Lawmakers in Pennsylvania have introduced legislation in an attempt to form separate playoff brackets for public and private/charter schools.
House Bill 1983 proposes splitting the PIAA classifications and giving both boundary and non-boundary schools their own postseason. For over 50 years, the PIAA has been required to allow private, parochial and charter schools (non-boundary) to participate in the same postseason as public schools (boundary) due to a state statute that was signed into law in 1972.
Act 219 of 1972 has been at the forefront of the issue, with the PIAA ruling back in 2018 that it could not alter the current playoff format due to the statute. If approved, House Bill 1983 would undo Act 219 and leave the decision in the PIAA’s hands.
The legislation would not force the PIAA to separate boundary and non-boundary schools, but it would leave the option into the board of directors’ hands instead of keeping the organization strapped down by the 1972 statute.
The PIAA has objected to a change for several years, but executive director Robert Lombardi told TribLive back in 2022 when the legislation was first proposed that the PIAA would follow suit if approved.
“If the legislature would like to change the law, we’ll be glad to follow whatever they say,” Lombardi said. “But we’re not going to try to separate and be hit with a discrimination suit — and that’s on the doorstep.”
Directors from over 137 school districts teamed together in 2018 and unsuccessfully attempted to convince the PIAA to change its state playoff format. Lombardi told TribLive that if it would change the postseason with the statute still in place, a fierce legal battle against the non-boundary schools would likely be in order.
“We have good information that if there would be any type of separation, that there would be immediate legal action,” Lombardi said.
The issue of state playoffs has been a highly-debated topic for many years, with many feeling that there has been an unfair advantage for private schools in the postseason.
Of the 12 state champions in boys and girls basketball this year, nine were non-boundary schools. Over the last three years, public schools were winners of only eight of a possible 36 state titles. Only twice since 2000 have public schools won the majority of basketball championships awarded in a given season.
In an attempt to level the playing field, the PIAA has taken measures over the last several years to tighten its grip on transfer rules. New guidelines have made most athletes ineligible for the postseason for one year if they transfer to a new school, and a recent competitive-balance rule has also forced teams into a higher classification for adding transfer players.
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