A discussion that began online moved to the airwaves this week, and the topic was, as radio host Bob Greenburg called it, a constant at this point in the scholastic season.
Baseball? No, we were back on basketball - and the disparity between public and private schools when it comes to the postseason in that, and other, PIAA sports.
It is on the court that the inequity of the PIAA system is most visible, and, in my opinion, the only place that will change is in a court - something I've said more than once, and a position that only reinforces itself as I see this play out each year.
That was the gist of our discussion on Greenburg's "PIC Sportsline" show, heard Mondays on ESPN Radio in Hermitage, near Pittsburgh, one that began on the blog of longtime sports scribe Rod Frisco, whose eponymous website is a favored place to debate the issues of scholastic athletics.
It's not as obvious - or as prevalent - in other sports. Football tends to have more public schools than private in the playoffs each year, with the parochial domination coming in the upper classes rather than the lower - something that may be the outcome of closures and consolidation in the ranks of the state's Catholic schools over the past decade or so.
Basketball? Different story - as recently as five years ago, the PIAA finals played host to a nearly even crowd, with nine public schools and seven privates among the 16 finalists (two in each class, four classes, two genders). There were four public school crowns and four private school champs that year.
But this year's basketball tournament was a better representation of what has been a visible problem since the late 1990s. Four of the eight boys teams in the finals were public schools, but just one managed to win a title in a field littered with parochial and charter schools. The girls' tournament was lopsided in favor of non-public schools, with seven of the eight entries in the finals coming from that category, and three of the four winners.
And it's starting to be a force in other sports, too - ask the Class AA wrestlers who have had to come up against Bethlehem Catholic.
There is no easy solution, and most of the arguments thrown out by opponents of the current system can be, well, thrown out like yesterday's garbage. It doesn't matter what other states do. It may not matter what the legislature does.
What matters is court case that was litigated nearly 40 years ago - in the shadow of Title IX's passage, although even that federal act didn't play a role in our state's situation. That's because the PIAA lives under the outcome of a case in Pennsylvania's Commonwealth Court from 1975.
Although that case was relatively narrow in scope - the court held that a PIAA rule prohibiting girls from playing on boys teams was discriminatory - its outcome has defined the sports landscape we play under today.
It's why private schools and even charter schools are entitled to equal standing in the PIAA. It's why boys are playing field hockey. And it's not going to change until the PIAA's hand is forced on the issue.
To be fair to the folks in Mechanicsburg, why should they change the rules - at risk of court challenge, several of which they've already seen - of their own volition? The PIAA's rules are consistent with the legal status set upon the agency.
But there is a solution - play the game from the other side. Sue the PIAA because it's rules are discriminatory - toward public schools.
Private schools don't classify under the same rules as public schools, and that's patently unfair. Students transfer to private schools without any fear of action challenging the move. Charter schools take funding from the public school district, then take its best athletes.
And public schools are saddled with population counts that include practically every student who resides in the district - the result of legislative meddling - even when those students play sports elsewhere. They have to count students who are ineligible - in some cases, incapable - of playing sports.
Fair? I don't think so.
But without someone taking on the PIAA, unfair will continue to rule the day.
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Jeff Fishbein is sports editor of The Sentinel. Contact him at jfishbein@lewistownsentinel.com.
