Appellate judge denies PIAA request, keeping Aliquippa in Class 4A football

By: Chris Harlan
Thursday, July 18, 2024 | 9:51 PM

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The injunction keeping Aliquippa in Class 4A football remains in place after a Commonwealth Court judge denied a PIAA request for a stay.

Appellate Judge Patricia McCullough issued her decision Thursday, upholding a lower court’s decision and blocking the PIAA from using its competitive-balance rule to move Aliquippa into a higher classification this fall.

The court had heard Tuesday from attorneys representing the school district and the PIAA, which argued Common Pleas Judge James Ross had erred in May when he granted Aliquippa an injunction. The PIAA wanted the lower court’s ruling put on hold, but McCullough rejected that request in a 21-page decision that found Ross’ ruling to be reasonable.

“The Court’s review of the record demonstrates more than one ‘reasonable’ basis for the trial court’s decision,” McCullough wrote. “Namely, the trial court relied on unrefuted medical testimony about Aliquippa’s increase in injuries following PIAA’s (2020) reclassification of its football team from 3A to 4A.”

PIAA executive director Bob Lombardi declined comment on the decision.

Aliquippa filed a lawsuit against the PIAA in March hoping to avoid a promotion to 5A. The school district contended that the competitive-balance rule was arbitrarily written and unsafe for a small-school football team forced to play against opponents with larger enrollments.

The lower court heard testimony in April from two orthopedic surgeons, witness called by Aliquippa, who said the school’s health and safety concerns were valid. The PIAA rule had excluded health and safety as grounds for an appeal, leading McCullough to question the foundation for that decision.

“PIAA’s current formula adopts the position that a certain level of a high school team’s athletic success yields lesser, or no, concern for the health and safety of its players — one which the trial court found was absent medical observation, studies, or data by PIAA, with only a cryptic reference to ‘history,’ ” McCullough said.

The PIAA had filed an emergency request for a stay with Commonwealth Court since football season starts next month. Teams begin heat acclimation Aug. 5.

But McCullough found the short window favored Aliquippa’s position, writing that “alternating the competition class of Aliquippa’s football team so close to the start of the 2024 season ‘will unjustly burden other schools.’”

The WPIAL issued updated schedules in June with Aliquippa back in Class 4A, where the Quips are the defending state champions. The initial schedules released in March had the Quips in 5A.

The school’s enrollment qualifies Aliquippa for 2A football. The team already was voluntarily playing in 3A before the PIAA adopted its competitive-balance rule in 2018.

The rule targets football teams that have success in the state playoffs, as measured by a Competition Formula, and add three or more transfers in a two-year cycle. The PIAA moves teams that meet both criteria into a higher classification to play against schools with larger enrollments.

The PIAA has said Aliquippa met both criteria.

“This Court does not substitute its judgment for PIAA decisions,” McCullough wrote. “However, PIAA does not enjoy unbridled authority of regulating high school athletics. Rather, this Court bears the obligation to intervene if the PIAA action complained of ‘is fraudulent, an invasion of property or pecuniary rights, or capricious or arbitrary discrimination.’”

Both judges criticized the PIAA for excluding appeals on health and safety grounds without having research or data available to support its decision. The PIAA board on Wednesday took a step toward removing those health and safety restriction on appeals.

“As the trial court observed,” McCullough wrote, “all other considerations in this matter are superseded by the health and safety of our youth.”

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.

Tags: Aliquippa