OHSAA will hold vote again for competitive balance
3/5/2014COLUMBUS — The Ohio High School Athletic Association board of directors has unanimously approved a competitive balance proposal that makes modifications on how schools are placed in tournaments in team sports.
The plan is similar to the proposal that member schools voted upon last spring.
In addition to the size of a school’s enrollment, new modifying factors may be applied to students on each roster on a sport-by-sport basis that are based on where the student’s parents reside and/or the educational system history of the student. All schools will be subject to the new competitive balance formula, which will be applied to students in the sports of football, soccer and volleyball in the fall, basketball in the winter and baseball and softball in the spring. This year’s referendum voting by the 825 high school principals will take place between May 1-15. If approved, it is anticipated the proposal will become effective for the 2016-17 school year.
“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," OHSAA commissioner Dan Ross said.
If passed, the new proposal will require schools to submit to the OHSAA their team rosters of student-athletes in grades 9 through 12 and to further provide more information about each student. Students in public schools will be subject to modifying factors if their parents do not reside in the district or the student has not been continuously enrolled in the district since seventh grade, and students in nonpublic schools will be subject to the same modifying factors if they did not attend that school’s designated “feeder” school(s) continuously since seventh grade or have not been continuously enrolled in the same system of education.