Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic Association


The Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic Association, Inc. is the primary governing body of high school and middle school athletics in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania. PIAA's main office is located in the Harrisburg suburb of Mechanicsburg.

History

20th century

The PIAA was founded in Pittsburgh on December 29, 1913. It is charged with serving its member schools and registered officials by establishing policies and adopting contest rules that emphasize the educational values of interscholastic athletics, promote safe and sportsmanlike competition, and provide uniform standards for all interscholastic levels of competition. As a result of the cooperative efforts of its membership, PIAA has assisted intermediate school, middle school, junior high school, and senior high school students in participating in interscholastic athletic programs on a fair and equitable basis, thus producing important education benefits.
Initially, and until 1972, PIAA membership was limited to public schools within the Commonwealth. It was and remains a voluntary organization Until 2004, for instance, public schools in Philadelphia did not participate in the PIAA.
Pennsylvania Catholic or other private schools were not eligible for PIAA membership. As a result, most Catholic schools belonged to another voluntary athletic organization, the Pennsylvania Catholic Interscholastic Athletic Association. This organization was founded in 1943 and mirrored the PIAA.
However, in 1972, the Pennsylvania State Legislature altered the role of the PIAA and passed Act 219 which stated, "Private schools shall be permitted, if otherwise qualified, to be members of the Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic Association." The General Assembly's action in 1972 thus established the legislature's right to intervene in the PIAA's affairs, a precursor to other later interventions.
Although some predicted the legislation would lead to a merger of the PCIAA and PIAA, so many Catholic schools opted into the PIAA on their own that, two years later, after an abbreviated state basketball championship tournament in 1974, the PCIAA dissolved.

21st century

In 2000, the legislature again intervened and created the Pennsylvania Athletic Oversight Committee. The PAOC is a 17-member oversight committee consisting of administrators, coaches and legislators to review what some had seen as the PIAA's unrestricted authority. The new law also called for several reforms including switching to a competitive process for selecting sites for championship games, eliminating the restitution rule, which required school districts that lose court cases against the PIAA to pay the associations legal fees and that persons involved in interscholastic athletics be provided equality of opportunity and treatment without discrimination.

Timeline

  • 1913: PIAA established
  • 1920: Pennsylvania basketball playoffs instituted
  • 1943: PCIAA established
  • 1945: Basketball playoffs expand to Class A & B
  • 1948: Basketball playoffs expand to Class A, B & C
  • 1972: Act 219 signed into law, allows private schools to join PIAA
  • 1973: Pennsylvania girls' basketball playoffs instituted
  • 1974: PCIAA dissolved
  • 1976: Girls' basketball playoffs expand to Class AA and AAA; Boys' basketball playoffs designated A, AA and AAA
  • 1984: Basketball expands to 4 classes
  • 1988: Football playoffs instituted
  • 1997: Pennsylvania passes charter school law
  • 2000: Act 91 becomes law; PAOC established, PIAA cannot discriminate
  • 2003: Philadelphia public league joins PIAA
  • 2007: PIAA investigates separation of public and private classes
  • 2008: Philadelphia Catholic League joins PIAA
  • 2012: PIAA votes down separation for “Boundary” and “Non-boundary” schools
  • 2015: PIAA approves expansion to six classes for football and basketball
  • 2018: PIAA prohibits students who transfer during the 10th grade and after from participating in the postseason for one year unless given a waiver, effective for the 2018 school year; competitive balance rule also passed, effective in 2020, teams could be bumped up in classification depending on success or use of transfer athletes. A very controversial rule, as those moving from public school to public school are forced to abide by this rule.

    Districts

The PIAA divides its member schools' counties into 12 geographical districts for the purpose of state championship competition. The following list is the district breakdown by county.
While this is a general outline of the districts, there are some notable exceptions:
Traditionally for state championship competition for team sports, Pennsylvania is divided into Eastern and Western regions. Districts 1, 2, 3, 4, 11, and 12 usually make up the Eastern Region; Districts 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 usually constitute the Western Region. The winners of each region compete against each other for the state championship. However, since the creation of District 12 with the admission of the Philadelphia Public Schools into the PIAA, the East vs. West format has been abandoned for some sports in certain classifications, particularly at the Class AAAA level where there are more large schools in the East. For example, in PIAA football, District 3 schools compete in the early rounds of the state playoffs against Philadelphia schools in some classes, and against Pittsburgh schools in others.

Sports

The PIAA sponsors 16 boys' sports and 16 girls' sports. However, the PIAA only sponsors state championships for 12 boys' sports and 12 girls' sports. The following is a list of PIAA sponsored sports championships.
There are Pennsylvania schools that offer sports not fully sponsored by the PIAA, including gymnastics, ice hockey, bowling, rifle, water polo, and other Olympic sports. These sports are governed by other sport specific bodies that use similar PIAA rules for classification and eligibility, but are not officially recognized as state champions by the PIAA. The PIAA took over jurisdiction of both boys' and girls' lacrosse in July 2008. indoor track and field is not sponsored by the PIAA, but allowed under PIAA rules. The PTFCA governs indoor track and field instead of the PIAA in Pennsylvania.