For the second straight year, the Competitive Balance Proposal was sacked by Ohio High School Athletic Association members.

This was the three-pronged effort that combined boundary, socioeconomic and tradition factors into determining which divisions teams would be placed. It also was unprecedented: No other state has guidelines even close to the CBP.

And neither does Ohio. The longtime system of boys and girls enrollment for grades 9-11 — recounted every two years — will remain in place.

Member principals voted down the CBP 339-301 last week. Here’s what OHSAA Commissioner Dr. Dan Ross had to say about that and more.

Q: Did you see this defeat coming?

A: The margin for difference is almost identical to last year (332-302). We knew it would be close. Ninety percent of our committee members were very disappointed. They were surprised. There are factors that affect all of these issues and many of these variables are intertwined. It’s hard to depend on one thing or another and say that would make a difference.

Q: What’s next?

A: We’re not planning on pulling the committee back together. There are conversations that are going to be going on about a petition drive to put a referendum item on the ballot next year to separate the tournaments (from private and public schools).

Q: What’s that all about?

A: It’s originating from northeast Ohio. There is a coalition of people across Ohio who support (tournament separation) very strongly. ... We have a wonderful system. We can make our system better. From the vote from the last two years probably is indicative that 52 percent of our schools would like to hang where we are and 48 percent would like to make a change. That’s not something that’s going to go away.

Q: Are you for separate tournaments?

A: (That) would be an extreme. I certainly would hope that we would never get there. We could work with our schools to make this system a little bit better. The committee has come together to find a middle road with that without going to the extremes. They haven’t hit whatever that piece is going to be where 50 percent of our schools are going to be comfortable with whatever that is.

Q: Who is behind this separation movement?

A: There are specific groups of people who have been working on this for a couple of years. I know that they’ve expanded out to build a coalition throughout Ohio of people who think the same way that they do. These aren’t bad people. They’re good people and they’re doing what they believe is the right thing for them and their students. We just agree to disagree.

Q: Why do you think the CBP failed?

A: For the folks who voted no, I know a lot of them are concerned with a lot of different issues. Many felt that last year, there was probably a whole lot of movement with tradition and many of our principals thought that it may have been too hard of a hit. This year, when looking at the (tweaking) that the committee made on that tradition factor, there were many of our school people who thought it didn’t do enough.

Q: Nearly 200 principals didn’t vote. How could that be?

A: I can’t believe that no one would not vote. I’m surprised that any of our schools did not vote. I wish that that number (of voters) would be higher. It’s never high enough as long as we have schools that did not vote. We tried to remind them about the vote.

Q: Is there something that could be done to force principals to vote?

A: Maybe that’s something that comes down the road. Maybe it is something that we’ll at least put on our agenda to have some conversation about in August. We still had a number of schools that did not vote and that’s disheartening.

Q: Was adding a seventh football division just two weeks before CBP voting a quick fix?

A: If the board would have split Division I in half, there would have been some other schools that would have been very supportive (of the CBP). But that wasn’t the fairest thing to do.

Q: You’ve often said that a level playing field doesn’t exist among teams. Why?

A: Do I believe that we can make our system in putting teams in the tournament better? This was at least an effort in trying to do that. There are many schools in this state who honestly believe that they do not have a fair shot of dealing in their tournaments.

Q: Why give up now, especially with the vote remaining so close?

A: I’m not sure that the board wants to put the committee back together. There was an email sent out right before the ballots that said if this thing passes then we are not going to pursue the separation petition. That group will meet in June and we’re going to see where that goes. That’s part of the journey.

Q: Is separation of private and public schools a good thing?

A: I can’t speak for our board, but 99 percent of the people on our committee do feel that we have a great system in Ohio. I don’t believe that separation makes it better. We can make what we currently do better and keep everybody together. That would be our ultimate goal.

Q: If separation passes, is there concern that private schools will form their own association?

A: That is a possibility. ... In football, do you have one division of nonpublic? If you did that you would have 72 teams in that division. You’d have Fostoria St. Wendelin with 20 boys and St. (Xavier) with 1,100. Could those two schools play each other if they had one division? No. ... That first decision would have to be theirs on whether they want to maintain membership. Part two is, OK, how would you run that? Is it feasible for us to run that?

Q: What do you take away from all this?

A: With this issue being so close two years in a row, for us, tells us something. ... We tried to work hard not to shy away from issues and to try to make sure that we can deal with what we believe is the right thing to do for all the kids in Ohio.