(Un)Leveling the Playing Field: Enrollment Multipliers in High School Sports

As this year’s spring sports season concludes, many state high school athletic associations have started their consideration of rule changes for the upcoming sports year. Recently, there has been a push on these associations to do something about a perceived disparity in the amount of state championships won by private schools, especially in football and basketball. Some states, including Illinois, Missouri, Arkansas, and Tennessee, have addressed this issue by multiplying a fixed percentage to a private school’s enrollment total. This multiplication effectively requires private schools to compete against larger schools for state championships. Private schools have cried “foul” and have both filed lawsuits and lobbied state legislatures to reverse the associations’ decisions. Yet, as more and more states consider enacting these multipliers, states with multipliers have found their systems have not produced the desired results as private schools still win a disproportionate number of state championships. Some states have abandoned the multiplier concept altogether while others have strengthened the multiplier by increasing the percentage.

The aforementioned issues are discussed in my next law review article: “Prep Plus: Evaluating the Motivations for and Effects of Multipliers and other Measures in High School Sports,” (publication TBD). Below are some questions that I am attempting to answer in the article as I am in the process of interviewing those connected with high school athletics (coaches, athletic directors, officials, athletes). Any thoughts would be appreciated, both commentary here, and, please contact me for possible contribution (quotes from people in the know make for good copy) to the article. Although I am a product of a Jesuit high school, I am taking an objective approach to an issue that is very dear to many of our hearts: our high school sports experience. So, some questions…

Do private schools have inherent advantages that make them more successful on the playing field? Should state associations regulate athletic competitions in ways that foster an even distribution of state championships? Do state associations send the message to public school students that they count less than private school students (through the institution of multipliers) in an effort to produce more public school state champions? Are separate tournaments for private and public schools a better alternative to enrollment multiplier? Do these methods taint a state’s championship as unfair?

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