GEICO

(4-13-19) Since the Ohio High School Athletic Association (OHSAA) hired Jerry Snodgrass as their Executive Director he has taken the opportunity to use Twitter to answer questions that are tweeted to him.

An answer today that Snodgrass tweeted concerning the GEICO National Boys and Girls Basketball Championships was way off base.  It is not the first time the Executive Director has tweeted on an issue that was misleading.

NOT THE FIRST TIME

jay bilas tweet

A statement by another OHSAA official after the above tweet contradicted the Snodgrass tweet-

“We have not seen the video yet and won’t be able to process the ejection report until next week. We are conducting the girls basketball state tournament this week.”

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The question in the tweet to Snodgrass today concerned letting OHSAA members schools be given the opportunity to compete in the GEICO National basketball tournaments if they are invited.

Snodgrass tweeted backed his thoughts-

Extremely misleading. It is for Prep Schools, not high schools. Might be a few but if you look at participating schools – they are mainly Prep Schools

A recent document sent by tournament coordinator Paragon Marketing to the Florida High School Athletic Association which would allow a select number of  their member schools to compete at the GEICO Nationals gives some insight into who qualifies to compete in the tournament –

GEICO Team

Section G states that any team that competes needs to be a ‘legitimate’ 4 year high school, will not include post-graduates, 5th year Seniors and do not meet NFHS age standards.

You will note in Section F that the agreement needs to have each school given permission from their association to even compete in the event.

Several states currently allow their schools to compete in the event if they are invited. In 2018, Washington state public school Central Valley won the GEICO Girls National Basketball title. It was the only time during the season that Central Valley played an opponent outside of the state of Washington.

Ohio is not one of the current states to give that permission to any member school to extend their season or participate in either championship. This year the OHSAA state final games were played in late March (16th and 23rd), according to the state calendar the season ends on those days. The GEICO Nationals were played on April 4th thru the 6th this year.

When you note that the OHSAA is one of the very few states that allow their member schools to play schools who are not affiliated with any state association, like SPIRE Academy.  That would not be an issue for member schools.

From earlier in the year this statement to SSN–

OHSAA Executive Director Jerry Snodgrass:

Spire is a non-member and since there are no “points” given on any rating/playoff system, there is essentially no jurisdiction over them at all. Since Ohio is one of a few states that does not restrict who its members play, any agreement to play them is a contract executed between the two and if a school elected to void a contract with them, they would be subject to the consequences spelled out between the two.

Many of the schools that have competed over the years in the GEICO Nationals are not a member school of any NFHS sanctioned state association, but that does make them a prep school.

The tweet sent out by Snodgrass is not fair to the person who asked it or to the GEICO Tournament.  When a statement is made and it comes from the leader of a state athletic association that is misleading…it leaves a negative impact on everyone involved.