OSSAA Competitive Equity Plan

   The OSSAA's plan to revise Rule 14 to promote competitive equity in the OSSAA falls woefully short of accomplishing its goal. An 'OSSAA appointed' committee was charged with studying the competitive equity issue about eight months ago. They were further charged with coming up with a plan which will promote competitive equity for all member schools.
   Before we take a look at the OSSAA's recommendations for "tweaking" Rule 14 to level the playing field for all schools, let's look at the Oklahoma high school football rankings this year as a way of determining the effectiveness of Rule 14 for promoting competitive equity. Only about 6% (20 of 337) of the total member schools which participate in football are 'private', which leaves 94% 'public'. There are six classifications in which both public and private schools participate: 5A, 3A, 2A, A, B, and C. No private schools participate in classes 6A and 4A football. The high school football class rankings according to the Daily Oklahoman after seven weeks into the season include:
Class 5A - Bishop McGuinness #1
Class 3A - Heritage Hall #1, Lincoln Christian #2
Class 2A - Metro Christian #1
Class A   - Rejoice Christian #2
Class B   - Regent Prep #2
Class C   - Southwest Covenant #1
   Only time will tell as to how many private school state champions will be crowned in December, but there is a good chance that a private school state champion will be crowned in all classes in which they participate. The fact that private schools make up only about 6% of the total participants indicates that Rule 14 has been a total bust for promoting competitive equity in the OSSAA.
   Further evidence that Rule 14 (implemented in 2012) has not been effective for leveling the playing field in football, is collected when we examine the final rankings for high school football in 2011 (one year prior to implemention of Rule 14 for competitive equity):
Class 5A - Bishop Kelly - top 8 (beaten in the 2011 state quarter-finals)
Class 4A - Bishop McGuinness - top 4 (beaten in the state semi-finals)
Class 3A - Cascia Hall #2
Class 2A - Lincoln Christian - top 8 (beaten in the state quarter-finals)
Class A   - No private schools
Class B   - No private schools
Class C   - No private schools
   As noted in state news a few weeks ago - the OSSAA has not been very good at gathering 'athlete concussion' data and analyzing that data in solving this student health crisis. The OSSAA has publicly stated that it's waiting for Texas UIL to study the problem before addressing it. It comes as no great shock that the OSSAA would 'drag its feet' in addressing the public/private competitive equity issue, if it has done the same thing for much more serious problems.
   The OSSAA committee assigned to study the competitive equity issue and form a solution to the problem, listed one research article - "National Review of Interscholastic Competitive Balance Solutions Related to the Public-Private Debate" Volume 1, Issue 1, 2015 of the JOURNAL OF AMATEUR SPORT. The research document noted several methods by which state athletic associations have attempted to level the playing field for both public and private schools, including enrollment "multipliers" and "advancement" rules similar to Oklahoma. The research indicated, however, that most, if not all these enrollment based rules have failed to promote competitive equity. The document goes on to relate that "separate playoffs" for public and private schools is the "... only competitive balance solution to eliminate the public vs. private issue by isolating private schools to separate playoffs" (page 41). One must bear in mind that the OSSAA touted this research when devising its own competitive equity solution.
   So, just what is the OSSAA's new competitive equity plan for leveling the playing field for all members? We've not seen it in print just yet, but a report by the competitive equity committee entails that it involves bumping the top four finishers in class 5A volleyball and tennis, to class 6A. To many OSSAA member schools, this plan looks like some sort of convoluted joke.
   There are five private school volleyball teams in class 5A and twenty-seven public school teams. All five finished in the top eight, which means that two teams will move up to class 6A. (Three of the five were already playing up a class, so may not advance to class 6A.) The two lowest ADM class 6A volleyball teams will then 'bump down' to 5A, to replace the two 5A teams which advanced to 6A.
    In related news, the NCAA has announced that it will create another division for college sports. In addition to Division I, II, and III for athletic competition levels based on scholarships and ability to recruit - there will now be Division IV, for those colleges which have a lot of 'out-of-state' players. It has been suggested that those schools such as the University of Oklahoma, which have a lot of 'move-ins', have an unfair advantage over those schools which do not (like Texas and USC). According to the NCAA, a large number of 'move-in' athletes does not promote competitive equity. Of course, this is fake news, and asinine for the NCAA to ever consider.
   It was suggested to the OSSAA membership by an OSSAA official, however, that 'move-ins' create a tilted playing field in competition between member schools. In other words, competitive equity cannot be achieved without considering the number of 'move-in' players a team has. The official even provided my school as an example. I believe the official knows this is a ridiculous factor to consider when promoting competitive equity, but simply used it as a distraction from the real factors (providing student financial assistance and restricted enrollment). The same OSSAA official claimed we have published misleading, inaccurate, or emotionally charged information in the data above.
Update - October 31, 2019: We attended the OSSAA regional meeting at Westmoore high school. The OSSAA's plan for tweaking Rule 14 (Competitive Equity) involves advancing the top four finishers in 5A volleyball and tennis to class 6A, just as we expected. The class 6A traditional public schools in attendance were unhappy with the OSSAA suggestion. They believe that this new Rule 14 will lead to a "super-class" of volleyball and tennis teams in the OSSAA. The OSSAA's response was that there is already a super-class in class 5A, indicating that we'll now have two super-classes for volleyball. The OSSAA indicated it will probably send the new competitive equity plan out to vote of the membership, but there are many class 6A schools which will vote 'No', and countless other schools which will vote 'No', because the new Rule 14 tweaker does nothing to address the real problem - competitive equity in the OSSAA. In fact, the OSSAA's analysis of the data indicates that the competitive equity problem has been solved for all other sports. The competitive equity problem for member schools has not been solved for any sports!
Update - November 13, 2019: For the 2019 football playoffs, fifteen of the twenty private schools made the playoffs, or 75%. Only about 52% of the public schools are playoff bound.