Northwest Ohio Realignment

buckeyetobobcat said:
Scenario 2 that will be the likely scenario to unfold for the TAAC is talking with the Michigan league over the border and rebuilding the old Michigan-Ohio Border Conference in some capacity under the Michigan label.
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I could definitely see that as a short term fix for football scheduling even if it isn't a full on merger. The TCC is down to 3 schools (Erie Mason, Summerfield, Whiteford) that play 11-man, so you could have an 8-eight team league or a scheduling agreement with the TAAC. They could also bring in North Central to get to 6 for football. Not sure what options they have to add a full member though unless they can convince any of those dissatisfied NWOAL members to jump.
 
I feel like maybe Delta, Evergreen, Swanton, and Ottawa Hills could get behind being in a league together. Swanton and OH were in the Maumee Valley League together in the 40s and 50s with the not yet consolidated Anthony Wayne schools. Maybe delta was too. But the problem is, who else do they get? There aren't many options. Ottawa Hills is in a tough spot.
 
ILikeSports said:
I feel like maybe Delta, Evergreen, Swanton, and Ottawa Hills could get behind being in a league together. Swanton and OH were in the Maumee Valley League together in the 40s and 50s with the not yet consolidated Anthony Wayne schools. Maybe delta was too. But the problem is, who else do they get? There aren't many options. Ottawa Hills is in a tough spot.
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If they couldn't get that league together before, no way can they now. The best situation for them would probably be try and get in the SBC River, go to that northern division, put SJCC in the south division and bump Willard up to the Bay for football. It gives the River an even 12 teams and eight for football. My guess is Willard doesn't like that idea.
 
RollingTrain said:
If they couldn't get that league together before, no way can they now. The best situation for them would probably be try and get in the SBC River, go to that northern division, put SJCC in the south division and bump Willard up to the Bay for football. It gives the River an even 12 teams and eight for football. My guess is Willard doesn't like that idea.
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If Northwood were still in the TAAC to join the splintered Delta, Evergreen, Swanton alliance and pick up school #6 from somewhere, I could see that league actually working rather well.

Unfortunately the train is rolling on this and don't see how it slows down. Like the only way Ottawa Hills has a chance at finding a permanent home is if it somehow convinces the NWOAL to blow up or for the NBC and NLL to take on schools a la Big Ten and SEC style (since someone seems to think Northwood is the LA of the TAAC and is the equivalent of USC or UCLA for realignment......guess 94.5 was right back then, from the Shores of Lake Erie to the slums of Ottawa Hills......)
 
buckeyetobobcat said:
If Northwood were still in the TAAC to join the splintered Delta, Evergreen, Swanton alliance and pick up school #6 from somewhere, I could see that league actually working rather well.
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Yep, that was the problem. Montpelier and other schools out that way were mentioned originally. People in Evergreen, Delta and Swanton weren't interested in leaving Wauseon and LC to travel to almost Indiana. It would probably need to be something more like Maumee and Otsego, which appears unlikely.
 
RollingTrain said:
If they couldn't get that league together before, no way can they now. The best situation for them would probably be try and get in the SBC River, go to that northern division, put SJCC in the south division and bump Willard up to the Bay for football. It gives the River an even 12 teams and eight for football. My guess is Willard doesn't like that idea.
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St Joe's no longer plays 11 man and likely won't again the way things are trending.

TheDude89 said:
I could definitely see that as a short term fix for football scheduling even if it isn't a full on merger. The TCC is down to 3 schools (Erie Mason, Summerfield, Whiteford) that play 11-man, so you could have an 8-eight team league or a scheduling agreement with the TAAC. They could also bring in North Central to get to 6 for football. Not sure what options they have to add a full member though unless they can convince any of those dissatisfied NWOAL members to jump.
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This is perfect in all honesty. Buckeye Border Conference members Edon, Hilltop, Montpelier & North Central joining OH, Swanton & Evergreen would be great.
 
smurfyeah19 said:
St Joe's no longer plays 11 man and likely won't again the way things are trending.


This is perfect in all honesty. Buckeye Border Conference members Edon, Hilltop, Montpelier & North Central joining OH, Swanton & Evergreen would be great.
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I know that SJCC doesn’t play 11-man, but they will be in the north/south divisions for everything else.
 
Ignoring the obvious fact that Swanton, Evergreen, and Delta have no business in a conference with most of the BBC and only considered it because they'd rather take the easy way out than work harder and compete with the similar sized schools like Archbold, PH, and LC in their own league....

If the number 1 thing they were concerned about was driving out to Williams County, how about this. Those 3 plus OH join the BBC. That makes 12. East/West split. Swanton, Evergreen, Delta, OH, Fayette, and Pettisville in the East. The Williams County 5 plus Holgate in the West. Double round robin schedule in the non football sports with no forced crossovers (most would end up playing each other non league anyway, because they're similar sized and competitive with each other). The East would be fully Fulton County other than OH.

That would then leave for 11 man football....Swanton, Delta, Evergreen, OH, Montpelier, Edon, Hilltop, North Central. 8 schools and all basically with nowhere better to go (again, ignoring the fact Swanton and co. could always just man up instead of taking the easy way out.)

The NWOAL could be in trouble at that point. 5 schools left, which direction would they go to reload? Add Napoleon and Defiance, I'd say PH leaves, but it would put the big 4 in the area together where they should be. Otsego? Fairview/Tinora?
 
dhsdog06 said:
Ignoring the obvious fact that Swanton, Evergreen, and Delta have no business in a conference with most of the BBC and only considered it because they'd rather take the easy way out than work harder and compete with the similar sized schools like Archbold, PH, and LC in their own league....

If the number 1 thing they were concerned about was driving out to Williams County, how about this. Those 3 plus OH join the BBC. That makes 12. East/West split. Swanton, Evergreen, Delta, OH, Fayette, and Pettisville in the East. The Williams County 5 plus Holgate in the West. Double round robin schedule in the non football sports with no forced crossovers (most would end up playing each other non league anyway, because they're similar sized and competitive with each other). The East would be fully Fulton County other than OH.

That would then leave for 11 man football....Swanton, Delta, Evergreen, OH, Montpelier, Edon, Hilltop, North Central. 8 schools and all basically with nowhere better to go (again, ignoring the fact Swanton and co. could always just man up instead of taking the easy way out.)

The NWOAL could be in trouble at that point. 5 schools left, which direction would they go to reload? Add Napoleon and Defiance, I'd say PH leaves, but it would put the big 4 in the area together where they should be. Otsego? Fairview/Tinora?
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Lots of facts here, hence why I said only way this happens is if Ottawa Hills gets in the ears of the 3 eastern NWOAL schools to cause some chaos. That being said, that school has enough scandals to focus on and currently is rudderless at the AD job (have an interim ATM, but nothing will be made under the interim's watch).

As to the NWOAL, you would think Evergreen, Delta, and Swanton would be smart enough to realize they have actual stability in a league versus throwing themselves to the chaos with conference realignment. But who knows, if they're hellbent on winning and giving up guaranteed gates for a smaller-school conference, anything can happen. Would have to assume a combination of the GMC/NLL/BVC would be waiting on the doorstep to strip apart the remaining NWOAL schools if this scenario happens.

At least in theory:
Wauseon and Bryan to NLL (Archbold could tag here, but would be hitting way above weight)
Archbold and LC to GMC
PH to BVC
 
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buckeyetobobcat said:
Lots of facts here, hence why I said only way this happens is if Ottawa Hills gets in the ears of the 3 eastern NWOAL schools to cause some chaos. That being said, that school has enough scandals to focus on and currently is rudderless at the AD job (have an interim ATM, but nothing will be made under the interim's watch).

As to the NWOAL, you would think Evergreen, Delta, and Swanton would be smart enough to realize they have actual stability in a league versus throwing themselves to the chaos with conference realignment. But who knows, if they're hellbent on winning and giving up guaranteed gates for a smaller-school conference, anything can happen. Would have to assume a combination of the GMC/NLL/BVC would be waiting on the doorstep to strip apart the remaining NWOAL schools if this scenario happens.

At least in theory:
Wauseon and Bryan to NLL (Archbold could tag here, but would be hitting way above weight)
Archbold and LC to GMC
PH to BVC
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Man, a scenario where Napoleon, Bryan, and Wauseon were all in the NLL would look REALLY tempting to me as a Defiance fan. We're happy in the WBL, but how great would an 7-8 team small school NLL involving our 2 closest, biggest, long term rivals look.

I always thought the same on LC and Archbold to the GMC, but last time I posted that I got ripped to shreds by LC fans. Of course most fail to see these are hypotheticals and in the hypothetical that the NWOAL is dead, they have to go somewhere...


I could also see LC being a fit in the NBC.
 
NBC would suit them well too, especially as the trail continues to evolve in population growth for them.

But again, all scenarios lead back to the Eastern 3. Whatever they decide will decide the NWOAL's fate
 
Scenario 1: Lets say Swanton, Delta and Evergreen join the TAAC. I would not be surprised to see Napoleon join the NWOAL and keep it a 6 team league.

Scenario 2: Ottawa Hills joins the BVC in football only.

Scenario 3: Ottawa Hills joins the TCL. Least likely to happen, but at this point you never know.

Scenario 4: A new Michigan-Ohio Border Conference is formed. In my opinion, seems most likely at this point at least for FB.

However I would be remissed if I did not mention that something should be done about the SBC-River. They are getting too big and at this point they have a division inside a division. Either they need to break away and do their own thing, or the very small schools need to leave or form a fourth division.

This trend for high school conferences to have these mega-leagues with multiple division that change based on the sports being played is diluting the competitions themselves. Everybody is trying to find easy way outs and get every school a trophy. It is just simply not sustainable.
 
The River division greatly benefits from having a large amount of schools that have other sports in the SBC as a whole that not everyone in River has (golf, soccer, swimming, tennis, etc). There is no reason for them to break away despite the traditionalists who constantly complain about the unorthodox set up.
 
Wouldn't Northwood leaving make it even less likely that Delta, Swanton, Evergreen go to the TAAC? Someone else said Swanton was invited last year and declined, so there's not much reason to think they'd go now
 
KingHorn419 said:
Scenario 1: Lets say Swanton, Delta and Evergreen join the TAAC. I would not be surprised to see Napoleon join the NWOAL and keep it a 6 team league.

Scenario 2: Ottawa Hills joins the BVC in football only.

Scenario 3: Ottawa Hills joins the TCL. Least likely to happen, but at this point you never know.

Scenario 4: A new Michigan-Ohio Border Conference is formed. In my opinion, seems most likely at this point at least for FB.

However I would be remissed if I did not mention that something should be done about the SBC-River. They are getting too big and at this point they have a division inside a division. Either they need to break away and do their own thing, or the very small schools need to leave or form a fourth division.

This trend for high school conferences to have these mega-leagues with multiple division that change based on the sports being played is diluting the competitions themselves. Everybody is trying to find easy way outs and get every school a trophy. It is just simply not sustainable.
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Well as far as the SBC River goes, the smallest school - Calvert, is arguably the most successful across the board in sports in the league.
 
I know some people would be against the SBC River schools breaking off on their own but I think it makes a solid small school league. 12 schools altogether with 8 of them whom play football. I don’t see any of them who’d leave in the future and for scheduling purposes it doesn’t get easier then this for those 12 schools. The only schools who’d have their feelings hurt would be Willard and Margaretta but they’ve been catered to for long enough so time to sack up and play in the Bay.
 
SBClives said:
I know some people would be against the SBC River schools breaking off on their own but I think it makes a solid small school league. 12 schools altogether with 8 of them whom play football. I don’t see any of them who’d leave in the future and for scheduling purposes it doesn’t get easier then this for those 12 schools. The only schools who’d have their feelings hurt would be Willard and Margaretta but they’ve been catered to for long enough so time to sack up and play in the Bay.
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They have 11 overall and only six that play 11-man football without Margaretta and Willard for football.
 
dhsdog06 said:
Man, a scenario where Napoleon, Bryan, and Wauseon were all in the NLL would look REALLY tempting to me as a Defiance fan. We're happy in the WBL, but how great would an 7-8 team small school NLL involving our 2 closest, biggest, long term rivals look.

I always thought the same on LC and Archbold to the GMC, but last time I posted that I got ripped to shreds by LC fans. Of course most fail to see these are hypotheticals and in the hypothetical that the NWOAL is dead, they have to go somewhere...


I could also see LC being a fit in the NBC.
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I think if that were an option it would've already been done, don't you?
 
StateChampion2012 said:
Would the NWOAL ever consider going to big and small divisions?
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I think outside of the random Swanton talk, they're happy with their 8.

Big/small would be tough, because there just aren't enough big schools in the area. Once you get away from Bryan, Wauseon, Napoleon, and Defiance, you're either at Toledo schools, Lima schools, BG, or into D5. Unless someone like Archbold decided they wanted to play up, I'm not sure there's enough schools they could add.
 
dhsdog06 said:
I think outside of the random Swanton talk, they're happy with their 8.

Big/small would be tough, because there just aren't enough big schools in the area. Once you get away from Bryan, Wauseon, Napoleon, and Defiance, you're either at Toledo schools, Lima schools, BG, or into D5. Unless someone like Archbold decided they wanted to play up, I'm not sure there's enough schools they could add.
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Or Liberty-Benton if they keep their growth up.....and they're still looking for a home.....

In that scenario
L-B, Bryan, Defiance, Napoleon, Wauseon, Archbold
PH, LC, Delta, Evergreen, Swanton (mystery #12 team?)
 
buckeyetobobcat said:
Or Liberty-Benton if they keep their growth up.....and they're still looking for a home.....

In that scenario
L-B, Bryan, Defiance, Napoleon, Wauseon, Archbold
PH, LC, Delta, Evergreen, Swanton (mystery #12 team?)
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Ottawa Hills would fit nicely in that smaller division enrollment-wise, and they now have like 2 conference games in football.
 
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