Ohio High School Baseball Expanding To Seven Divisions In 2025

February 16, 2024
Bruce Hefflinger
PBR Ohio Senior Writer

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Ohio High School Baseball Expanding To Seven Divisions In 2025

COLUMBUS - In June there will be four state baseball champions crowned by the Ohio High School Athletic Association.

That will change in 2025.

The OHSAA announced on Thursday that there will be the addition of three more divisions in the sport of baseball.

“There are several positives to this,” explained Tim Stried, OHSAA Director of Media Relations. “The enrollment disparity in divisions is basically eliminated with the biggest and smallest schools in each division now similar-sized schools.

“Also, any time you expand there are more district champions, more regional champions and more state champions. All the benefits of a state run are there for more schools. There are more opportunities for kids to make longer tournament runs.”

It is an issue that has been discussed by the OHSAA for some time according to Stried.

“The ‘Division I issue’ with the bigger schools (currently Mason 1,300) way bigger than the smallest Division I schools (currently Vandalia Butler, Goshen and Columbus South 356) has been talked about for decades,” Stried noted. “It was a topic when I got here in 2008 and when Bob Goldring (who Stried replaced) got here in 1996.

“Dan Ross had meetings about this, but Jerry Snodgrass had more issues he had to work through when he was commissioner. The first week Doug Ute was on the job he had a meeting about it. He’s the executive director and he’s not afraid to make a move. He’s not going to sit on it, he’s going to get on it quickly.”

The division change with baseball as well as other sports has been an ongoing subject since football went to seven divisions in 2013.

“I think a lot of people had the thought that if football is at seven, when will the divisions expand in other sports,” Stried noted. “That built up over the course of years. The board and Doug had initial conversations on it last spring and conversations got very detailed in the fall. That all led to today.”

Under the new plan, the 64 schools with the most enrollment will be Division I with the next 64 schools Division II. After that, the remaining schools will be divided equally and split into the other five divisions with approximately 125 in each for Division III-VII.

“Some will say that adding champions waters down the tournament but we think the level of high school athletics in Ohio is such that the talent is high,” Stried said. “We don’t think it waters it down.

“The one negative is with fewer schools in your division you’ll have more travel. That already exists with football. The travel in some parts of the state is already there in baseball. I’ve seen complaints you’ll have to travel further for earlier-round games, but welcome to what it’s been like in other parts of Ohio.”

Another concern of some is that member schools did not vote on this.

“This was fully controlled by the Board of Directors,” Stried pointed out. “We would push back that our Board of Directors are voted on by our schools. We can’t pick and choose which items go out for a vote. By-laws and constitutions have to be voted on by schools but our Board of Directors determines any changes to general sports regulations.”

Stried and the board are confident this is a popular decision.

“If you’d send out a question to the 808 schools ‘Would you be in favor of more divisions?’, that would easily pass,” Stried said. “What would that be, 90-95 percent? Clearly our schools would be in favor of more divisions so the follow up is how to do it. That’s what’s up for debate. The board knew it wanted to expand but what should they do? Go to five divisions? Six? Seven? It wasn’t should we expand, but how much.”

The move is getting approval from many.

“I think anytime a decision is made to give kids more opportunities to compete and have success, it’s a great decision,” explained Olentangy Berlin head coach Mike Weaver, a Central District Representative for the Ohio High School Baseball Coaches Association. “I truly believe this was a decision to benefit kids and their experiences. There is no better experience than playing in high school tournaments. There are memories that last for life.”

Mason head coach Curt Bly agrees wholeheartedly.

“I think this creates more opportunities and maybe more equity,” the OHSBCA Southwest District representative said. “There are still some logistic things to figure out, like what will travel look like at the district level and what to do at state with the number of games almost doubled (from currently 12 state semifinal and final games to 21 with seven divisions), but in the end adding divisions will create parity and more opportunity for athletes to compete at the tournament level.”

As for what seven divisions will look like come state tournament time, that is still being determined.

“That hasn’t been worked out yet,” Stried said. “They’ve started conversations with soccer and volleyball because that’s up first in the fall. We haven’t played spring sports this year yet so they’re not talking on it, but there are a lot of different ideas and scenarios that are out there.

“Do we bring all 28 (state semifinal teams) to Akron and play state in one week? Do we use multiple sites in Akron? Do we use different venues across the state like in basketball? Emily Mason (OHSAA Senior Sport Administrator) has a good connection with the Baseball Association and she has it set up to get feedback from coaches.

“I have a whole list of questions,” Stried added. “How will the new format affect the media if you use multiple sites? The state program is my baby. Adding more schools makes that much harder to do. I love the state semifinals and will really miss being at Canal Park for three days and watching 12 games. But at the end of the day the board said we can’t let that stop us from doing what’s best for member schools.”

The thought is that a decision on how the state tournament will play out is not going to come any time soon.

“I’d guess late fall or early winter,” Stried predicted. “They could decide in January 2025, even February 2025, what state in 2025 will look like.”

When it comes to what division teams will be in, that process will likely remain the same.

“This year’s data is needed for 2025 with competitive balance,” Stried related. “Now it’s in August and I think the same timeline will still be used. In August of 2024 they will announce 2025 breakdowns (for spring sports like baseball).”

Under current numbers, the top 64 schools that would be Division I in 2025 would go from Mason at 1,300 down to Wadsworth at 639. Division II would include Hilliard Darby at 638 through Mt. Vernon at 462. Division III would go from Firestone at 459 down to Chaminade-Julienne at 285. Division IV would be Clyde at 284 to LaGrange Keystone at 200. Division V would include Marengo Highland at 199 through East Knox at 144. Division VI would be Anna at 143 down to Wellsville at 100. Division VII would be Old Fort at 99 through the remaining schools, with Ironton St. Joseph Central Catholic the smallest at 18.

Keeping in mind this is just hypothetical based on the 2023-24 school year numbers, in looking at the state champions the last three years those teams would fall into the following divisions come 2025: