4 schools leave AAC; Harding to Federal?

By Joe Scalzo

Hubbard, Liberty, Lakeview and Niles will leave the AAC after the 2009-10 school year.

The Federal League is looking to expand, the All-American Conference may be forced to contract and both decisions may create more questions than answers.

On Saturday, superintendents from four AAC schools — Hubbard, Liberty, Lakeview and Niles — submitted a letter to conference commissioner Clem Zumpella announcing plans to leave the league following the 2009-10 school year.

Superintendents had originally agreed to a five-year commitment, but that is not binding, Zumpella said.

Hubbard, Liberty and Lakeview compete in the middle (White) tier, while Niles is in the top (Red) tier.

Those four schools are interested in creating their own league, possibly with Jefferson and Ashtabula Edgewood. Salem and Struthers also compete in the White Tier and are not expected to leave, for now. Canfield, Poland, Howland and Beaver Local are the other four Red Tier teams.

The main issue, as always, is football. White Tier teams are obligated to play at least one Red Tier team during the regular season. The tiers were arranged based on school size, not program strength, and Niles doesn’t feel it can consistently compete in the largest tier.

“The schools leaving obviously feel they are competitive with each other in most, if not all, areas,” said Zumpella. “And distance is not a factor with the schools that are possibly going to be added to their new conference.”

Meanwhile, the Federal League on Monday announced it would consider adding Warren Harding and Massillon to its eight-member conference, with a decision expected on April 21.

Mentor was the only other school to apply to the league. When no other northern Ohio schools applied, Mentor was eliminated from consideration.

Harding, which is leaving the Steel Valley Conference at the end of the school year, had already applied to the All-American Conference’s Red Tier and the Lake Erie League, and was rejected by both. Raiders athletic director Paul Trina said the school doesn’t want to be independent, but he knows there are a lot of factors to consider, primarily travel.

“Are we interested? Yes,” Trina said Monday. “But obviously with the league based in Stark County, there are a lot of economic factors to consider.

“We have to do our due diligence with the community and see if it’s the best use of taxpayer dollars.”

The Federal League’s decision to explore expansion was due, in part, to help alleviate the travel costs (both in dollars and hours) of Boardman and Fitch. Schools such as Cuyahoga Falls, Hudson and Stow were rumored to be interested, but never submitted letters to the league.

Had those schools applied, it would have made it easier to create a two-tiered league based on geography.

Harding would be competitive in the Federal League in football and boys basketball — the two sports that drive most league decisions because of the revenue and interest they generate — but it would struggle in sports such as soccer, volleyball and tennis.

Just because the league is exploring expansion doesn’t mean Harding will be invited to join.

There are still a lot of issues to work through, on both sides.

“We have to do our homework and ask a lot of questions over the next few weeks,” Trina said. “We’re excited we made the first cut and we think it’s a great league.

“Obviously it’s something we have to look at.”

scalzo@vindy.com