on by the association, that’s false. And definitely Not tournament divisions.
 
They just needed to split D1 and have a success factor for schools like Indiana does. If that success factor was in place. Lutheran East, West and Richmond Heights would currently all be D1 and out of the lower divisions. There would be more competive D2-D4 and add a D5. Also, add in a thing where schools could choose to move up if they chose too. That would clean up a lot of issues.

That would’ve been a better fix and not have watered it down as much.
 
And ao now all of the above including garfield heights will each be in their own division? Doesnt sound like a win for schools facing those teams in Districts?
 
419Jester said:
They just needed to split D1 and have a success factor for schools like Indiana does. If that success factor was in place. Lutheran East, West and Richmond Heights would currently all be D1 and out of the lower divisions. There would be more competive D2-D4 and add a D5. Also, add in a thing where schools could choose to move up if they chose too. That would clean up a lot of issues.

That would’ve been a better fix and not have watered it down as much.
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A success factor was proposed probably 12-15 years ago and voted down by the member schools.
 
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