6 Classes

[Head Roadie]

My opinion. Charter schools were formed to provide additional educational opportunities/alternatives. A charter school can sponsor one sport (Lincoln Park) and send kids back to their home school district for other sports.

Make Charter schools stick to their original purpose and take athletics out of the charter schools. Send your students back to their home school district for ALL SPORTS.

[guru1]

Gross enrollment is not a great way for classification because with football and basketball the populations that teams are picked from are not even between public and private. A private and public may both only have 147 males, but the quality of those males are going to vary drastically. I think privates should be treated as co-ops as in they take in enrollment from schools that they take students from. In my eyes, it is not equal that a public can have a co-op with another public and they have to take in half the enrollment even if they only receive one kid, but if a private takes a kid from that same school there is no intake of enrollment. I do believe that the BG team this year was very home grown and have been together for years, but, I'm sure some of the significant players would of definitely had an impact on teams besides BG. Not every private school is the same, there are varying levels of "recruiting" and transferring that occur, but it can be said that they have an advantage when it comes to accepting new players with almost no questions asked. It just looks kinda ridiculous because in basketball you could have the 10 best players in the state go to Blah Blah Charter School and win a state title and be like "Theyre such a small school, its amazing that they have such great talent with only 10 kids"

The whole thought is interesting. This topic can rarely be discussed because too may people on here just go way off grid because it is such a hot topic. I am a BG guy but will admit that private schools (including BG) have an advantage over alot of small public schools. While I know BG doesn't go out an actively recruit football players as some suggest..and all the kids are almost all kids who have been in the parochial schools since they started school....BUT it is still a fact that BG has kids that live in the Altoona SD and Hollidaysburg SD and I am sure a few more close to the Altoona area. I would agree that this in unfair to the smaller class A schools. However, the other side of it is this: To force BG to move up a class or under your suggestion they would have to be AAAA isn't fair to those kids. They couldn't compete at that level. Keep in mind prior to the last two years the last time BG even made a district final was 1991 so it;s not like they are dominant year in and year out.

So what is the answer? How can it be made fair for all? Suggestion: I love the idea of Charter students having to play for the local SD they live in... That solves one issue. If the PIAA did go to 6 classifications i feel like making private schools play up one class above enrollment would be ok. If would be fair to the schools in their enrollment class and it wouldn't be as drastic a jump for the private school because the difference in classes isnt as large.

[upnorth]

guru - I like both of your suggestions. I wonder what would happen to enrollment at Lincoln Charter and Imhotep Charter if their students had to play in their home SD. On second thought, I know what would happen.

[guru1]

guru - I like both of your suggestions. I wonder what would happen to enrollment at Lincoln Charter and Imhotep Charter if their students had to play in their home SD. On second thought, I know what would happen.

Some public schools in Ohio, West Virginia, New Jersey and Delaware would get some kids back... Lol

[WildCatz]

You made some good points guru!

[Richland_Fan]

All these ideas have merit but all have something in common: a requirement that the PIAA actually take action. Past experience has shown pretty clearly that they have no stomach for change unless it involves some monetary benefit to them, e.g. Inferior footballs forced on the masses for a fee.

Maybe they will surprise us and actually take action to level the playing field or make it more equitable, but I really doubt it.

[knowitall]

The PIAA could go to 64 classes and folks would still be crying about inequity.

To be a state champ you should be the best. Period.

[southpaw]

This topic rears it's ugly head every year. We've had some good discussion about this for 10+ years on this site and nothing has bee done to level the playing field excuse the pun.

If the piaa goes to six classes I think it should be an apples to apples split. Four classes for boundary schools and two classes for non boundary schools.

[Head Roadie]

First, Guru1 ... very good post!

Southpaw....the 4 & 2 plan is the one I would prefer also but remember, The "Bohannon Plan" for boundary vs non-boundary schools was steamrolled by the catholic diocese about 3-4 years ago. In fact the PIAA is not permitted to even use that language "non-boundary" any more as a result of pressure put on the legislature from the powerful catholic leaders who don't see it as we do, and feel it is unfair.

And one more point....the PIAA gets the blame for this but in reality this is a state legislature problem. Our legislature FORCED the PIAA to take in PCIAA schools back in 1973. The PIAA can't really do much based on laws forced upon it.

[CCDevil2012]

It is tough, and idk if anybody has a good answer. But I think it can be agreed that something needs to be modified. True that BG has not been very many playoffs, but honestly there are not very many teams that are district champion quality let alone state year in and year out, it should be a revolving door, teams are supposed to be up and down. Another good point is that it wouldn't be fair to make them play up to AAAA, but likewise how is it fair for a team like williamsburg to compete against a team that is deemed equal only because of male enrollment. As I said there are definitely varying levels of transferring, but you have to draw the line somewhere. BG may not be AAAA big but I do think they could and should compete against AA or AAA.