Whether or not a high school football team makes the playoffs should be decided on the field, not in a courtroom.

Yet that’s the position the Butler Senior High School team found itself in Friday, waiting on a Butler County Common Pleas Court judge to decide whether the Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic Association overstepped its authority by denying the Golden Tornado a chance to compete in this year’s playoffs in Division 10.

Just before the football team took the field for its last regular season game against Latrobe Friday night, Senior Judge Robert Yeatts ruled the PIAA conduct amounted to arbitrary and capricious discrimination against the Butler Area School District. Not only is Butler eligible to participate in the District 10 football playoffs this year, but next year as well, should Butler qualify.

Yeatts made his decision after a three-hour hearing Oct. 27 into the school district’s request for a permanent injunction against the PIAA ruling.

This decision was a long time in coming. The school district resorted to litigation in April, filing suit against the PIAA in the Butler County Common Pleas Court over the organization's refusal to grant the Golden Tornado football program playoff eligibility in District 10.

The case stems from Butler High attempting to revitalize its football team by competing in District 10.

In the years leading up to 2020, Butler’s varsity football program had not been successful, and student participation was waning. That prompted the school to ask the PIAA for permission to play in District 10 because the teams in that district were seen as comparable to Butler and playing them would allow Butler to rebuild its football program.

The PIAA, the Western Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic League, or District 7, and District 10 allowed Butler to play in District 10 as an associate member during the 2020 and 2021 seasons, and the team made the playoffs in 2021.

In January, Butler received a letter from the WPIAL stating the Golden Tornado would not be eligible to compete in the District 10 playoffs in 2022.

Butler appealed that decision to the PIAA. After that was denied, Butler offered a compromise to the WPIAL, saying Butler football would return to the WPIAL in the 2024-25 school year if it would be made eligible for District 10 postseason play during the next two seasons. That offer was turned down.

And so the court case kicked off.

In the meantime, Butler qualified for the playoffs by defeating Erie High School on Sept. 23.

Now that litigation has been spiked, let’s hope for the next two years Butler football fans can worry about refs in striped shirts making bad calls — not judges in black robes.

— EKF