The public vs. private school debate in Pennsylvania high school basketball has raged on for years.

Many believe private schools should compete among other private schools in the postseason and have their own separate championship bracket that way.

But the numbers in the PIAA Tournament — at least heading into the quarterfinal round this season — indicate that public and private can co-exist in the same tournament.

Of the 48 teams in the PIAA girls quarterfinals — Class 1A through 6A — 20 are private school programs. Of the 48 teams in the boys quarterfinals, 19 are private.

Those percentages may weigh heavier for the private schools once the tournaments reach the final rounds, but at least indications to this point are that public school programs can compete.

Still, a couple of issues should be addressed.

Every private school should have to play up at least one division, regardless of enrollment. There should be no private school basketball team in Class 1A and very few, if any, in Class 2A.

In the PIAA Class 1A girls and boys quarterfinals, 10 of the 16 teams are private schools. That’s lopsided.

There is an advantage to being able to pull in student-athletes from different school districts, compared to public schools being limited to their own district boundaries. Forcing private schools to play at a higher enrollment level counters that somewhat.

The geographic boundaries from which some schools can draw players should be looked at as well. Frankly, it would be difficult to come up with a firm rule in this regard. But some private schools in this state pull in players from an extremely wide area.

While public vs. private will forever be debated, sites for some of these PIAA quarterfinal games should be questioned. This late into the tournament, doubleheaders should go away.

During the early rounds of the WPIAL and PIAA postseason, double and sometimes triple-headers cause parking headaches and overcrowded gyms for the paying customers. Once the tourney field thins out, play these games in different gyms.

The Saturday doubleheader at Canon-McMillan seems a little silly. Mars and Gateway girls are playing there at 1 p.m. A more reasonable neutral site for travel purposes couldn’t be found?

Pine-Richland and Allderdice boys play at 2:30 p.m. at Canon-Mac. Same thing. The game site seems out of the way for both schools.

Cardinal Wuerl North Catholic’s girls play Villa Maria — out of Erie — Saturday afternoon at North Hills. Slippery Rock University or Meadville would be a more central location.

These basketball tournaments are as popular as ever despite all of this.

I guess nothing is perfect.

John Enrietto is sports editor of the Butler Eagle