The PIAA’s Board of Directors last week approved on a second-reading basis changes to its controversial competition formula.
The formula, adopted in 2019, compels schools to move up in enrollment class based on postseason success and transfers.
In its current form, teams receive two “success points” for reaching the quarterfinals of the state tournament, three points for the semifinals and four for reaching a state final, win or lose.
Schools with six or more success points in the previous two-year cycle and a set minimum of transfers on their roster (the number varies by sport) for the coming season must move up a class.
Teams that are already playing up a class due to the formula may move down after two years if they compile two points or less within those years.
The following changes will only go into effect if approved on a third-reading vote, which is scheduled for the board’s Dec. 4 meeting.
They are:
1. The minimum number of transfers will go up to two in sports that now require one (basketball and tennis), three in sports that now require two (baseball, softball, soccer, field hockey, volleyball, lacrosse and wrestling) and from three to four in football.
2. Seven success points and a state championship (plus the required transfers) will be required to move up. Three points or fewer will allow teams to move down.
3. One competition point will be awarded to all teams that reach the round of 16 in a state tournament. This could be relevant to teams moving down after having played up for two years. It primarily factors into boys and girls basketball, which have 32-team state-tournament brackets.
4. The board removed from the PIAA by-laws language that prohibited competition-formula-related appeals based on health and safety.
“Whether this will carry the day, I have no idea,” PIAA Executive Director Robert Lombardi said Tuesday. “But I do think (the changes are) very well thought out. They’re the result of a lot of discussion.
“Nobody in the country can figure out a perfect answer to transfers. We revisit it not only every year, but practically every season.”
In other news from the director’s meeting:
- The board approved increasing the number of enrollment classes from four to six in girls volleyball based on the number of participating schools (621) for the next enrollment cycle.
- The board approved co-op agreements between Lancaster Mennonite and Veritas Academy in baseball, and between Penn Manor and The Stone Independent High School and boys and girls swimming and boys and girls wrestling.
- The agreements will be in effect immediately and will not change the classification of any of the teams involved.
- The PIAA and National Federation of State High School Associations named Jeremy Morrison as the state coach of the year in baseball.
Morrison led the Black Knights to the Class 6A state championship last spring.
He is one of 25 coaches honored for the 2023-24 school year. They are nominated, according to the PIAA website, by “their school communities, PA coaches’ associations, Board of Directors, and PIAA staff. They are selected based on their impact to their specific sports program, success of their team(s), adherence to PIAA By-laws, and sportsmanship throughout the year.”
Morrison has since resigned. The Hempfield School Board last week named Hempfield alum Austin Hinkle as the Knights’ coach.
