PORTLAND – With little fanfare, the OSAA Executive Board and full delegate assembly Monday approved the final recommendation by the Classification and Districting Committee for the 2010-2014 time block. Before a well-attended meeting at the Lloyd Center Double Tree Hotel, the 9:00 am meeting began with the Executive Board hearing public testimony from representatives of each of the proposed classifications before retiring to render its final decision.

Beginning with the 1A schools, Days Creek (123) and Crow (117) asked to remain in the 1A classification, despite exceeding the propose 1A cutoff of 105. Next, Salem Academy athletic director Pete Potloff requested that SAC remain in the 2A TRC, primarily because the Crusader’s reported ADM of 239 did not reflect the school’s actual enrollment numbers. No school from the 3A level bothered to testify one way or another.

4A Sweet Home (730) asked to be moved from the Sky-Em League to the new 4A Capital Coast League, which will consist of most of the soon-to-be-defunct Val-Co League. The most contentious testimony came at the 5A level. Ashland (5A 1021) sent a four-person team to argue that the Grizzlies should not have to compete in the proposed 6A-5A Southern Oregon Hybrid. Instead, the Ashland delegation proposed a 5A-4A hybrid in which the Grizzlies would be the big dogs.

Next, representatives of the proposed 5A-3 Columbia River Conference argued for merger with the eight-school 5A-1 Greater Metro League, resulting in a 12-school super conference, divided into three divisions, with the distinctively Midwestern name of “Big 12 Conference.” Their plan would require each Greater Metro school to make at least one trip to Eastern Oregon once every four years.

That proposal was answered by Mike Henderson, Wilsonville AD, speaking on behalf of the eight schools in the new 5A-1 district. Beginning by expressing dismay that Wilsonville was already considered part of the Big 12 Conference, Henderson made it clear that all of the eight Greater Metro schools will be glad to help the four 5A-3 schools with their nonleague schedules, provided it would be voluntary and not mandated by a forced marriage into a league that would stretch from Hillsboro to Pendleton. But Henderson closed with an assurance that if the “Big 12” became mandatory, most of the eight Greater Metro schools would opt to play up, thus effectively destroying the 5A classification.

Finally, no 6A school signed up for testimony, leaving the Executive Board to convene in executive session before returning to render its verdict. A motion was made and seconded to adopt the latest classification plan – with the significant absence of any mention of the morning’s earlier requests. After a few brief comments from board members, the motion was approved unanimously. After a short recess, the full delegate assembly rubber-stamped the Executive Board’s action.

Clearly the most controversial and confusing aspect of this new four-year plan involves the creation of multi-classification hybrid leagues. Below is a brief overview of some of the more notable changes from today to the next four-year cycle.

6A (1480 +)

The 6A Metro League remains unchanged. The Mt. Hood Conference loses Sandy and Hood River to 5A. The Three Rivers League gets a minor overhaul, losing Milwaukie and Putnam to 5A while gaining 6A Canby in a lateral move from the Pacific Conference. Despite losing the Cougars to the TRL, the Pacific Conference actually grows from six schools to eight, with the addition of Century, Glencoe and Hillsboro, all moving up from the 5A NWOC.

The Central Valley Conference loses Redmond to the new 6A-5A-4A Central Oregon hybrid league. The ten-school PIL likewise groups all of its schools together in another 6A-5A-4A hybrid that spans from Grant (1518) to Jefferson (480). The new hybrids truly require a program to sort out the players. The 6A-5A Midwestern hybrid basically combines schools from the current 6A Southwest Conference and 5A Midwestern League. Likewise, the 6A-5A Southern Oregon hybrid groups schools from the current Southwest Conference and 5A Ashland and Eagle Point.

5A (1479-879)

The new classification plan affects 5A leagues and schools more than any other classification. Currently, there are 40 5A schools spread across six regular districts. Under the new plan, there will be 37 schools, but only three distinct regular districts – and one of those only has four schools in it. The rest of the 5A schools will compete in 6A-5A hybrids.

The short-lived Northwest Oregon Conference will cease to exist. With Century, Glencoe and Hillsboro moving up, the rest of the NWOC will form the nucleus of the new Greater Metro League (not to be confused with the Metro League – who comes up with these names?). The Mid-Willamette Conference escapes without a single change to its league. So the MWC fans can at least look forward to another four years of status quo, for better or worse.

The current 5A Intermountain Conference was broken in half, with the “Hwy 97” schools separated from the “I-84” schools due to complaints about winter travel and costs. So, Hermiston, Pendleton, Hood River Valley and The Dalles-Wahtonka will get to know each other very well in a new four-school league aptly named the Columbia River Conference. The rest of the IMC becomes the 6A-5A-4A Central Oregon hybrid.

4A (869-400)

The 4A classification will see a net increase from 40 schools to 43, still spread across seven regular districts. The six-school Cowapa and Far West leagues and four-school Greater Oregon League remain unchanged. However, the Capital Conference will die and re-emerge as the new Tri-Valley Conference. That name is familiar to Estacada, Gladstone and La Salle, former members of the old 3A Tri-Valley League.

But the Capital (Tri-Valley) Conference loses Cascade and Stayton to the new 4A Capital Coast League, which will consume the Val-Co League schools of Central, Newport, Philomath and Taft. As mentioned earlier, Sweet Home gets an unwelcomed transfer into the 4A Sky-Em, which loses Marist to 6A/5A and Pleasant Hill to 3A.

The Skyline Conference loses Illinois Valley (391) to 3A, but adds former 5A schools Klamath Union and Mazama for a net gain of one school, resulting in an arguably stronger conference.

3A (399-226)

The 3A classification grows from 39 schools to 42, but with the regular districts dropping from five to four. The 3A Lewis & Clark League and the 2A Northwest League have a common ancestry. The L&C actually grows from eight schools to nine, with the addition of 3A Valley Catholic and former 2A NWL schools Corbett (240) and DeLaSalle (252), Meanwhile, the L&C will send Vernonia (222) and Neah-Kah-Nie (219) back to the 2A NWL.

The 3A West-Valley League drops from nine schools to eight, losing Valley Catholic to the L&C, but remaining intact otherwise. The PacWest Conference takes a surprising turn, growing from eight schools to ten. Heading back to the 2A TRC is Regis with an ADM of 158. But the Pac West gains Pleasant Hill from 4A, along with former 2A TRC schools Blanchet Catholic and Salem Academy, the latter of which lost its last-minute appeal to stay in the 2A TRC.

The six-school 3A Greater Oregon League remains unchanged. But the biggest change at the 3A level is the dissolution of the 3A Sunset Conference, with all eight of its schools split among two new 3A-2A hybrids. The new Sunset hybrid is comprised of six former Sunset Conference schools, and is a hybrid only because Reedsport and Gold Beach ADM’s have dropped to 2A levels. Meanwhile, Cascade Christian and Rogue River join five current 2A Southern Cascade League schools in a new Southern 3A/2A hybrid.

2A (225-106)

The 2A classification will grow slightly from 40 schools to 41. But with the new hybrids, the current five regular districts will shrink to four.

The 2A Northwest League simply will not be the same without Corbett in it. Gone, too, is DeLaSalle, a remarkable success story in North Portland. With the loss of the Cards and Knights to 3A, the NWL welcomes back Vernonia and Neah-Kah-Nie from the 3A L&C. The NWL also adds 2A Delphian School, tucked between Sheridan and Willamina for a net gain from eight schools to nine.

The Mountain View Conference grows from nine schools to eleven. The MVC loses Central Linn to the 2A TRC, but adds Days Creek (123) and Crow (117) from 1A and Milo Adventist (115), a 1A size school from the SCL. The Tri-River Conference loses one of its anchor franchises with Salem Academy, bumping up to 3A along with Blanchet Catholic. But the TRC adds Central Linn from the MVC and sees the return of Regis after the Rams’ four-year stint in the 3A Pac West.

The eight-school Blue Mountain Conference remains the same, giving BMC fans a sense of stability. Meanwhile the Southern Cascade League will no longer exist, with every SCL school except Milo Adventist merging into the 3A/2A Southern hybrid.

1A (105-1)

In perhaps the most remarkable feature of the reclassification plan, the 1A classification emerges almost entirely intact across all eight of its regular districts. Except for the loss of Days Creek and Crow to 2A, six of the eight regular districts do not change at all. The Mountain West and Skyline leagues undergo a slight rebalancing, resulting in two eight school leagues.

Hello... Goodbye…

Every four years, OSAA undergoes this reclassification process, based on a set of codified criteria. Four years ago, the emphasis was on improving competitive balance resulting in four classifications becoming six. In this current cycle, the economy drove most of the decisions as school after school looked to cut its travel budget across all sports.

With each reclassification, new rivalries are made as former rivals depart. Thanks to holiday tournaments, endowment games and nonleague scheduling, many of those former rivalries can be maintained, even if on a one-time basis. One thing is clear from today’s proceedings. Four years from now, the hybrid concept will have been proven a complete disaster or brilliant solution to a near-impossible dilemma.