COLUMBUS, Ohio — The Ohio High School Athletic Association board of directors could vote as early as Feb. 15 on expanding the number of tournament divisions in seven sports starting as early as the 2024-25 school year.
The OHSAA sent a memo to member schools Wednesday morning as a follow-up to Tuesday's virtual meeting with member schools about the discussions.
The OHSAA will conduct in-person meetings with superintendents, principals and athletic administrators around the state. The schedule includes Jan. 29 in Columbus, Jan. 30 in Cincinnati, Feb. 2 in Findlay, Feb. 5 in Streetsboro, Feb. 7 in Cambridge and Feb. 9 in Logan.
The OHSAA board of directors has its regularly scheduled monthly meeting for Feb. 15.
OHSAA executive director Doug Ute announced Dec. 13 the expansion study of the seven competitive balance sportsincluding baseball, basketball, soccer, softball and girls volleyball. However, the discussions have been ongoing for quite some time.
Currently, boys and girls soccer have three divisions each while baseball, softball, boys and girls basketball and girls volleyball have four divisions.
The current proposal would expand baseball, basketball, softball and volleyball to seven divisions. Soccer would increase to five divisions.
Any proposed changes in the number of tournament divisions would need to be approved by a majority vote of the OHSAA board of directors. Should there be any additional elements of a proposal that are part of the OHSAA bylaws, a vote of the membership would be required where a majority vote of the member school principals is needed for a modification to be approved.
Ute, who started as executive director in September 2020, has received feedback from administrators and coaches about the potential expansion of divisions in order to address concern in the enrollment disparity of the teams from the top to the bottom of the larger divisions.
"We have seven tournament divisions in the sport of football, so why not give student-athletes, schools and their communities the same, or at least comparable, opportunities to compete for a state championship in some of our other sports," Ute wrote in a December memo to member schools.
OHSAA staff members and the board of directors met in late June 2023 to begin discussions of the expansion of tournament divisions.
The OHSAA has studied the number of tournament divisions and formats in other states and have found that several states — including many that have fewer member schools — have more tournament divisions than Ohio.
Besides the sport of football, the OHSAA has not had expansion in some of its traditional four-division sports since the late 1980s.
