The wheels are continuing to turn on possible conference changes. This all began, of course, when the five-school Classic Lake Conference announced that it will disband after the 2009-10 school year. Those schools (Armstrong, Edina, Hopkins, Minnetonka and Wayzata) are in the process of applying to existing conferences, with no luck so far. Some themes are emerging…

The Northwest Suburban
Armstrong, Hopkins and Wayzata have all applied to join the Northwest Suburban and all three have been denied. But that doesn’t mean one or two of those schools could still end up in the NW Suburban. Once those schools formally filed letters of application to the NW Suburban, MSHSL rules mandated that the league reply with a decision within 30 days.

Some in the NW Suburban felt the 30 days wasn’t enough time, thus the denials. The NW Suburban schools will meet again next week, with the possibility that they will reconsider one or two of the Classic Lake applications.

Armstrong has the best chance to be accepted, and Hopkins is also a possibility, although facing longer odds than Armstrong. There seems to be very little sentiment in the NW Suburban for accepting Wayzata as a member.

The Lake
Wayzata, Hopkins, Edina and Minnetonka have all applied to join the Lake Conference. Lake officials will meet next week to discuss those applications, but it doesn’t appear that the Lake (which will have 12 members when Chanhassen opens next fall) will say yes to any new members.

The odds are probably better that some of the Lake schools south of the Minnesota River (Apple Valley, Burnsville, Eagan, Eastview, Lakeville North, Lakeville South and Rosemount) may break away from the rest of the Lake and form a new league, possibly with nearby schools such as Farmington, Shakopee, Prior Lake or Hastings.

Apple Valley, Eagan, Eastview and Rosemount are all in the same school district, and that district will have plenty of sway in whatever the future holds. All the Lake schools have always been very loyal to their league, but it appears that the possibility of shuffling the Lake lineup is growing.

The East Metro
As many as a dozen schools from the eastern side of the metro held a meeting this week to discuss the possibility of forming a new conference. Those schools come from the North Suburban, Suburban East and elsewhere. It’s all very preliminary, but that meeting is a strong sign that lots of schools are interested in exploring their options.

Change is coming, one way or another. If the Classic Lake schools are unable to find conferences that will take them, rules mandate that the MSHSL place those schools in existing leagues. That can be an ugly process, so it’s wise for schools and conferences to consider changes at this time.

As one administrator told me today, “We’re willing to listen to possible scenarios in the event that there might be a better place for us out there. We owe that to our students and our community. We don’t think we can afford to sit back and see what happens without at least listening to what some of the possibilities might be.”

This entry was posted on Thursday, January 8th, 2009 at 1:53 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.