COLUMBUS, Ohio — The Ohio High School Athletic Association unanimously approved a proposal on Thursday that will expand the divisions for postseason tournaments in seven sports.
The changes will result in boys and girls soccer moving to five divisions, while girls volleyball, girls and boys basketball, softball and baseball will now have seven divisions. The OHSAA said in those sports, Division I and Division II will only include 64 schools.
The changes are set to go into place starting in the fall of 2024.
“It’s the right thing to do for the student-athletes who have been competing at this disadvantage,” OHSAA executive director Doug Ute said. “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.
According to the OHSAA, there have been several recent meetings regarding track and field and the board will continue to discuss possible changes to additional sports too.
No changes will be made to the number of football divisions, which already stands at seven currently. The OHSAA said that any changes to the competitive balance process would need to be voted on by member schools during the annual referendum voting process.
“We know that there is a lot of work to do in the coming months to prepare for additional divisions this fall,” Ute said. “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 proposal approved on Thursday will use the following scale to help the board decide on the number of divisions for girls volleyball, football, soccer, basketball, softball and baseball:
- 199 or fewer teams: 1 Division
- 200 to 299 teams: 2 Divisions
- 300 to 399 teams: 3 Divisions
- 400 to 499 teams: 4 Divisions
- 500 to 599 teams: 5 Divisions
- 600 to 699 teams: 6 Divisions
- 700 and more teams: 7 Divisions
The OHSAA said that lacrosse, field hockey, ice hockey and boys volleyball will not change from their current division numbers.
For girls volleyball, soccer, basketball, softball and baseball, the largest 64 schools will be placed into Division I and the 64 next largest will be placed into Division II. From there, the OHSAA said that the remaining schools will be divided as evenly as possible into the remaining divisions.
According to the OHSAA, the proposal does not call for a change to the formula they use for the required number of student-athletes needed for team designation.
Here's how the divisions will break down for individual sports:
- 200 or fewer teams: 1 Division
- 201 to 450 teams: 2 Divisions
- 451 to 700 teams: 3 Divisions
- 701 and more teams: 4 Divisions
Changes to the structure and dates of future state tournaments will be announced at a later date, the OHSAA said.