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Ohio High School Athletic Assn...
OHSAA Board
Adopts Recommendation to Add 7th Football Division
Division I Will Be Reduced to 72 Schools; Plan to Begin in 2013
COLUMBUS, Ohio – The Ohio High School Athletic Association will be
adding a seventh tournament division in football beginning in 2013,
Commissioner Daniel B. Ross has announced. The addition of a seventh
division was approved by the OHSAA’s Board of Directors by a 6 to 3
vote during its regularly scheduled meeting on Thursday.
The plan will place the top 10 percent of schools based on enrollment
in Division I, with the remaining 644 schools divided evenly among the
next six divisions. This will leave 72 schools in Division I with the
other six divisions averaging approximately 108 schools. Each of the
seven divisions will continue to qualify 32 teams to the tournament.
Currently, the six OHSAA football divisions are comprised of an average
of 120 schools per division.
The plan for adopting an additional division was in response to a
concern by some OHSAA member schools about the enrollment disparity
that exists in Division I, where the current range is 494 males at the
lower end of the division to 1,164 at the top. Based on current
enrollment data, the lower end of Division I would increase to 600
males. Committee meetings were held to address the issue and the
recommendation to add a seventh division came from the committee.
“Adding a seventh division not only helps address the enrollment
disparity in Division I, but it also will create 32 more tournament
opportunities for student-athletes, their schools and their
communities, many of which have never or rarely experienced the
playoffs,” Ross said. “The committee members believe that this is an
issue unique to football, especially since not all schools qualify for
the OHSAA football tournament.”
A separate committee, comprised of OHSAA Board and staff members,
school administrators and officers of the Ohio High School Football
Coaches Association, will be formed to finalize the details of this
plan. Among the details to be determined: adjustments to the Harbin
Computer Ratings with the addition of another division; regional
breakdowns and assignments for Division I, and dates in which specific
divisions will play their tournament contests, including logistics of
an additional state tournament contest.
Approval of an “athletic count” formula, which is included within a
competitive balance proposal that OHSAA member school principals will
vote on during the annual referendum process that will occur between
May 1 and 15, would also be factored in before placing schools into
their respective tournament divisions.
The next two-year cycle for reassigning schools to tournament divisions
begins in the fall of 2013. Based on current enrollment figures, a
sample of the football tournament divisional enrollment ranges when
adding a seventh division would be (again, keeping in mind that this
will change before the 2013 season): Division I – 600 to 1,164;
Division II – 410 to 599; Division III – 288 to 409; Division IV – 216
to 287; Division V – 159 to 215; Division VI – 114 to 158, and Division
VII – 30 to 111. The current football tournament divisional enrollment
ranges, which run through through 2012, are: Division I – 494 to 1,164;
Division II – 327 to 493; Division III – 243 to 326; Division IV – 172
to 242; Division V – 120 to 171, and Division VI – 30 to 119.
This is the first time the OHSAA has expanded the number of football
tournament divisions since 1994, when a sixth division was added. Five
years later, the number of tournament qualifiers in each division
expanded from 16 to 32. When the tournament first began in 1972, there
were three football tournament divisions, and expansion to five
divisions occurred in 1980.
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