On its fourth attempt, OHSAA passes competitive balance proposal

Passage of this plan is expected to end a push from some OHSAA member schools to have separate state tournaments for public and private schools.

COLUMBUS — On the fourth attempt, the Ohio High School Athletic Association’s member schools have passed a competitive balance plan designed to improve the fairness of state tournament play.

Result of the vote was announced by the OHSAA this afternoon.

The plan, approved by the membership after three similar proposals were narrowly defeated between 2011 and 2013, passed 411 votes to 323 votes (56 percent to 44 percent, with three ballots abstaining). It will become effective during the 2016-17 school year.

“On behalf of the board of directors and competitive balance committee, I want to thank the membership for having the confidence in this plan and voting to move forward with implementation,” OHSAA commissioner Dan Ross said. “While passing the plan was a major step and truly exciting, our work is just beginning since the competitive balance committee will continue to clarify any unanswered questions and our staff will put all the wheels in motion to finalize the electronic roster collection system.”

Passage of this plan is expected to end a push from some OHSAA member schools to have separate state tournaments for public and private schools.

“As we’ve said before, this plan is similar to last year’s, but this version is the result of a compilation of input from our superintendents, principals, athletic administrators, and coaches,” Ross said. “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.”

In addition to the size of a school’s enrollment, the OHSAA’s competitive balance plan will have new modifying factors that will be applied to students on each roster on a sport-by-sport basis, and 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 factors of the 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.

After a total of 820 ballots were mailed in late April, 737 were returned for a voter turnout of 90 percent. Only 83 member schools did not return a ballot.