ProfessorBriggs.com

PROFESSOR'S PROVERBS -- JANUARY 17, 2017

We are in an interesting time period in District 10 athletics due to two major changes over the past 18 months or so. With the exception of football, team sports playoffs have shiften to "open" formats, which means that everyone qualifies. Coupled with the PIAA decision to expand from four to six classes in many sports, the regional landscape has changed significantly.

These are changes that District 10 and/or PIAA membership wanted, proposed and approved. While I am not real excited about either of those developments, they probably aren't going away any time soon. Those are changes that would not be super easy to reverse -- expansion is easier than contraction in most aspects of life.

If open playoffs are here to stay, that pretty much renders the current class-based region setup to be somewhat unnecessary.

Professor Briggs understands that some realignment chatter may be on the horizon. There has rightfully been some concern about the increased travel that some schools have had due to the new setup in several schools. A few examples (enrollment numbers in parentheses):

*Hickory (228) and Sharon (200) do not play in girls basketball. Hickory is in a league with Grove City (235) and Slippery Rock (259). Conneaut (268) is logical too -- it's the same distance from Hickory as is Slippery Rock. However, Hickory also plays Girard and General McLane in region games this season. The Hickory-to-Girard trip is the same as if Hickory went to Chartiers Valley or to Copley, Ohio, (west of Akron).

*Lakeview (150) and Mercer (147) are not in the same league in girls basketball. The overall travel for each of those is programs is not as extreme as the Hickory-Girard reference. But shouldn't those teams be in the same conference in every sport?

*In football, Grove City (291) played no other Mercer County teams. Slippery Rock is in Butler County. West Middlesex (139) and Mercer (147) did not play in football. West Middlesex and Farrell are presently in a league with Union City and Youngsville. Cambridge Springs (139) and Saegertown (146) are closer to each other (8.5 miles) than West Middlesex and Mercer are (12 miles). Cambridge Springs and Saegertown did not play as league foes.

*In softball, Slippery Rock and Conneaut (Ohio) will be region foes this spring. It's 88 miles from one to the other. Latrobe would be a closer trip for Slippery Rock.

There are no doubt many other similar instances across the board. Conneaut (Ohio) joined District 10 for scheduling purposes and to potentially play similar-sized schools in the area, such as (but not limited to) Girard and Fairview. Going to Slippery Rock was probably not part of the plan. Fredonia, N.Y., is only 82 miles from Conneaut, Ohio. (Fredonia is only 50 miles from the Peace Bridge).

Instead of being Reactive, let's be Proactive and offer some insights. Before that, it is important to take a look  at how things were a decade ago.

Prior to the 2005-06 academic year, District 10 featured the following organizations:
*Mercer County Athletic Conference (most of the Mercer County schools, plus Slippery Rock)
*Tri-County Athletic Conference, with two divisions (covering Crawford, Venango, Warren and Forest Counties. Division I had the big schools, Division II featured the small schools)
*French Creek Valley Conference (Crawford County small schools, plus Lakeview and Union City)
*Erie Metro League (schools in the City of Erie and McDowell High School)
*Erie County League (schools in Erie County, except for Union City)
*Abraxas and Vision Quest competed as Independent teams.

A lot has happened over the past 11 years that makes the current landscape much different.
*FCVC members Conneaut Lake, Conneaut Valley and Linesville have consolidated into one larger school, Conneaut.
*Several TCAC-II members left for District 9: Cranberry, East Forest, Sheffield, Venango Catholic, West Forest.
*Abraxas left District 10.
*Farrell came into District 10.
*DuBois (and Bradford for a while) play D-10 schedules in football
*Starting in 2016, Conneaut (Ohio) plays D-10 schedule in all sports before returning to Ohio for playoffs.
*Philadelphia schools (District 12) came into the PIAA, which greatly increased the number of schools in larger classifications. The result turned a lot of small Class AAAA programs into big AAA programs; small AAA programs became big AA programs, etc.  It also resulted in state tournaments being reappropriated to reflect having more big schools in the eastern part of Pennsylvania.

So how can we realign District 10 in a logical, sensible manner? First, we need to note the points of emphasis:
1-Playoffs should be a result, not the nucleus of which everything else orbits. Instead of basing conferences/leagues solely on classes for postseason purposes, figure out the playoffs after establishing leagues. Work from front to back, not back to front (which is what we've been doing for years).
2-Geography should be a major consideration. Lakeview and Mercer should play in every sport. Girard and Fairview should be in the same league/conference. Same with Cambridge Springs and Saegertown. Sharon-Hickory ... the list goes on and on.
3-Schools of comparable size should be grouped together. Over the course of time, very few schools have gone from being "small" schools to "big" and vice versa. Meadville was one of D-10's biggest schools in 1977, 1997 and still is in 2017. McDowell was and still is enormous; Jamestown has continually had one of the smallest enrollments in western Pennsylvania. The fact that one school has 20 more boys or 17 less girls than another school shouldn't preclude the two from playing in the same conference. In the current cycle, Greenville's total enrollment number is 329 (174 boys, 155 girls) while Reynolds has a total number of 280 (142 and 138). I don't think anyone would argue that Greenville and Reynolds would be considered a mismatch in sports due to enrollment differential in the way that a McDowell-Iroquois game/match might be.

There are some other factors that have to be considered:
1-Some schools, no matter what, are going to have challenges due to location. The Warren County schools (Warren, Youngsville and Eisenhower) will have to log some miles no matter what. Eisenhower and Youngsville should be paired together for obvious reasons.
2-Some schools would fit in multiple areas due to geography. Lakeview would fit in a Mercer County-centric league, Crawford County schools or Venango County schools. Meadville could go north, south, east or west.
3-Going back simply to the "old way" is not feasible due to defections and consolidations. The Tri-County Athletic Conference Division II would have three teams. The French Creek Valley Conference would have one school (Conneaut) that has an enrollment twice as large as any of the other former members.
4-What would schools such as Lakeview and Jamestown want to do? Stay in a "Mercer County Conference" with schools they've competed against for the last 10 years or so? Or would they want to go back in with Cambridge Springs, Cochranton, et al?
5-Will Conneaut (Ohio) still be allowed to compete in D-10? What about DuBois in football (or potentially other sports)?

Without further delay, let's go to work:

*District 10, roughly, is a vertical rectangle. We will cut it into three regions: north, central and south. We'll start with the south region, since that's closest to us in Mercer County.

The southern portion will be Mercer County. Our teams are: Commodore Perry, Farrell, George Junior Republic, Grove City, Hickory, Jamestown, Kennedy Catholic, Lakeview, Mercer, Reynolds, Sharon, Sharpsville, Slippery Rock, West Middlesex and Wilmington. Sixteen boys schools, 15 on the girls' side. We will bring back the Mercer County Athletic Conference.

For continuity purposes, our goal will be to have as many of the individual sports groupings looking the same (same league foes in volleyball as you have in softball or track or basketball or baseball). We will split the 16 schools into two divisions, based upon total enrollment (combined boys and girls). (With the county being pretty close to a square, geographic division would not be ideal for this area). Single-gender schools (GJR, Villa, etc.) will have their number doubled for these purposes. We'll call them "American" and "National" or "North" and "South."

Therefore, we would have:
A-George Junior Republic, Grove City, Slippery Rock, Hickory, Sharon, Greenville, Sharpsville, Wilmington
B-Lakeview, Mercer, Reynolds, West Middlesex, Farrell, Jamestown, Kennedy Catholic, Commodore Perry

In sports with double round-robin scheduling, play your own division twice and one or two teams from the other division, depending on total allowable games on schedule.

In football, there are only 12 local teams. We would have two six-team divisions, based upon MALE enrollment. In that case, our divisions would be:
A-Grove City, Slippery Rock, Hickory, Sharon, Sharpsville, Greenville
B-Wilmington, Lakeview, Mercer, Reynolds, West Middlesex, Farrell

Play your own division teams once and then three teams from other division for eight total league games.

If a team wanted to play "up," such as Farrell basketball, they could be moved into the larger division. The smallest school in the larger division could switch to the other division if they desired.

*Moving north, we have the members of the old Tri-County Athletic Conference and the French Creek Valley Conference. What could be more sensible than to combine assets and split things based upon enrollment?

Call it the Tri-County Athletic Conference (Crawford, Venango and Warren Counties) and go with:
Big Schools: Conneaut, Franklin, Meadville, Oil City, Titusville, Warren
Small Schools: Cambridge Springs, Cochranton, Eisenhower, Maplewood, Rocky Grove, Saegertown, Union City, Vision Quest (basketball), Youngsville

In sports with double round-robin scheduling, play your own division twice and one or two teams from the other division, depending on total allowable games on schedule.

If DuBois wants to continue playing football in District 10, this would be the most logical place to place the Beavers. DuBois plays or has played all of those "Big Schools" frequently over the past several years.

*We have one large group of teams to take care of yet: Erie County. Counting Cathedral Prep and Villa Maria as one school (they're each single-gender), along with Conneaut, Ohio, there are 18 schools to account for. The options would be to go with two divisions (nine teams) or three divisions (six teams).

We'll go with three divisions. Unlike Mercer County, a geographical split in Erie County is quite feasible due to the general population distribution.

West: Conneaut (Ohio), Fairview, Fort LeBoeuf, General McLane, Girard, Northwestern
Metro: Cathedral Prep/Villa Maria, Central Tech, East, McDowell, Mercyhurst Prep, Strong Vincent
East: Corry, Erie First, Harbor Creek, Iroquois, North East, Seneca

In sports with double round-robin scheduling, play your own division twice and one or two teams from the other divisions, depending on total allowable games on schedule.  

In summation, we'd have:
Mercer County Athletic Conference, Tri-County Athletic Conference, Erie County Athletic Conference

*I am not saying that this is the only way that things could be realigned in terms of specific divisions, etc. But for general grouping into the three sub-areas, I think that it makes a lot of sense. This plan provides:
1-Schools of comparable size will be playing each other regularly.
2-Schools will be playing more games close to home.
    a-This means shorter trips on school nights and/or in winter weather
    b-It will help travel budgets over the course of fall, winter and spring sports with varsity, JV and junior high/middle school transportation. It's a lot cheaper to go 20 miles round-trip than it is 90 miles.
    c-Although attendance isn't like "the old days," teams playing closer to home will result in better gate receipts. More students and adults will be likely to attend if a game with with or at a local rival.
3-Better media coverage.
    a-Using current girls basketball as an example, wouldn't it be easier for print and electronic media if Sharon and Hickory played a league game on a Monday night instead of Sharon in a league game at Oil City and Hickory playing at Girard? Maybe that's a game that gets on radio? Or, instead of two 6-inch blurbs in The Herald, you have a full-length game story with photos?
    b-Greater social media activity. People are more active and interested in local matchups. That carries to the professional ranks also. People are more interested when the Browns or Steelers play each other as opposed to when the Jaguars come to town.

*People will still want to know about playoff setups. We've thought of that also. We will use a point system that, while it requires some arithmetic, is not difficult. It's comparable to what other PIAA Districts use (another example). There are no mysteries with this. It can be used for all sports. Here's the table:

Win or lose (or draw in soccer), teams will receive 10 points for every victory their opponent has during the regular season. At the end of the season, take the total number of points and divide by the total number of games/matches played. Let's use Greenville and Reynolds football as our test cases:

Greenville's point total would be 1,270 while Reynolds would be 1,020. Each team played nine games. Greenville's average total would be 141.11. Reynolds would be 113.33.

The top four teams (or six in larger groups) in each class across the district would qualify for the football playoffs. Teams are seeded by their point total.

In sports with open tournaments, teams are seeded by their average point total for the season. In soccer, teams get 1/2 the points for a tie.

Could this result in conference teams playing in the first round of the playoffs? It's possible, but it would not be unlike the old "tiebreaker" games the MCAC, TCAC and Erie County League used to have many years ago. Those were essentially "first round" playoff games to get into the quarterfinals. So, it would not be unprecedented.

The other option could be to have the matchups pre-slotted prior to the season. That's less ideal because you could potentially be eliminating a very good team early. Let's say a class has eight teams in it total and you've pre-slotted it in this manner:

Erie West 1 vs. TCAC 2; Mercer County 1 vs. Erie East 2; Erie West 2 vs. TCAC 1; Mercer County 2 vs. Erie East 1

If the No. 1 team from "Erie East" is the best team, and then the next two best teams are the two Mercer County teams, you would then have No. 1 vs. No. 3 playing in the quarterfinals. That's a scenario that happened more than once during the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s - the top teams weren't put in the best positions to advance.

*Let me know what you think. Maybe I missed something. Maybe I have overestimated or underestimated the importance of some aspect.

> Keep the cards and letters coming to ryanbriggs@zoominternet.net. Follow me on Twitter @professorbriggs