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I know football season months down the road, but I was thinking about the varying states of conferences around D5/6 the other day, so I figured I’d post and see if anybody had updates.

What’s happening with the Heritage Conference having only nine teams and no gimme points next season? Are there any new schools that the Heritage is in talks with? I’d like to see Blacklick Valley or Cambria Heights move to the Heritage because I think they’d be excellent fits, but it doesn’t look like that will happen.

What is going to happen to the remaining MAC schools when Lewistown and Indian Valley form Mifflin County High School and jump to District 3? Juniata also decided to move back to District 4 in 2012, leaving nine teams. Eaglealum, have you heard anything on this?

Any news on the continuing debacle that is Chestnut Ridge’s independence? Where are the D5 guys on this one? I know at the D5 meeting they asked for the committee to explore the possibility of an all-D5 league, but with only 13 teams sponsoring football in the district it seems improbable that it would happen. I actually like the idea of an all D5 league. I have to believe this would only happen if a school like Claysburg-Kimmel or Ferndale would jump from D6.

Some scenarios that could happen, some that are just for fun:

1. Chestnut Ridge and Ligonier Valley come back to the LHAC. Bridges are repaired, everyone is happy again. Until football season starts and they both go 3-7/2-8. Heritage drops down to 8 teams, somebody runs roughshod through the conference then bows out in the semis a la Penns Manor last year.

2. Appalachian Conference 2.0 is formed with the Heritage and WestPAC. 20 teams joining forces. East/West divisions. It could potentially work.

3. Bellwood leaves the ICC and returns to the MAC becoming the tenth team in 2012. Chestnut Ridge jumps in to take their vacant ICC spot.

4. D6 will change their mind on classification-based play and shakeup the football conferences completely. 3 class A conferences (2 of 8, 1of 7), 2 class AA conferences of 7 and 8. Scheduling opens up. Johnstown, Bellefonte, and Central Mountain are SOL.

5. D5 forms a district-based conference with 13 teams. Blacklick Valley, Conemaugh Valley, Ferndale, and Portage are without a conference. They ask to move to District 5, but only Ferndale is permitted. The rest ask to join the LHAC, are denied, and join the 9-team Heritage to form a bigger Heritage.

6. Dream scenario that will is almost guaranteed never to happen. Never say never, though: Cambria Heights leaves the LHAC for the Heritage. The Heritage is happy, they have 10 teams again, and CH will be competitive in football and all other sports. Chestnut Ridge finally is let into the WestPAC. The nightmare is over! Central returns to the LHAC bringing with them Bellwood and Tyrone. Bellwood leaves the ICC for stronger competition. The Backyard Brawl remains intact and they are hardened for the playoffs better than they are now in the ICC. Tyrone leaves the MAC after Mifflin County and Juniata’s defection, citing a lack of stability in the conference with the only other competitive teams being Clearfield and Huntingdon. Clearfield goes back to the AML in District 9. Chestnut Ridge is just happy to be back in a conference and able to continue their rivalry game with Bedford.

The last one is a pipe dream, but that conference would be a lot of fun to watch. Hayes, Sponsky, Franco, Bailey? There's about 28 district championships between them. Good stuff. Lots of good games in that one. I would love to see Bishop Carroll vs Tyrone and Forest Hills vs Bellwood-Antis!

Ghost

The WestPAC and Heritage Conferences just agreed upon playing cross-over games during open dates for the 2012 and 2013 Varsity Football seasons. I don't have any idea what the Heritage is doing about open dates in 2011, but they're good to go for at least two years after that... assuming all of the schools in the WestPAC and Heritage are still around in 2012.

Jozey,

Must have missed that.Was it in the paper/on the local news, or did this just come about at the D6 Committee meeting two weeks ago? I keep waiting for Mr. Eiling to update the minutes on the district site but he hasn't as of yet.

Good for the two conferences, I hope it works out well. I know I've read in the past where Heritage coaches have been quoted as saying that while they enjoy the rivalries within the conference they would like to get out and play different teams from around the area.

How will this affect CR's scheduling? The position they are in is of their own doing, but it's the kids who suffer. This pretty much puts the kibosh on any hope of joining the LHAC for the next 3 years now that LV is locked into a schedule.

I'd love to see it too, but doubt it would happen. The Tyrone/H-don game MUST go on ! An LHAC schedule wouldn't allow it. B-A learned their lesson and won't leave the ICC again unless they get booted. Hayes gets all the competition he wants in the Clearfield scrimmage and Tyrone opener, then it's fine tuning to the playoffs. I myself would love to see the MAC go back to the Big 8 format leaving us 2 open games after the B-A opener. Although with the travel cost these days, that's not likely either, several local leagues are fixed on a 10 game schedule, and the days of traveling to play, Pius X, Shenendoah, Montoursville, etc. are probably long gone. I do love the "what ifs" though.

Looks like Chestnut Ridge will be playing all Maryland and WV teams in two years. With there budget situation, wonder if they'll consider dropping football?

Just seems logical to me that if one team from the WestPAC moves to the Heritage it helps BOTH the WestPAC AND and the Heritage. Then both conferences will have ten teams (an even number of teams) so all conference teams can play each other without any open dates in each team's season.

Eaglealum, Bring Huntingdon along with you! Tell Clearfield that District 6 is annexing them in as well! Heck, I’d even take P-O circa 06 and 07. Mountoursville I can see, but not going all the way over to Shenandoah or Bangor for class A teams. You’d be better off heading over to Houtzdale or Curwensville. Andy Evanko has to have one of the best coaches’ mustaches in Clearfield County! That thing looks like a squirrel tail glued onto his face.

I’ve said this before on this board, but personally I would love to see more open schedules across the district. Crossover games would break up the same old same old. Forest Hills vs Portage, Richland vs Tyrone (never played each other), Ligonier Valley vs Westmont, etc. That won’t happen either outside of some cases during playoffs. With gas prices, the massive cuts from Harrisburg…barring some unexpected resurgence in the area it won’t happen. But like you, I do love those “what ifs…?”.

What I think is going to happen is that the PIAA Board is going to come back on the 25th and they’re going to split the qualifying enrollment numbers for classifying private schools and public schools. I saw estimated figures where McCort and Guilfoyle will be in AA and Carroll will still be A. That would give D5/6 52 teams in A (32) and AA (20) if my math is correct. I’ll be honest and say that my early morning math skills are not the sharpest. This is where classification-based play for D5/6 comes in into play. It was shot down last May, with Coach Hayes leading the charge. I think you almost have to look at this again, or at the very least have a fact finding mission as to why it would not be suitable.

Ideally, redistrict the whole state. The WPIAL has 4-times the amount of District 4, 3-times the amount of District 6, and 6-times the amount of District 9. 6-TIMES! This won’t happen either, because the WPIAL was founded before the PIAA and I’m guessing that they would file suit against the PIAA if any attempts were made tying everything up in court, etc.

CRWizard, if Chestnut Ridge drops football they are doing the school, their community, and their students a great disservice. I know it costs money, but high school football is about as pure of a version of the game that you can get. Most of the kids don’t play in college. They play just to play. I seriously hope they do not even consider cutting football.

richaboli, Blacklick takes Bishop Carroll's old spot from the Appalachian Conference North. Problem solved.

ghost--great posts on this thread in my opinion. those are decent ideas, but you know how you have people who don't want any change. by the way, in your last post, you mentioned estimated figures for the split enrollment idea. where did you find those estimated figures?

Ghost wrote: richaboli, Blacklick takes Bishop Carroll's old spot from the Appalachian Conference North. Problem solved.

I believe there might be a problem, The Appalachian Conference North.......... Is that an existing conference?

In 1996