Don’t look now, but the Ohio High School Athletic Association is considering a playoff change and it’s not up for a vote.

While the OHSAA talks about competitive balance in football as the most important issue, the officials biggest concern — as always — rests with the Division I schools.

The OHSAA is planning to split the Division I schools into a Div. I-A and I-B in order to allow more teams in that size bracket to make the postseason.

The plan is to split the big school division in half and have two regions instead of four — north and south. However, There would still be 16 teams qualify in each region meaning 32 total teams would make the playoffs in each divisions.

The six divisions in Ohio are divided equally into approximately 120 teams each. Instead of dividing the 700 plus schools seven times, the big school divisions will have about 60 teams per divisions. That means 32 of 60 teams make the playoffs and that in turn means a lot of teams with .500 or losing records will make the playoffs.

Do you think there will be any mismatches in the first round?

Div. I-A teams would be worth 6.5 points and Div. I-B would remain at 6.0 points.

The OHSAA says the split is because of the disparity in the size of the schools in the division. The current break for Division I is 494 boys in the upper three grades to about 1,100. That’s about double the size from the smallest to the largest in school enrollment.

However, Div. VI is from about 40 boys to 119 that is about three times in size.

The coaches association voted down the extra division proposal previously. The OHSAA’s plan is to enact the division break as a sports regulation.

The Ohio High School Football Coaches Association is aware of this plan and the group remains opposed.

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Speaking of unfair changes, Southeast Ohio is getting the shaft when it comes to the district track meet.

The state — thanks to complaints from member schools in the north — has decided to combine the two Division III southeast districts into one meet. That means four instead of eight athletes from the Southeast will advance to the regional meet.

It also means that the northwest district will send 24 athletes to three regional meets.

The state has decided that a team must have at least nine full-time members even though that rule does not apply when advancing in the tournament. One school won a state championship with just one participant who won four events.

Southeast Ohio has had plenty of great athletes who have represented the region well in the state meet. Schools in Southeast Ohio pay the same dues to the association as the northern schools. These are all Ohio schools. Let’s treat them as such.

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More tough luck for Ironton Fighting Tigers’ junior Dion Brown. Last week Brown injured his knee and is facing surgery within the week.

Brown hurt a knee in a preseason football game his freshman season and missed the entire year. He hurt his shoulder and had surgery as a sophomore when he was diving for a football in practice. He suffered a broken collarbone in a preseason football game this past fall and returned to play in seven games.

Depending on how well he recovers, Brown will probably miss his entire senior football season and basketball remains uncertain.

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Jim Walker is sports editor of The Ironton Tribune.