USA-365.com Commentary: The Multiplier

The Great Equalizer?

A special USA-365 supplement by Mark Smith

2-07-2006

CROWN POINT (2-05-2006) - I thought there could never be as difficult an argument about Indiana high school athletics as the decade long debate over the class sports issue. Should we have just one state champ in basketball, baseball, softball and volleyball or should we have four different basketball tournaments for different size schools?

Just when the people were beginning to accept class sports as being
fair, an unforeseen result of 'class' comes into focus. Ahem. Catholic schools
dominate class football playoffs. Bishop Chatard has won five of the last
nine 3A titles. Roncalli and Cathedral have won six of the last 10 Class 4A
titles. Catholic schools say they win because they work harder and
organize better. Public schools understandably find that highly insulting.

"Not only do you take players from our school district and beat us with them," the 'publics' say, "you then claim you succeed because you are morally superior and smarter." Catholic schools call any movement to curtail Catholic school domination, 'religious persecution' by incompetent public schools that can't win any other way.

There is an ugly undertone here. Catholic schools exist because parents don't like the education their kids get in public school. To get any students at all, they must be, or appear to be, better and more disciplined than public schools. Obviously, that carries over to the playing field. But public schools are the backbone of society because they have to take the worst kid and try to make him worthy. In contrast, Catholic schools, which can pick and choose who they admit, don't deal with the poor man's sons and daughters. They start with worthy kids and make them great.

Bishop Luers won four consecutive girls basketball state titles. Cathedral and Marquette, both private schools, dominate in volleyball. Private schools, once they achieve some level of excellence in sport, have an advantage over public schools because they have far larger boundaries to draw players from. Kids and their parents, all other factors being equal, most certainly do choose high schools based on the level of the sports programs. Public school kids cannot do that as easily, although they actually can pay to enroll a student outside his or her own district.

The question is, "Is the Catholic school advantage an unfair advantage?" And if it is, how do we level the playing field?

In Illinois, they have adopted the answer. It's called the "multiplier." Since Catholic schools dominate class sports, it diminishes the fairness which class sports was supposed to create. Never mind the fact that Indiana made a major error in 1997. Had a two-class system been adopted nine years ago instead of four classes,
Catholic schools like Cathedral, Roncalli, Chatard and, by the way, Andrean, would have been largely in the upper class, and would not have dominated. But I admit, that's like questioning the war in Iraq three years later. We KNOW it was a blunder to do what we did. The question is, what do we do now?

The multiplier, which will be 1.5 in Indiana, multiplies every student enrolled by 1.5 for purposes of classification for sports. For example. If Andrean had 700 students and is 3A in football, you adopt the multiplier and they have 1,050 students on paper and are suddenly 4A in football. What effect would that have? Significant. Andrean won the 3A state football title in 2004. They probably don't win the title in 4A. They'd have to have beaten undefeated and top-ranked Wawasee, which beat Lowell at the regional and lost to Roncalli in the state finals. What about Roncalli? The multiplier would have moved them to Class 5A, where they would've needed an act of God to beat three-time 5A champ Warren Central. The multiplier will change things greatly.

So the Catholic schools wouldn't win so often. Is that fair to them? Of course not. But the basis of prep sports, especially in Indiana, is that towns win with kids from that town. That's what the IHSAA is selling. Not teams winning with kids from other towns. Let's first admit that the multiplier is all about winning. If Lowell would beat Roncalli every other year, we wouldn't be having this debate. Also understand, we will have to take sides.

This is not a rumor. The multiplier will be voted on this spring by Indiana coaches and principals and they will recommend it. The IHSAA will then take up the issue in May and it will meet much more resistance there. But they could also pass it. The multiplier may come to your school in the fall of 2007.

All athletic departments are almost all about winning and making money. That's okay with me. I like winning because it makes everybody happy. I like money because the kids get new uniforms, better equipment and nice facilities. But the IHSAA doesn't care about any particular team winning and they own the state tournament. They just want the titles spread around more. Nobody's a bad guy here. So let's call a cease fire on the ethics and values front.

Permission to speak freely? Catholic schools do have an advantage and yes, it is unfair. Who says? The majority says. In Kentucky, eight of the last 10 big school state titles went to Catholic schools. In Ohio where football has six classes, a Catholic schools was in all six championship games, and they are already debating a multiplier. Illinois just adopted a 1.65 multiplier, an even higher one than Indiana is considering. Here's one thing I can guarantee. When a minority group thinks a majority has an edge, the minority probably has to live with it. But if a majority thinks a minority has an unfair edge, there will most surely be change.

Yes, the multiplier is certainly discriminatory against private schools. But your mother was wrong. Two wrongs do make a right. The unfairness of the multiplier balances the unfairness of Hammond or Griffith getting 'multiplied' on the scoreboard every year in the girls basketball playoffs by South Bend St. Joseph's.

I would selfishly like to see the top Catholic schools compete against the top public schools. Some have bragged that they could. Soon now, I believe they are going to have a chance to prove that. I would also like to see all private schools, removed from Class 1A to create a tiny town bracket of competition in the greatest small school Indiana tradition.

The multiplier could also put a realistic end to this argument. Catholic schools bumped up to 5A would not be the force they are in 4A because of the unlimited nature of the 5A bracket enrollment-wise. There must be a stipulation that, once the IHSAA adopts the multiplier, there can then also be no more whining when Bishop Chatard moves up to 4A and beats Lowell for the 2008 state crown. 3A Indianapolis Catholic schools will still win a lot of games and some state crowns. Most of them play 4A and 5A caliber schedules anyway. But they will no longer dominate the later rounds of the state tournament and that's all the IHSAA cares about.

If you don't think you like the multiplier, remember one basic truth. The IHSAA does not care what you think. The IHSAA isn't really a public organization. What you or I think about what's fair is a very low priority. The IHSAA has a vested interest in titles spread around more than they have been so far in the class sports era. And for maximum receipts at the gate, they want and need the most exciting, entertaining horse races they can create. Even if they have to 'handicap' them.