Ohio delays competitive balance plan by one year

Ohio’s athletic association announced Thursday that it would delay implementation of its competitive balance plan by one year, giving the organization more time to properly prepare.

The competitive balance referendum passed in 2014 and was expected to be put in place by the 2016-17 school year. The plan was designed to bring more balance between public and non-public high schools.

Ohio High School Athletic Association Commissioner Dr. Dan Ross released a statement Thursday saying that the competitive balance plan will now be put in place beginning with the 2017-18 school year.

“Waiting to implement competitive balance with the next two-year cycle makes sense and will give us more time to test the software and train our schools,” Ross said. “We are very close to finishing the software and starting to test it. As we have said all along since the first competitive balance plan was proposed in 2011, this is a journey and we are all learning as we go. And this isn’t just a software project. The different ways that kids make their way onto school sports teams is constantly changing and we have to keep up with that while building the roster software at the same time.”

From the Telegraph-Forum:

Ross said that when the software is ready, the Competitive Balance Committee and the OHSAA Board of Directors will provide input. The OHSAA staff and OHSAA field representatives will then visit conferences and schools to help train school administrators on how to enter rosters and assign those student-athletes based on their enrollment or residence background.

Historically, the size of a school’s enrollment was the only factor in determining its tournament divisional assignment. The Competitive Balance Plan, which will affect all schools (public and non-public) in those selected sports, will add additional modifying factors to enrollment counts based on each sport-specific roster and is dependent upon where the student’s parents reside for public school students and/or the educational system history for non-public school students.

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