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Thursday, March 26, 2009

Sweeping changes are ahead for SLL
Little Caesars
The Suburban Lakes League, already undergoing some renovation, has become a central player in what may involve significant changes to several Northwest Ohio athletic conferences.

The superintendents of the seven remaining SLL schools met Tuesday and unanimously agreed to not only keep its current member schools together, but also to seek five new schools and expand to a 12-team, two-division conference.

Competitive balance, especially in a high-revenue sport like football, has triggered rampant speculation of league realignment in recent years. That was one reason cited by Fostoria St, Wendelin, which has gone 14-64 in football the last eight seasons, when the school opted to leave the Midland Athletic League and join the North West Ohio Conference for football only.

Seeing a vacancy in the MAL, Lakota decided to leave the Suburban Lakes League and fill that void. That left the SLL with seven schools. School administrators and athletic directors prefer even-numbered leagues because it eliminates the off-night during the season when at least one league school must go out and find a non-league opponent.

Fostoria, of the Northern Ohio League, and Rossford, of the Northern Lakes League, had also shown interest in joining the SLL, but both applications were voted down. It is believed the smaller SLL schools like Gibsonburg, with a male enrollment of 160 in the lower three grades, Elmwood (153) and Woodmore (144) were reluctant to add schools the size of Rossford (261) and Fostoria (241).

Tuesday's announcement by SLL superintendents could change the landscape significantly.

Speculation now has it that if the SLL expands to 12 teams, Fostoria and Rossford could be added and would be part of the large-school division of the SLL with Eastwood (232 boys), Genoa (211), Lake (198) and Otsego (203).

Gibsonburg, which had also shown interest in the MAL, Elmwood and Woodmore would be three of the six teams in the small-school division. It is uncertain which three schools might round out the smaller division, but geographic possibilities include four schools now members of the Toledo Area Athletic Conference — former SLL member Northwood (131), Ottawa Hills (136), Cardinal Stritch (112) and Toledo Christian (120).

Enrollement is based on numbers taken in 2007. New enrollment figures, which determine which divisions schools will compete in the next two years, are due to be posted next Month.

SLL officials set the 2011-2012 school year as a target date for expansion, but did not go into specifics about a possible 12-team realignment. Some of those details may be the topic of another meeting to be held Monday.

The impact of Tuesday's announcement by SLL superintendents will be far reaching.

Upper Sandusky and Galion have already announced they are leaving the Northern Ohio League to join the North Central Conference. If Fostoria also leaves, the NOL will drop from eight to five schools.

Sandusky has reportedly been extended an offer to join the NOL, which will effect the six-team Greater Buckeye Conference. If Rossford leaves the Northern Lakes League for the expanded 12-team SLL, Oregon Clay from the Toledo City League and Napoleon from the GBC would obviously look to fill Rossford's spot, again effecting two other conferences.

If Sandusky and Napoleon would both happen to realign with different leagues, only Findlay, Fremont Ross, Lima Senior and Marion Harding would remain in the Greater Buckeye Conference GBC Commissioner Nate Lynch told the Fremont News Messenger that as a preemptive precaution, the GBC would send a letter to the Western Buckeye League about a possible merge with that conference.
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