When the public schools in town broke away from the private schools in the Interscholastic League of Honolulu in 1970 the issue was competitive balance because of recruiting.

That hasn’t been solved and probably never will be. But now there’s a bigger more important problem that can only be properly addressed with a radical change many have spoken of but no one with the power to do so has had the courage to act upon.

The Interscholastic League of Honolulu and Oahu Interscholastic Association must put aside their differences and merge into one football league in the interest of student-athlete safety.

This needs to be done in time for the start of the 2014 season.

This issue is not new, but is underscored this year with the large number of mismatches resulting in higher injury rates when powerhouse teams play others with smaller players and shorter rosters.

The situation has resulted in forfeits, most recently Tuesday when Kalaheo of the OIA and St. Francis of the ILH announced they will pass on their scheduled games this week against Kaiser and Saint Louis.

The leaders of these schools are doing the right thing to protect the health of their students. But a better system is needed to avoid the problem in the first place.

The way I propose doing this is a three-division format for Oahu high school football, with Division I made up of the three biggest and most competitive ILH schools — Kamehameha, Punahou and Saint Louis — along with the six schools in the OIA projected prior to the season to be the most competitive. The schools would be selected prior to each season either by a vote of the athletic directors or a committee.

Most of the remaining schools would be in Division II, including Damien and ‘Iolani of the ILH (if things change in the future, they can petition for Division I). Small enrollment OIA schools can opt for Division II, but large enrollment schools must abide by the vote.

The smallest OIA and ILH schools would form Division III — which would hopefully eventually be 8-man football, which is enjoying success on the neighbor islands.

The basics of this proposal are nothing new. Star-Advertiser high school sports reporter Paul Honda and I have advocated a three-division format for more than a decade. Retired Kamehameha-Hawaii athletic director Bob Wagner is among administrators who have supported such a format.

It was a good start when the Hawaii High School Athletic Association got classification started with two divisions for the football state tournament. The next step is overdue and needed now.

There is a happy by-product that an Oahu Division I including the best of the private and public schools would mean the best teams get into the state tournament — period.

But, by far, the most important reason to make this change is the safety of student-athletes.

The ball is in your court, HHSAA, OIA and ILH.

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Reach Dave Reardon at dreardon@staradvertiser.com or 529-4783 or on Twitter as @dave_reardon.