Public/Private School Split

[bama_stripes]

The Alabama HSAA has announced that, effective for the 2026-27 season, public and private schools will have separate playoff divisions.  They will still be allowed to play each other during the regular season.

I believe there are some other states where this is the practice.  Have you had any problems integrating this into your officiating program?

[ElvisLives]

In Texas, the public schools and private schools can certainly play each other during the season, but their playoffs and championships have always been separate. We, TASO, cover all of their games. Not a problem (although there are some rule differences).

[ilyazhito]

In MD and VA, public and private schools are separate. Public schools and private schools have their own playoffs. Sometimes, public and private school teams will play each other in the regular season. In DC, the private schools play in their own leagues, but will compete with public and charter schools for the DC State Championship, under the auspices of the DCSAA (DC State Athletic Association). All schools are divided by size (and for public school football, by competitive performance) into Class A and AA. The bigger schools (and more successful public schools, such as Theodore Roosevelt and HD Woodson) compete in the Stars division of DCIAA. Their champion competes in the DCSAA tournament against the charter school champion and private school champions for the DCSAA title in Class AA. The Stripes champion (lower-level public school, such as Bell HS) competes in the Class A tournament. Sidwell, a smaller private school, would compete in Class A.

[dammitbobby]

Nobody determines who goes to playoffs as bad as Louisiana (both public and private schools are in the same brackets). (pulled from https://www.shreveporttimes.com/story/sports/high-school/football/2021/10/29/lhsaa-football-rankings-louisiana-high-school-playoff-seeding/6136825001/)

The LHSAA uses a power-ranking system to determine which teams make the playoffs.

Teams are seeded for the postseason by their specific power rating, which is calculated by computer. After each game, school representatives enter results into the LHSAA site and the entries are checked for accuracy by an LHSAA official by Tuesday of the next week for posting to the site.

Here is a breakdown of how ratings are determined.

1. A winning team is awarded 10 points. The losing team is awarded nothing.

2. If a school competes against a team in a higher classification, it receives an additional two points for each class it plays up.

3. Add up a team's opponents' collective wins. Then divide that number of wins by the total of games played. Now multiply that by 10.

Add all three of these components together and that is the power rating for that game. Do this for each game played, add them up and then divide that total by the number of games played.

“Obviously, winning helps a school’s power rating the most, but playing up in class against a quality opponent and winning helps as well,” said Eric Held, the LHSAA's Louisiana High School Coaches Association director.

Sometimes Team A loses to Team B, but Team A maintains a higher power rating than the winning Team B.

“That happens a lot,” Held said. “It’s a math problem. If your team loses, it’s better to lose to a team with a lot of wins.”

An opponent’s strength factor is determined by adding the sum of the opponent’s class to the sum of the opponent’s wins and dividing the result by the total number of games.

Here’s what else you need to know:

• A team that wins or ties for a district title automatically qualifies for the LHSAA playoffs regardless of power rating.

• In Classes 2A through 5A, 32 teams advance to the playoffs. In Class 1A, 24 teams get in with eight teams receiving first-round byes.

• In Divisions I, II and III, every team advances to the postseason due to the small number of teams. In Division IV, 16 teams advance.

• There is no minimum number of games a team must have played to qualify for the playoffs.

[ncwingman]

This actually got me thinking, because I wasn't sure how this worked in North Carolina. The NCHSAA is the main body for schools in the state and covers "public and non-boarding parochial schools", including four private schools. Most other private schools are in the NCISAA (Independent schools) and they just do their own thing. Public schools can play private schools during the season, but each association organizes their own playoffs.

I can't find it at the moment, but I do remember a legal issue a several years ago where (I believe) the NCISAA was complaining about having to use NCHSAA officials/booking agents/fees arguing it was an anti-trust issue. NCHSAA officials were the only game in town, essentially. Since then, NCISAA officials are completely separate. My booking agent doesn't get independent school games to assign. I could, in theory, also register with a second booking agent to work NCISAA games, but I also don't live in an area with many NCISAA member schools.

[Ralph Damren]

Maine allows our private schools to play along with the public schools as long as no post-grads (5th year seniors)are on the teams. There are several private schools that allow local kids to attend. I attended one such (Maine Central Institute) back in the day -1961-64 - there was aprox 300 kids from the SAD and 150 dorm students. I'm not aware of any problems over the years.

[bossman72]

Our local district uses something called the "Gardner Points System" for tie breakers.  Head to head is first tie breaker, then Gardner Points.  This only applies to conference games, so not really the same thing as Louisiana.

A team earns ten points for all the wins earned by every conference team they beat. If you beat Team A who had a 6-2 conference record, you earn 60 Gardner Points for their 6 wins. If you beat Team B and they were 2-6 in conference, you earn another 20 points for their 2 wins.

There are other places in PA similar to Louisiana where there are some conferences that have teams from different classifications.  That way, you need to do some type of power ranking to determine who gets in the playoffs in their respective classification.

[dammitbobby]

I guess Texas is just lucky in that due to our size, we don't have to mix private/public, or classifications.

Round 1 of the playoffs (for public schools) for all levels is 352 games.

[SCHSref]

In SC, public and private schools are separated by different governing bodies. Therefore, they have separate officiating assocaitions. They also have separate playoffs and finals. 

I can't speak to anything other than football, but I can tell you our local association has some of the best training in the state and when we do 7v7 when we offer it to everytbody, it is obvious who are the public and private school officials

[dammitbobby]

We have different governing bodies, but as Elvis mentioned, use virtually same ruleset, separate playoffs and championships... I can think of at least 4 private school organizations, but all are orders of magnitude smaller than the public school brackets. Each chapter covers both the public and private schools in their area, although it's likely that the 'better' officials are not prioritized for private school games.

[bama_stripes]

In SC, public and private schools are separated by different governing bodies. Therefore, they have separate officiating assocaitions. They also have separate playoffs and finals.

That’s the way it used to be in Alabama.  Over time, as the “segregation academies” began to close, the travel distances between private schools made it necessary for many of them to join the public school association.

There is still a separate private school-only association, but virtually no one takes it seriously.

[GoodScout]

That’s the way it used to be in Alabama.  Over time, as the “segregation academies” began to close, the travel distances between private schools made it necessary for many of them to join the public school association.

There is still a separate private school-only association, but virtually no one takes it seriously.

Ditto Georgia. Although Georgia has a different classification and playoff bracket for small private schools.

In New York City, the public schools are the major players and the parochial schools have their own smaller league.