COLUMBUS, Ohio — The Ohio High School Athletic Association board of directors unanimously approved a proposal Thursday morning to expand the number of tournament divisions in seven sports starting in the 2024-25 school year.
Baseball, basketball, softball and girls volleyball increase from four divisions each to seven divisions. Soccer increases from three to five divisions. In those sports, Division I and Division II will only include 64 schools.
“It’s the right thing to do for the student-athletes who have been competing at this disadvantage,” OHSAA executive director Doug Ute said in a statement. “For too long, the largest schools in our divisions have been so much larger than the smaller schools in the same division, which has resulted in many schools accepting that they realistically have little chance at making a run in the tournament. In some of our sports, there have been more than 200 schools competing for a state title in that division, which is significantly more than what most other states do, and what we do in many of our own sports."
For girls volleyball, soccer, basketball, softball and baseball, the largest 64 schools would be placed into Division I. The next largest 64 schools would be placed into Division II. The remaining schools would be divided as evenly as possible into the remaining divisions.
The OHSAA already does something similar to this in football, in which the largest 10 percent of schools are placed into Division I and the remaining schools are divided evenly in Divisions II through VII.
“We know that there is a lot of work to do in the coming months to prepare for additional divisions this fall,” Ute said in a statement. “We have already started working on the details to accomplish this, but one thing we know for sure is that having two or three more state champions in these sports doesn’t water them down or diminish winning a state title. And we anticipate that this new format will be revenue neutral, since every school makes the tournament already.”
The new divisions will go into effect with the fall of 2024. The board will continue to discuss additional sports, noting several recent meetings regarding track and field. There are no changes to the number of football divisions, which is already at seven.
The conversation at the school level has always dealt with the enrollment gap. There has been a clear disparity with a Division I school with 330 students compared to another competitors with a 1,000 or more students.
"Very exciting news," Western Brown athletic director Tim Cook said. "Our coaches, athletes and community are excited as well. We have struggled in some sports for years (basketball, volleyball especially) since we have been in D-I. We have had some solid teams over the years and got beat in the first round by much bigger schools as far as enrollment goes. It will still be competitive in a smaller division but we feel like we have a better chance to be successful in this new divisional setup as opposed to the current system."
Kaufman said this proposal addresses the opportunities for student-athletes in the postseason.
"I don't know that any Division VII state football champion ever felt like their state championship was watered down," Kaufman said. "Bottom line I think what this does is it closes the enrollment gap which only benefits kids."
The change Thursday impacts state tournament in those seven sports.
"It speeds up the tournament," Kaufman said. "Like right now we just had the boys (basketball) draw. You have the No. 1 seed playing a No. 33 seed. Have we ever had much fun with those games? I think what this is going to evolve into now a first-round game is going to be a one seed versus an 11 seed. I think you will have more competitive games which is very positive."
Lebanon athletic director Keith Pantling said he likes the fact that more student-athletes can experience deep state playoff runs.
"For us, we're a small D-I no matter how you slice it," Pantling said. "Except now we're still half the size of the largest schools and only a couple dozen students larger than all Division II schools. Being labeled D-I while our most compatible opponents reside predominantly in D-II now. It's concerning for Lebanon. The potential optics for our kids or programs underachieving based on lower division losses will be significantly skewed. The mega D-I's are on their own level."
The state tournament format will change including in basketball where state semifinal games will likely be contested at venues other than University of Dayton Arena where the state finals remain.
"It's going to be our job as the administrators to say ok how can we make these experience at the state semi and regional final level as good as they were before knowing that we might not be able to have them all at a university because how many nights is UD, UC or Xavier University going to give us over a three-week period when they're in the heart of their tournament as well," Kaufman said.
Discussions regarding the increase in the number of tournament divisions has been in the works for quite some time.
Ute announced Dec. 13 the expansion study of the seven competitive balance sports.
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.
Ute has said the expansion of divisions is not expected to have a major financial impact on the OHSAA. Expansion would not mean playing more tournament contests overall. It simply would be putting the same number of teams into more divisions.
The December memo cited an enrollment disparity in Division I in the sports of baseball, basketball, soccer, softball and girls volleyball.
The board of directors heard proposals that addressed the enrollment disparity between the schools at the top to the bottom of Division I in 2006 and 2019.
The only modification the OHSAA currently has in place addressing that issue is in football, where Division I is comprised of the top 10% of schools based on enrollment and the other six divisions are divided as evenly as possible.
The OHSAA said it has 819 member high schools this school year.
