A Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court judge has ordered that Glenville High School be reinstated into the high school football playoffs after determining that the Ohio High School Athletic Association acted arbitrarily when it removed the Tarblooders from competition before completing an investigation into the eligibility of 10 players.
In a decision released Tuesday afternoon, Judge Andrew Santoli ordered OHSAA to determine Glenville's opponent for the Division III playoffs. Santoli wrote that could be accomplished by rescheduling the first-round game between Glenville and University School, declaring University School forfeited the first round after it declined to play the rescheduled game last weekend and sending Glenville to the second round against Salem, or through another appropriate remedy.
Last week, OHSAA removed Glenville from the playoffs amid an ongoing investigation involving players from Ginn Academy. Students who attend Ginn Academy are permitted to participate in sports at the Cleveland Metropolitan School District high school nearest to their residence. OHSAA says its investigation concerns whether the district inaccurately assigned allowed Ginn Academy students to play at Glenville when their residency would have required them to play for another school.
Over the course of a two-day hearing in Santoli's courtroom, which at times was combative, OHSAA argued that CMSD could not provide documentation for several Glenville players and said the school district did not have a reliable process for assigning Ginn Academy students to athletic programs. OHSAA said those issues violated the organization's bylaws and OHSAA then removed Glenville from the playoffs before the first-round game scheduled for Oct. 30.
In his ruling, Santoli determined OHSAA's action was "arbitrary" because no bylaw explicitly sets forth a deadline for when paperwork must be submitted and residency verified. He also found that OHSAA's decision to remove Glenville before its investigation was concluded, while the organization was still communicating with CMSD, was problematic. Santoli also noted that OHSAA's investigation remained ongoing and that no Glenville player had been declared ineligible at the time the association removed the team from the playoffs, nor at the time of his Tuesday ruling.
Last week, the judge issued a temporary restraining order blocking Glenville's removal from the playoffs and ordered the first-round game to be played as scheduled or rescheduled. OHSAA said the game was rescheduled for Oct. 31. However, University School did not show up to play.
In a statement issued last week, the school wrote:
"University School prepared and looked forward to competing in this year's State Football Tournament in its match-up with Glenville, originally scheduled for the evening of Friday, October 30. We were disappointed to learn of the initial cancellation of the contest on Thursday, October 29 and, then, surprised to learn of the temporary restraining order leading the OHSAA to reschedule the game for the afternoon of Saturday, October 31. We will not compete in the now re-scheduled contest, respect the court's prudence in deciding the ultimate outcome of the legal dispute, and will prepare to compete with Salem on Friday night if that is the resolution."
In his ruling, the judge noted that University School declined to participate in the rescheduled playoff game and wrote that school representatives indicated they would "rather have this Court determine the outcome of the game through its decision in this matter, rather than the play on the field."
Glenville was removed from the football playoffs for the same issue in 2018. The school was fined $5,000 and placed on probation through 2021, according to OHSAA.
Glenville won Division IV state football championships in 2022, 2023 and 2025 and moved up to Division III, where it entered the 2026 playoffs as the No. 5 seed in Division III, Region 9.