Ohio says "NO" to trend toward football super-class

[All Play No Work]

The Ohio High School Athletic Association's board has revoked a proposal intended to reduce the disparity in enrollments between schools that compete in the large-school division in its tournaments.

 

The OHSAA, which is a sanctioning body for the state's prep sports, had approved a plan in June that would have reduced the number of schools in Division I, then distributed the remaining schools among the association's smaller divisions. It was set to take effect for the 2007-08 school year.

 

The board decided Thursday to retain its long-standing format that assigns as equal a number of schools as possible to each division of OHSAA tournaments.

 

"After consulting with OHSAA Board and staff members along with hearing feedback from OHSAA membership, the feeling is that, while we tried to create fairness for one division, perhaps we were creating unfairness in the other divisions," board president Jerry Snodgrass said in a release

 

http://news.cincypost.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070113/SPT0401/701130382/1035/SPT

[theguru]

I think Ohio needs to look at expanding to more than six classes. Eight to ten sounds about right considering the depth in the state.

[kissinger]

I think Ohio needs to look at expanding to more than six classes. Eight to ten sounds about right considering the depth in the state.

Would have to look at their web site to be sure, but I was told through the mill that Pennsylvania is doing just what you espouse. They haven't even had playoffs that long, but were looking at a "super" class. However, they are now looking at just simply expanding classes to about 35 to 40 schools per class.

 

And they play some pretty good football.

[theguru]

kissinger,

 

I agree PA plays excellent football as does Ohio.

 

I don't know the exact number but I believe there are somewhere around 750 schools playing football in Ohio so even if they went to ten classes there would be 75 schools in each class which is more than enough.

[swamprat]

Florida is trying something different. Instead of keeping the number of schools in each class the same, they have decided to stick to strict enrollment guidelines and divide the classes that contain too many schools into multiple classes. These are usually the smaller schools. Class 2A was divided into 2A and 2B in 2003. Class 1A was divided into 1A and 1B in 2005. Technically Florida has 8 classes now.