WMass lawsuit over ‘power rankings’ throws high school sports into disarray

SPRINGFIELD — The Massachusetts Interscholastic Athletic Association is pushing back after a local judge issued a temporary restraining order blocking the high school sports governing body from skewing rankings amid an administrative dispute.

Not for the first time, athletic directors, parents and student athletes are at odds with the powerful agency over its rules and how they impact youth sports. Power rankings affect whether students play on home fields, and other advantages. If the rankings are skewed, those advantages can go away and the players can be forced to drive miles to other venues.

This time, the parents of more than a dozen local student athletes have sued MIAA over rankings the plaintiffs attribute to an “ambiguous” new rule requiring teams to speculate out their entire competitive season by a certain date, even if tournaments have yet to be settled. The fallout could affect several sports teams whose rankings could be hobbled by two forfeits.