The age-old public versus private school debate has never been hotter, and it's not likely to cool off anytime soon if states such as Georgia, Ohio and Texas have anything to say about it.
After the Ohio High School Athletic Association (OHSAA) created the Competitive Balance Committee in January of 2010 in response to concerns about private schools dominating at the state-tournament level, a proposal to change how schools are assigned to divisions was put up for a vote by school administrators earlier this month.
The proposed bylaw, which would have changed divisional alignments in football, boys and girls soccer and girls volleyball in the fall, boys and girls basketball in the winter and baseball and softball in the spring, was voted down by a margin of just 332-303 (52 percent to 48 percent) on May 17.
The proposal stated that each school would be placed into tournament divisions in those eight sports determined by its sport-by-sport "athletic count," a formula based on tradition factors, socioeconomic factors and school boundaries. The close vote could signal that change still could be coming after five of the six state football titles and 19 of the 27 total state team championships awarded by the OHSAA during the 2010 fall season went to non-public schools.
The biggest controversy involved in the proposal had to do with the "tradition factor," which the committee said would be determined by "state championship game appearances, state tournament appearances and regional finals appearances."
For coaches such as Ryan Wiggins of St. Francis DeSales (Columbus), the idea that teams would be penalized for being successful didn't add up. The Stallions own Ohio's longest streak of consecutive state playoff appearances at 17.
"I'm glad it didn't get passed," Wiggins said. "The way I look at it, we have a great system with the way we do football in Ohio. It's one of the best in the country. You have six divisions, and they allowed more people into the playoffs a few years ago, so it's settled on the field. That's all you can ask. I don't think (changing the system) is the answer."
Last December, St. John's (Delphos) beat public school-foe Shadyside 77-6 for the title in Ohio's smallest classification, Division VI. Ursuline Academy (Youngstown) captured its third consecutive Division V title by at least three touchdowns over a public school when it beat Coldwater 51-21.
Rocky Pentello, who has coached Westerville South to eight state playoff appearances since 1994 in Ohio's largest classification, Division I, acknowledges that the system could be tweaked at the top to bring more competitive balance.
Pentello's public school had 529 boys in grades 9-11 as of October, 2008, while 10 Division I schools had more than 1,000. One suggestion he has is that Ohio add a seventh division, essentially splitting Division I into two.
"(The OHSAA proposal) didn't really affect us at all, even if it would have passed," Pentello said. "I think they took something easy and made it complicated. There's too much disparity at the top. I think they just tried to kill too many birds with one stone."
OHSAA commissioner Dan Ross said that it hasn't yet been determined whether the Competitive Balance Committee will reconvene.
Ross added that there have been discussions to file a petition by some member schools that wish to have separate tournaments of public and non-public schools. For that to take place, a petition must be signed by 75 principals including a minimum of five principals within each of the six OHSAA athletic districts.
If that does occur, a vote could come up again in May of 2012. A vote to separate public and non-public schools failed overwhelmingly in both 1978 (83.9 percent to 16.1 percent) and 1993 (66.8-32.3).
Texas has been attempting to bridge the gap created by the private-public issue as well. On May 6, the Texas Senate voted 22-7 to allow private schools to join the University Interscholastic League in all sports except for football and basketball.
Exempting football and basketball was necessary to pass the bill, Sen. Dan Patrick (R-Houston) told the Associated Press. Patrick has tried to force the UIL to open up to private schools since 2007.
"That's where all the opponents have come from, all those football coaches out there," Patrick said. "Students who are in private and parochial schools, their parents are paying school taxes. In my view, it's discrimination to not let those students participate. This is not the end of the world. It's just new competition."
The UIL currently has about 1,300 members, while the Texas Association of Private and Parochial Schools (TAPPS) has about 250 members.
The UIL has battled lawsuits and legislative pressure to bring public and private schools together for years. Two large Catholic schools, Dallas Jesuit and Houston Strake Jesuit, already play football and basketball in the UIL, and the bill would allow them to keep playing.
Georgia also recently made changes to its sports championships model. On May 10, the Georgia High School Association's Executive Committee expanded from five divisions to six beginning with the 2012-13 school year.
The impetus for change in classification stems from several factors, including smaller public schools feeling a disadvantage against private schools.
In Class A, Georgia's smallest class, private schools have won 26 of the 28 state championships since the start of the 2008 school year outside of football, wrestling and boys track. In those three sports, Class A private schools won one of the 11 state titles.
Georgia multiplied every private school's enrollment by 1.5 for reclassification purposes from 2000-01 through 2007-08.
As state associations throughout the U.S. continue to grapple with competitive balance, the public versus private school debate isn't going away.
If Ohio's recent narrow defeat is an indicator, it's not a matter of if but of when changes will be made.
Jarrod Ulrey covers Central and Northern Ohio for MaxPreps.com. He has covered prep sports for ThisWeekSPORTS.com for 16 years and can be reached at julrey@thisweeknews.com.
