COLUMBUS, Ohio — The Ohio High School Athletic Association announced Wednesday afternoon that a proposal that would allow schools to move up to Division I on a sport-by-sport basis will go to member schools for a vote in May.
The announced proposal occurs less than a week after the OHSAA board of directors approved the expansion of tournament divisionsfor seven sports starting this August.
Five referendum items have been approved by the OHSAA board of directors with additional items that could be approved by the board at its March meeting.
The OHSAA’s annual referendum voting period is May 1-15, and an affirming vote by a majority of the membership is the only way that an OHSAA bylaw or constitution item can be added, deleted or changed. There are 819 member high schools.
The OHSAA staff will conduct update meetings in each district in April to explain the referendum items that schools will be voting on.
If passed, Issue 1B would allow a school to apply to the OHSAA within two weeks of the start of the season to move up to Division I in that sport for the postseason tournament.
Previously established divisional assignments for all other schools would not be affected if one or more schools move up to Division I. That means schools would not get moved down a division due to an increase in the number of schools in Division I.
If requested for individual sports, all the participants for that school would participate in the same division for that sport.
For example, if the proposal passes, some student-athletes for a school could not opt up to Division I while others stay at a lower division.
"We’ve had a number of schools ask for permission to do this, but it is currently not allowed per Bylaw 2-1-1,” OHSAA executive director Doug Ute said in a statement.
“This referendum proposal is the only way to see if the majority of the membership is in agreement that schools should be able to move up if they would like to that season, for any number of reasons.”
If the referendum item passes, the OHSAA would determine if any changes are needed to the tournament representation process, which is used to determine the number of schools in each division in each district that advance to the district, regional and state tournaments.
Four other referendum items include:
Issue 2B would address the transition of athletic eligibility between grading periods and amend the OHSAA’s definition of a school day to not include calamity days, where school is canceled due to weather or similar circumstances.
Issue 3B would allow for additional situations in which a mid-season transfer student could be eligible to participate at a new school in the same season, specifically when there is intervention of children’s services that places a student in a new school less than 50 miles away from their former school.
Issue 4B would allow for mid-season transfers to be fully eligible at the new school in the same season but only at the sub-varsity level and only if the student met the requirements of an exception to restore full transfer eligibility.
Issue 5B would allow schools to travel out of state for practice purposes only, which is currently not permitted unless their normal practice facility is located out of the state. It would also allow schools to travel to non-bordering states for practice or other team activities if the trip is approved in advance by the OHSAA office and it counts as the school’s one permitted non-bordering state trip that season. The proposed issue also clarifies that schools are permitted to miss school time at their discretion when they exercise their one-time travel to a non-bordering state option.
