It’s an argument as old as time, or at least as long as I have been covering high school sports in Western Pennsylvania.

The classic private/charter school vs. public debate always rears its head around this time every year when the PIAA championship games are being played, and for good reason — the private schools have an advantage, and they tend to dominate on the biggest stage.

Of the 12 state championship game this season (which took place last week), the numbers look innocent enough — 13 private/charter schools and 11 public schools.

Dig a little deeper, however, and the story becomes a bit different.

Nine of the 12 matchups, five on the girls’ side and four on the boys’ side, were public vs. private/charter. Of those nine, seven were won by the private schools. Of those seven, five were decided by an average of 18 points per game.

The only two decided by single digits were Kennedy Catholic’s 42-40 win over Marion Center in 2A girls and Devon Prep’s 60-56 win over Franklin in Class 3A boys.

And the two public schools that won, the Aliquippa boys and Blackhawk girls, are absolute basketball royalty in Pennsylvania.

Otto-Eldred, one of the top public school teams in District 9, knows just how good Aliquippa is, with the Quips knocking out the Terrors in each of the last two state tournaments.

Aliquippa beat Holy Cross for its sixth state title in program history, and its origins as a basketball dynasty date all the way back to the 1930s when Press Maravich, the father of Pistol Pete Maravich, played there. The elder Maravich coached at Aliquippa briefly before joining the college coaching ranks at Clemson in 1956.

On the girls side, Blackhawk beat Scranton Prep, 56-44 for the Class 4A title, the fifth state title for Blackhawk.

Anyone who knows anything about high school hoops in Western Pennsylvania knows just how historic a program Blackhawk is on both the boys’ and girls’ side.

Ask the Bradford girls just how good Blackhawk was. Coach Ann Nuzzo’s squad put together an unbeaten regular season in 2011-12 on their way to the District 9 title. That Bradford team was absolutely loaded with talent. They met Blackhawk in the first round of states and lost by nine. That Blackhawk team had Chassiy Omogrosso, who went on to become the program’s all-time leading scorer before going on to play Division I basketball at Duquesne, becoming a top five scorer in that program’s history as well.

The boys, meanwhile, have won four state titles, and the Miller family is perhaps the first family of WPIAL hoops.

John Miller was the architect of those teams, and his sons, Sean and Archie, spearheaded many of those teams. Sean went on to have a standout career at Pitt and has had a decorated coaching career himself. He is currently in his second stint as head coach at Xavier after a stop at Arizona.

Archie went on to a decorated college career at N.C. State and has had quite the coaching career of his own, having coached at Dayton and Indiana before getting the head job at Rhode Island, where he is currently.

Coming full circle, Archie was also on the 1995 Blackhawk team that beat Franklin by the narrowest of margins on their way to the state title that year. That was a Franklin team that included its current head coach, Jason Fulmer.

Bottom line, those weren’t your typical public schools winning state titles.

Privates and charters are not limited by boundaries (hence why they are referred to as non-boundary schools). They have an inherent advantage, despite what some misguided media members may tell you.

I’m sure the public schools want to beat the best and welcome it to a large degree, but there is no denying the disadvantage they are at.

And it’s not going to change.

PIAA Executive Director Bob Lombardi had this to say at the state championships last season, per the Pittsburgh Tribune review:

“Let me answer it this way: What’s your solution?” said Lombardi, sitting courtside at Giant Center. “You can’t separate them because of the law. … The Department of Ed lawyers have looked at (Act 219 of 1972) and said separation violates the legislation.

“So, give me the answer.”

Bottom line, it’s not going anywhere unless the law changes.