If public schools want fairness in the state athletic playoffs, it doesn’t appear they’re going to get it anytime soon. No one at the state level seems in any hurry to make it happen.
At a hearing before the PIAA Legislative Oversight Committee yesterday at Heinz Field in Pittsburgh, leaders of a large group of school superintendents and athletic officials were told their best bet was to work with the PIAA to get them to address their concerns. The PIAA has shown no interest addressing the group’s concerns.
The oversight committee’s chairman, Representative Gene DiGirolamo, believes the 1972 law that permitted private schools to compete in the state playoffs requires that they compete against public schools. The breakaway group that has proposed separate playoffs for public schools and private schools – which are referred to as “boundary” and “non-boundary” schools – says there is no language in the law that stipulates combined playoffs.
The committee decided to turn the question over to the legal departments of the two legislative chambers, and DiGirolamo said it will take a while for them to examine the original transcripts of the 1972 discussions when the law was formed. The earliest he anticipates any legal opinion is the end of the year.
Leaders of the “equity group” said after the hearing that with the stonewalling from the oversight committee and the PIAA’s lack of interest in changing the system, perhaps it’s time to create a breakaway separate entity.
