(geared to HS athletics)

By Dave Schmidt of THE SENIOR REPORTS - 2-6-10

Do you want to be an Independent in High School athletics?

1 - Scheduling nightmares, especially for HS football. Once conference games start an independent has a very tough time to find an opponent, especially the last several games during the season. I am presently working with an Illinois school whose conference fell apart and now they pay the price after short notice to find a game. This is why you see many schools going across state lines to play a contest. Other sports like basketball are effected as well, most conferences play those games on prime nights. In other sports no season ending conference tournaments.

2- Cost of travel will increase for all sports. This includes higher fuel cost and payment of a bus driver due to longer times at events. The student-athlete will also spend more time away from studies and on the road.

3- Loss of gate income from games against schools who will have to travel a long distance to you sight. You might also lose revenue from local fans due to games not having impact on a conference title.

4- No post-season Conference awards for athletes or coaches, this could also hurt in securing all region and all state awards. Conference members are more likely to support athletes in their conference then an independent.

The focus for some conferences in many states is to go to a “super-seized” conference. This can be anywhere from 12 schools and up. This has caused some conferences to disappear as an aggressive conference picks up new members to meet those needs. Conferences who have six or less members need to keep the conference going as long as possible and also find a strategy to get numbers up. Usually schools being left behind to survive are in that position due to many different reasons. Recently a four school conference in Indiana lost a member because the school was closed down due to low enrollment numbers.

Solutions for small seized conferences are to stay together as long as there are at least three members remaining. There are many positives to keeping the conference going if members work together to improve and expand in the future. Once you decide to disband it is hard to go back down the road and re-establish the tradition. Creative scheduling can be used to keep the conference alive., including home and home in sports that it will work for. This will not solve all of your problems, but it is a positive step in the right direction.

We also encourage small seized conferences to have alliances with other conferences and even independents who are willing to participate with all of your conference members in season ending events.