OAA Football divisions need to go a new direction

Written Monday September 12th, at 6:45 PM.

This season the Oakland Activities Association's white division is one of the toughest divisions in the state with Harrison, Southfield, Oak Park, Adams, Oxford, and Farmington. The Ottawa Kent Conference red division is the most brutal division in the state with Rockford, Grand Haven, Holland-West Ottawa, and Muskegon. The Macomb Area Red division is certainly tough with Macomb Dakota, Romeo, Utica Eisenhower and Utica Ford but what about the Oakland Activities Association's red division, the same division that the Dragons are in.

The red this season is still down, even after last season's state championship by the Dragons but the schedule certainly doesn't favor them based on the competition they see.

People are going to say what is wrong with the Dragons schedule, they make the playoffs every year. It's just the fact that maybe the schedule and division is not good. The only team that has been consistency good in the red beside Lake Orion has been Clarkston. The Wolves year in and year out are always in contention, no matter what but who's fault is it???, don't blame the Dragons for the schedule they are given, blame the Oakland Activities Association for the division alignment based on enrollment.

In the OAA there were four powerhouse teams that were in the top division, OAA Division One at the time (Lake Orion, Clarkston, Rochester Adams, and Harrison.) The OAA in 2008, thanks to Birmingham Groves decided that they would split Lake Orion and Clarkston and put them in one division while Harrison and Adams played in the other division and the rest of the teams would fill in by enrollment. It meant that Lake Orion would not play Harrison or Adams every season. The OAA said it would be much easier for the big four to make playoffs and add another team to that occasion as well. The Oakland Activities Association looks at realignment every two seasons and this is the second year of the realignment period.

Maybe the Oakland Activities Association should look at what the Macomb Area Conference has done in past seasons, change the realignment based on the win-loss record and not by enrollment. It has done success for the Macomb Area Conference based on competition that sets them up nicely for playoffs. The Royal Oak Ravens is a perfect example for this. Royal Oak is a big school and currently play in the Oakland Activities Association red division for football but the blue and gold for other sports because of their win-loss record. If the win-loss record mattered then they would be in the OAA Blue, if they were in the Macomb Area Conference they would have been in the blue or the gold division.

Another idea for the OAA is to do their divisions geographically and limit travel for schools. The league already have divisions set up like this in track and baseball. The North division would be Lake Orion, Oxford, Clarkston, Rochester, Rochester Adams, Rochester Stoney Creek, Pontiac, and Avondale. The Central division would be Troy, Troy Athens, Bloomfield Hills (Andover-Lahser), West Bloomfield, Birmingham Groves, Birmingham Seaholm, Harrison, and North Farmington. The South division would be Royal Oak, Farmington, Southfield Lathrup, Southfield, Oak Park, Hazel Park, Ferndale, and Berkley.

It's just an idea but people around the state want to see the Dragons play some of the best competition but some of the teams in the red need to go down a division but who to bring up if the Pontiac's, or the West Bloomfield's, or the Royal Oak's struggle.

Even though Adams and Harrison will stay in the other division the probable teams that would move up to the red division would be Oxford, Avondale, and Farmington. Pontiac and West Bloomfield will likely move to the white and send Royal Oak to the blue with Bloomfield Hills likely to merge next season. It would be an interesting move to do so but it maybe the best interest of the league to look at that idea. Anything is possible though, we'll see what happens.