PIAA Board votes for first time to remove health and safety terminology from competition formula

From: Chris Harlan

Wednesday, July 17, 2024 | 4:14 p.m.

STATE COLLEGE – The PIAA board of directors wants to remove some of the most reviled language from its rule designed to ensure competitive balance, namely that which excludes health and safety as grounds for appeal.

The competition formula currently states: “…a change in classification would not be a cause for health and safety concerns. A claim of such risk will not be considered.” But the board voted Wednesday to remove that language, which became the focal point of the Aliquippa School District’s lawsuit against the PIAA.

Three votes are required for changes to the statutes, so the change must be approved by the board two more times.

The PIAA board met for a two-day summer workshop at the Penn Stater Hotel & Conference Center. The health and safety amendment was not originally on the agenda, but PIAA Executive Director Bob Lombardi said board members requested it.

“The feedback from everyone involved,” says Lombardi, was the motivation. “They wanted to take it out.”

Removing these restrictions would enable schools to raise health and safety arguments in future competitive balance appeals.

“By removing that language, health and safety are not being ignored,” Lombardi said. “It eliminates the possibility that (the board) cannot take that into account. The interpretation is, ‘That’s not an issue.’ The board sees it differently. That’s part of every sport.”

This move was one of several possible changes to the competitive balance rule, all of which were adopted at first reading on Wednesday.

Among other things:

• The number of transfers required for promotion would increase from one to two in basketball and tennis and from three to four in football.

• The number of achievement points needed to advance would increase from six to seven. The board has tentatively approved a restriction that only teams that win state championships can advance, but that idea will be reconsidered.

• Teams that have already been promoted and collect four, five or six success points in subsequent years will remain in a higher classification. Teams with one, two or three points could fall back again.

• The board rejected a novel proposal that would have moved a team to a higher classification after winning consecutive state titles, regardless of the number of transfers added. The board saw potential problems with the plan because the PIAA operates on two-year enrollment cycles.

Do the two state titles have to be won in the same cycle? What happens if a team wins a title in the second year of one cycle and the first year of another cycle?

The competitive balance rule targets teams that are successful in the state playoffs, as measured by the competitive formula, and exceed the transfer threshold in a two-year cycle. The PIAA moves teams that meet both criteria to a higher classification to play against schools with larger enrollments.

Aliquippa and the PIAA are involved in an ongoing legal battle over an attempt to move the school’s football team to Class 5A next season. The PIAA said the team met both criteria for promotion.

The Quips successfully avoided a similar promotion to 5A in 2022, in part by citing health and safety concerns in their PIAA appeal. Aliquippa school officials argued that it was not safe for a team with a small student population to compete against opponents with three times as many students.

However, the PIAA board later added to the rule that health and safety concerns were not grounds for an appeal. The PIAA defended this position on the grounds that teams successful enough to qualify for advancement under the competition formula would not be at greater risk in a higher classification.

“That is the board’s belief,” Lombardi said. “We have found no research, no documentation, no surveys to support that.”

Class expansion

The PIAA board voted on first reading to expand girls volleyball to six classifications. The proposal, if it passes two more votes, would not take effect until the 2026-27 school year.

The board separately rejected a recommendation to expand athletics to three classifications. The Athletics Steering Committee had unanimously recommended this step.

Chris Harlan is a sports reporter for TribLive. He joined the Trib in 2009 after spending seven years as a reporter at the Beaver County Times. Reach him at [email protected].