The Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic Association, Inc., also known by its acronymn PIAA, is one of the governing bodies of high school and middle school athletics for the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, in the United States.
The PIAA's main office is located in the Harrisburg suburb of Mechanicsburg.
History
The PIAA was founded in Pittsburgh on December 29, 1913. It is charged with serving its member schools and registered officials by establishing policies and adopting contest rules that emphasize the educational values of interscholastic athletics, promote safe and sportsmanlike competition, and provide uniform standards for all interscholastic levels of competition. As a result of the cooperative efforts of its membership, PIAA has assisted intermediate school, middle school, junior high school, and senior high school students in participating in interscholastic athletic programs on a fair and equitable basis, thus producing important education benefits.
Initially, and until 1972, PIAA membership was limited to public schools within the Commonwealth. It was and remains a voluntary organization For example, until 2004, public schools in Philadelphia did not participate in the PIAA.
Pennsylvania Catholic or other private schools were not eligible for PIAA membership. As a result, most Catholic schools belonged to another voluntary athletic organization, the Pennsylvania Catholic Interscholastic Athletic Association (PCIAA). This organization was founded in 1943 and mirrored the PIAA. However, in 1972, the Pennsylvania State Legislature altered the role of the PIAA and passed Act 219 which stated, "Private schools shall be permitted, if otherwise qualified, to be members of the Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic Association." The General Assembly's action in 1972 thus established the legislature's right to intervene in the PIAA's affairs, a precursor to other later interventions.
Although some predicted the legislation would lead to a merger of the PCIAA and PIAA, so many Catholic schools opted into the PIAA on their own that, two years later, after an abbreviated state basketball championship tournament in 1974, the PCIAA dissolved.
In 2000, the legislature again intervened and created the Pennsylvania Athletic Oversight Committee (PAOC). The PAOC is a 17-member oversight committee consisting of administrators, coaches and legislators to review what some had seen as the PIAA's unrestricted authority. The new law also called for several reforms including switching to a competitive process for selecting sites for championship games, eliminating the restitution rule, which required school districts that lose court cases against the PIAA to pay the associations legal fees and that persons involved in interscholastic athletics be provided equality of opportunity and treatment without discrimination.
Timeline
1913: PIAA established
1920: Pennsylvania basketball playoffs instituted (Class A Only) 1943: PCIAA established 1945: Basketball playoffs expand to Class A & B 1948: Basketball playoffs expand to Class A, B & C 1972: Act 219 signed into law, allows private schools to join PIAA 1973: Pennsylvania girls' basketball playoffs instituted (Class A only) 1974: PCIAA dissolved 1976: Girls' basketball playoffs expand to Class AA and AAA; Boys' basketball playoffs designated A, AA and AAA 1984: Basketball expands to 4 classes 1988: Football playoffs instituted (four classes) 1997: Pennsylvania passes charter school law 2000: Act 91 becomes law; PAOC established, PIAA cannot discriminate 2003: Philadelphia public league joins PIAA 2007: PIAA investigates separation of public and private classes 2008: Philadelphia Catholic League joins PIAA 2012: PIAA votes down separation for “Boundary” and “Non-boundary” schools 2015: PIAA approves expansion to six classes for football and basketball 2018: PIAA prohibits students who transfer during the 10th grade and after from participating in the postseason for one year unless given a waiver, effective for the 2018 school year; competitive balance rule also passed, effective in 2020, teams could be bumped up in classification depending on success or use of transfer athletes. A very controversial rule, as those moving from public school to public school are forced to abide by this rule.