Will the Ohio High School Athletic Association separate public and private schools in state tournaments? The discussion is on the table again, despite data showing that competitive balance is working.
The Suburban League, a conference of 16 schools in Northeast Ohio, has begun circulating a petition that would make OHSAA schools vote on whether or not to separate public and private schools in championship competition. If the petition receives at least 75 signatures, with at least five from the Southwest District Athletic Board and others around the state, the OHSAA member schools will vote in May.
According to the Akron Beacon Journal, 691 public schools and 121 private schools compete in the OHSAA at the high-school level.
This isn't the first
time the discussion has popped up. The OHSAA has taken measures in the past to address "concerns about the disproportionate number of state championships won by non-public schools," the OHSAA said in a review of its competitive balance plan.
When did the OHSAA adopt competitive balance?
The OHSAA member schools voted on and adopted competitive balance measures in May 2014 to place schools in appropriate postseason divisions in baseball, basketball, football, soccer, softball and volleyball.
In essence, the competitive balance formula looks at a school's enrollment and assigns each rostered player a tier based on things like which school district the student lives in or whether they come from an assigned feeder school. Depending on what they find, the OHSAA adjusts the enrollment count. The more players local to the school, the lower the enrollment number. The more players from outside of the district or a feeder, the higher the enrollment number and the likelihood of being assigned a new tournament division.
After approving that plan, the OHSAA began collecting roster data in fall 2016 and implemented the effected divisional alignments in the 2017-18 school year.
According to an OHSAA overview from December 2019 that looked at the first two school years under competitive balance, 55.7% (315) of state champions in football, volleyball, soccer, basketball, baseball and softball came from public schools to 44.3% (251) from non-public schools, from 1999-2000 through 2016-17. That was despite the OHSAA's makeup being "roughly 16% of the OHSAA membership."
Those numbers changed to 68.2% (45) public school champs to 31.8% (21) champions from non-public schools in 2017-18 and 2018-19, the first two years of competitive balance.
Competitive balance has been in effect for nine full seasons with the current school year making the 10th season.
How has the competitive balance worked in its entirety? Let's update the numbers.
What percent of competitively balanced sports have been won by public vs. private schools?
Here are the state championships won by public vs. private schools in the OHSAA from the 1999-2000 year through the 2016-17 year.
Now, here is the same breakdown from 2017-18 through 2025-26, or the competitive balance era.
In those eight sports since competitive balance was instituted in the OHSAA, the share of public school state championships has risen over 10% from 55.7% to 66.5%. Two out of every three state championships won in those sports since 2017-18 has gone to a public school.
Though not a result of public and private debates, the OHSAA has expanded the number of divisions in many sports to ease the enrollment discrepancy inside the divisions, making sure that some schools within divisions don't have a difference of thousands of students.
Competitive balance won't solve every problem, like open enrollment public schools or private school vouchers affecting athletic talent, but the percentages show some of the championships swinging back into the favor of the public schools that make up the majority of OHSAA participation.
This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: What OHSAA competitive balance data shows about public vs. private titles
