OHSAA Decision

Well, the Louisville Leopards football team might be moving back to Division III for the first time since 2000.  However, this Division III will be quite a different Division III than the current set-up.

On Thursday, the OHSAA ruled 6-3 in favor of adding an additional division to the State High School football playoffs for the 2013 season.  School’s among the top 10 percent highest enrollment will be in Division I, while the remaining six divisions will be divided evenly in the amount of teams after that.

How will this affect the Leopards?

While the Leopards were in the lower middle of the pack for school size in the current Division II system, they will be one of the larger schools in Division III come 2013.  Currently Louisville is the the 79th largest school out of 120 teams in Division II, but will be the 17th largest school out of 108 teams in the new Division III in two seasons.  This is of course based off of enrollment numbers that will change somewhat every few years.

EDITOR’S VIEW: The Leopards are where they want to be, they’ll be in Division III along with five other NBC foes (all but Salem and Minerva).  If they make another deep playoff run they won’t be facing schools nearly twice their size like Cincinnati Anderson or a smaller Federal League foe like Lake.  Secondly, and perhaps even more importantly, they will still be a division above some of the current Division III powerhouses that will be moving to Division IV.  Some of these teams include Licking Valley, Northwest, St. Vincent-St. Mary, Stuebenville, Cardinal Mooney, etc.

With Louisville being put into Division III with several more area teams, there will also be less likelihood that Leopard Nation will have to three hour trips to face Columbus area teams that are sometimes in Louisville’s region.  Some formidable foes from the past and other powerhouses that will be in Division III along with the Leopards include: Chardon, Walsh Jesuit, Aurora, Toledo Central Catholic, Big Walnut, Columbus Brookhaven, Columbus Marion-Franklin, Lexington, Marlington, Lake Catholic, Columbus St. Francis DeSales, and many more.

You can see a full list of potential new Division III schools at the bottom of this post.

How will this affect the NBC?

The majority of the NBC will now be in Division III along with Louisville.  Only Salem and Minerva will be moving down to Division IV.  With our 6 Division III NBC teams fairly close to each other in location, they will also likely be in the same region.  This means that regular season games will have more weight on who makes the playoffs and who does not within the league.  Especially for Louisville, who is currently only with Alliance in Division II.  NBC teams will not only be trying to beat each other for computer points, but also trying to take computer points away from each other in fighting for potential playoff spots in the Region.

Furthermore, there will be a higher likihood of All-NBC playoff games like there was between Marlington and Minerva in 2010.

Where NBC Teams Will Stand

This is based off boys enrollment data from October 2010 for Grades 9, 10, 11, which is the figures used for the 2011-12 and 2012-13 school years.  Here’s a look at where NBC teams will be come 2013:

Potential Division Breakdown

This is based off boys enrollment data from October 2010 for Grades 9, 10, 11, which is the figures used for the 2011-12 and 2012-13 school years.  Here’s a look at the potential teams that could be in each division in 2013:

Division I

 Division II

Division III

Division IV

Division V

Division VI

 Division VII