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The Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic Association began counting points for its competitive balance formula in 2018 for high school football and basketball, and there have been plenty of bumps along the way.
There was a major one Wednesday when the Aliquippa and Wyomissing football teams won their appeals to remain at Class 4A and 3A, respectively, despite being tabbed by the formula to move up.
Earlier in the appeal process, teams like Southern Columbia (2A) and Redbank Valley (1A) had already won their arguments against the formula without a hearing by sending documentation that students identified as transfers were not.
Wyomissing's hearing on Wednesday was private to the media, but Aliquippa's was open. The Quips hired a team of lawyers, brought in a doctor and even an NFL Hall of Famer to argue their point.
The PIAA hearing appeal process allows for a 45-minute testimony, but Aliquippa was allowed more than double that time.
The crux of Aliquippa's argument was that it is unsafe for a school drawing from 118 male students (which would normally classify it as a 1A school) to be playing at 5A against some schools drawing from more than 500 boys.
It was argued the Quips would be playing against teams with different starters on offense and defense and a whole other set of players on special teams while their players on a roster that averages between 35 to 40 played all three.
For the record, Hollidaysburg had eight players start on both offense and defense this past season and Altoona had five, and it's hard to believe if either had several 300-pound linemen, as Aliquippa does, that they wouldn't be playing both ways no matter how big their roster was.
Ty Law, who won a PIAA title at Aliquippa in 1991 at Class 2A and went on to play for Michigan and the New England Patriots before becoming a Hall of Famer in 2019, made a statement that was quite a reach in his testimony during the hearing.
"If you look at the pure numbers, we're an anomaly in a sense," Law said. "I don't think we should be punished for the success that we have had on the field. We're not afraid of competition, but the reality is when you are talking about a school like Aliquippa, I think it's the equivalent to as far as resources, number of students, it's like asking, using a Pennsylvania analogy, asking Geneva College to play Penn State week in and week out. It's just not fair as far as the competition."
Keep in mind that Aliquippa won the PIAA Class 4A state title last season and outscored its opponents by more than 400 points. That was pointed out by the PIAA during the hearing and that the Quips had eight all-state players at the 4A level, including the player of the year -- who was a freshman last season.
"That's not part of the formula," Aliquippa coach Mike Warfield responded. "Three-hundred-pound linemen is not part of the formula. The formula says enrollment, transfers and success points."
The formula examined
So, let's just look at the formula.
PIAA executive director Robert Lombardi explained it to open the hearing.
"The initial part of our competition formula is the number of points a team has earned in a two-year cycle," Lombardi said. "They are accumulated through qualifying for different rounds of the PIAA championships. Entry round is one point, quarterfinal round is two points, semifinal round is three points and the championship game is four points. It's not whether the team wins in those rounds, it's just that they qualified for those rounds. If a school receives six points in the previous classification cycle and accepts three transfer students in the sport of football, they will move up one classification. This is not arbitrary, it's performance and factual-based."
If this were the only part of the formula, schools like Southern Columbia would have been moved up years ago. However, winning alone does not trigger moving up. The next step is to examine possible transfers.
"An executive staff reviews each school's eligibility list and compares it to the previous year's eligibility list to see if there are new names," Lombardi said. "We took the 2019 eligibility lists and compared them to the 2020 and the 2020 list to the 2021 list. We review all names and compiled them for the two-year cycle and sent those names that we found different to each school to request supporting documents to explain whether these kids are transfer students or what source information the school has to explain that they are not transfer students. Schools then provide source documentation to explain away the transfer.
"If there is source documentation, the appeal will be accepted. If there is no source documentation, then the student is considered a transfer student.
"This is an objective process. The important question is was the student in attendance and did they not break enrollment at the school. If they broke enrollment, they are a transfer student. There is no subjectivity in this analysis.
"There is no consideration given to the quality of the student on the team, whether they are a starter or a substitute, junior varsity or lacks playing time. None of those things are considered. It's a matter of are they a member of the team and are they a transfer student?"
Bishop Guilfoyle Catholic accumulated seven success points over the past two seasons (three for making the semifinal round in 2020 and four for making the PIAA championship in 2021) and had three transfers, so the Marauders will be moving from Class 1A to 2A next season.
That's how the formula is supposed to work.
So, did Aliquippa have any transfers?
"Our decision is not based upon the subjectivity of why some students have transferred," Lombardi said. "We have concluded a transfer is a transfer and did not get involved in qualitative judgments of being a member of the team.
"From materials we received from the school that were submitted to the board of directors for their review prior to this meeting, we determined that Aliquippa had eight transfers and had earned six competition points. That results in them moving up in classification to 5A."
Aliquippa spent plenty of time explaining why these eight students had left the district and returned, but as Lombardi explained, under the scope of the PIAA, a transfer is a transfer if enrollment has been broken and game minutes played do not matter.
Though I can certainly understand the frustration and overall unfairness of a school with technically 118 male students to draw from playing at a 5A classification, under the rules set forth by the competition formula, because the Quips played at 4A in the last classification cycle, it seemed to be the correct call, by the rules, to move them to 5A.
But that's not what happened.
Questioning language
Jay Reisinger, the head lawyer for Aliquippa, concentrated on a third aspect of the formula brought up by Warfield earlier -- enrollment.
"There's nothing in the rule that says you start from the classification you're at right now, whether you decide to voluntarily increase or not," Reisinger said. "There's nothing in the rule that says anything about placing you up in classification from where you currently stand, it says from enrollment classification. Enrollment classification is well defined within your rules, and that goes for the student body and in regard to football, the male students."
The point Reisinger made is connected to Aliquippa voluntarily playing up to Class 3A despite having an enrollment that would place it at 1A. The Quips were moved up to 4A through the competition formula two years ago setting the stage for this year's possible move to 5A.
But Reisinger's argument is that the language of the PIAA's competition formula uses enrollment and not current playing status as the initial starting point.
"The voluntary increase in enrollment classification is not referred to at all in the competition formula," Reisinger said. "There's nowhere in the competition formula that says you get the competition formula applied to where you came from, it says it comes from where your enrollment classification was. That's a plain reading of the rule. That's the end of it. The fact you allow teams to play up does not relate back to this rule. The competition rule is not being applied properly in this case. The rule requires an initial classification determined by enrollment, that's the plain reading by the rule. The competition rule does not say it will be applied based off where a team has agreed to play, it says it will be applied based off enrollment."
The deliberation part of the hearing was closed to the media, but this is likely the point that won Aliquippa its appeal.
"Based upon the presentation of Aliquippa High School, we should allow them to maintain their 4A classification," PIAA board member Michael Hawkins said in a motion following the deliberations.
The vote ended up 21-4, with two of the four minority votes coming from members of District 6, Mike Hudak and Michael Cacciotti. District 6 chairman Bill Marshall was absent for the meeting.
"We will take that testimony and move on," PIAA board president Frank Majikes said. "Possibly re-evaluate and see where we're going for the future."
That statement can be taken two ways, of course. The PIAA may look to enforce its formula with more leniency toward schools already playing up or it may just change the language that likely cost it the decision in Aliquippa's appeal.
Classification context
Part of the reason that it is so surprising to see the PIAA struggling with its competitive balance formula is how seriously it takes its classifications in the first place.
Earlier in Wednesday's meeting, District 6 school Southern Huntingdon was one of four schools that were in co-ops with another school in certain sports that forced them up a classification. Each school was given a short presentation window to present its case against the move.
"Our situation was pretty simple," Southern Huntingdon athletic director Tracy Cornelius said. "We started a co-op with Forbes Road high school several years ago. They approached us, because they thought they had students interested in playing football. Since the time we've had the co-op, we've only had one student from Forbes Road play.
"We're very close to the cutoff anyway, but we had a verbal agreement with Forbes Road and have cut off with them in a couple other sports that they sponsor, because if the co-op ever forced us up, we would mutually agree to end the co-op. We got a notification from the PIAA, even with Forbes Road in our co-op that we were going to be single-A, but then when PIAA changed the parameters recently, it put us back up into double-A.
"Prior to that, even with Forbes Road, we were still going to be single-A for the next two years until the PIAA changed the parameters, which put us back into double-A. That's when we looked into this and trying to pursue this appeal."
Southern Huntingdon has 129 male students to draw from between its own school and Forbes Road and was classified in 2A while fellow Inter-County Conference school Curwensville has 123 and is classified as 1A.
Cornelius' argument seemed honest and worthwhile.
It was unanimously denied along with the four other schools in a decision that took less than two minutes after the statements were completed.
Following the Aliquippa and Wyomissing hearings, after a nearly six-hour meeting, eight more schools faced a vote after they missed a deadline to report proper numbers for their sports and felt they were classified incorrectly.
They were all unanimously denied almost immediately.
It's clear that in the spirit of the competition formula, the PIAA would have moved Aliquippa to 5A, but despite the formula being in its fourth year, Wednesday proved the organization is still working out some of the kinks.
Michael Boytim can be reached at mboytim@altoonamirror.com or 814-946-7521.