PIAA plans to move Aliquippa football to Class 5A under competitive-balance rule

By: Chris Harlan
Thursday, January 4, 2024 | 9:48 AM

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In a move coach Mike Warfield called déjà vu, the PIAA has notified Aliquippa that its football team will be forced up another classification before next season.

The Quips won the Class 4A state title this fall and were runners-up in 2022, and the PIAA now plans to move them up to 5A under its competitive-balance rule, Warfield said Thursday. The school already has filed its initial appeal, he said.

What makes the situation frustrating for Aliquippa is that the school had an enrollment the past two years that qualified for Class A football and was forced to face opponents three classifications larger. Now, they’re going up again.

“It’s a continuous failure of the rule,” Warfield said.

The Aliquippa football team has been through this process twice before. In 2020, the PIAA used the competitive-balance rule to move the team from Class 3A to 4A. In 2022, the PIAA again targeted the Quips for promotion, but the school appealed and the team remained in 4A after the PIAA board granted their request.

Warfield said he’s hopeful for a similar result but wasn’t overly optimistic.

The PIAA competitive-balance rule targets football teams that have postseason success over a two-year period and added three or more transfers in that span. The Quips clearly had the success as state finalists the past two seasons, but Warfield said the PIAA also indicated that the team was over the threshold for transfers.

As part of the competitive-balance process, the PIAA creates a list of possible transfers by comparing school-submitted eligibility lists from consecutive years. Warfield said the PIAA identified 23 possible transfers, the majority of which he considered erroneous.

Schools have until Jan. 10 to submit evidence, such as school records, that would remove players who weren’t transfers. Warfield said Aliquippa already has submitted that paperwork to the PIAA staff, which makes the decision.

To win its appeal, Aliquippa would need to reduce its transfer number to fewer than three.

If a school is dissatisfied with the PIAA staff’s decision, the school can then appeal to the PIAA board, which meets Jan. 24. Two years ago, Aliquippa’s initial appeal was denied by the staff, but the board voted to let the Quips remain in Class 4A after the school appealed again.

Updated PIAA enrollment numbers released in November listed Aliquippa with 156 boys. That total would qualify the Quips for Class 2A football in 2024 and 2025.

Class 5A football includes schools with 424 to 619 boys.

Aliquippa went 14-0 this past year and capped its first undefeated state championship season with a 60-14 victory over Dallas in the PIAA finals Dec. 7 in Mechanicsburg.

Prior to the 2020 season, Aliquippa voluntarily played up to Class 3A.

In a statement, the PIAA said: “All schools which were identified by the competition formula, including Aliquippa, received notification prior to the holiday break, indicating their classification may be upgraded. In the case of Aliquippa, that would be an upgrade from the 4A to 5A football classification, based on achieving eight competition points having reached the last two 4A PIAA Football Championships, and on the number of potential transfers identified over those two seasons.

“Aliquippa has the opportunity to appeal that determination pursuant to the policy. The school has until Jan. 10, 2024 to submit an initial appeal.”

Chris Harlan is a TribLive reporter covering sports. He joined the Trib in 2009 after seven years as a reporter at the Beaver County Times. He can be reached at charlan@triblive.com.

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