By: Chris Harlan
Thursday, March 28, 2024 | 1:57 PM
Christopher Horner | TribLive
The Aliquippa football team celebrates with the WPIAL championship trophy after defeating McKeesport in the Class 4A final on Friday, Nov. 24, 2023, at Acrisure Stadium.
Christopher Horner | TribLive
The PIAA Class 6A football championship trophy sits on the field on Dec. 9, 2023, at Chapman Field at Cumberland Valley.
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Aliquippa has the most wins in WPIAL football history, but the Quips hope their next big victory comes in court.
The school has filed a lawsuit seeking to block the PIAA from moving the team into a higher classification against opponents with much larger enrollments. The lawsuit, which is the latest step in a contentious fight over the PIAA competitive-balance rule, was filed Thursday in Beaver County Common Pleas Court by attorney Tina Miller, who represents the school.
“We tried to go through all of the proper channels, but we didn’t feel that our complaint was heard,” Aliquippa superintendent Phillip Woods said. “We didn’t feel that it was properly vetted, so we had no choice but to take legal action.”
Aliquippa’s lawsuit requests a preliminary injunction to keep the PIAA from moving the team from Class 4A to 5A, but also challenged the legality of the competitive-balance rule itself. The suit argues that the PIAA’s decision to include transfers in the formula is “arbitrary and capricious.”
An email seeking comment from the PIAA wasn’t immediately returned.
The PIAA board in January denied Aliquippa’s request to remain in 4A.
The lawsuit alleged that the “PIAA is knowingly and intentionally hostile toward Aliquippa” in its application of the competitive-balance rule. Woods noted that after Aliquippa won its PIAA appeal in 2022, in part by arguing health and safety concerns, the PIAA eliminated those as grounds for appeal.
“When you look at all of the changes they made — and you look at the correlation between our arguments and their changes — you can’t deny where these changes are coming from,” Woods said.
Aliquippa’s lawsuit says the school will “suffer irreparable harm, including … financial and logistical costs and the exposure of its student-athletes to unnecessary health and safety risks,” unless the court intervenes.
Under the PIAA competitive-balance rule, football teams that have success in the state playoffs and add three or more transfers in a two-year span are forced to a higher classification. Aliquippa met both criteria, according to the PIAA.
The Quips won the PIAA Class 4A title last season and were the state runners-up in 2022. The PIAA also counted five transfers, although Aliquippa strongly disagrees with the PIAA definition of a transfer.
The PIAA used the competitive-balance rule to promote the Quips football team from Class 3A to 4A in 2020, and now to 5A. What Aliquippa advocates see as most unfair is that the team was voluntarily playing up from Class A to 3A before the rule was enacted. Aliquippa’s current enrollment qualifies for 2A.
Woods, football coach Mike Warfield and other critics of the rule have argued that forcing the team to play against significantly larger opponents is unfair and a safety hazard.
In the lawsuit, Aliquippa said: “Acting with zero oversight and no accountability, it changes the course of teams, seasons and school districts – not to mention the student athletes and their families – on the basis of unreasonable and arbitrary guesswork, and sometimes hostility.”
This story will be updated.
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 [email protected].
2024-03-28 17:59:11
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