Geography helps shape Class 5A as WPIAL releases new football conference alignment

By: HSSN Staff
Tuesday, January 16, 2018 | 7:50 AM

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The WPIAL strives for short road trips, so the football committee used color-coded maps and mileage charts to divide its 120 teams into conferences for the 2018 and 2019 seasons.

But a map can't balance out talent.

In other words, some conferences are tougher than others, a fact the WPIAL was willing to accept.

“Competitive balance was a concern that the committee had going in,” WPIAL executive director Tim O'Malley said Monday after the board of directors voted to approve the football committee's recommendations. “It was discussed at great length.”

In Class 5A, the committee divided the 24 teams into three eight-team conferences. The conferences are geographically friendly, with most road trips needing fewer than 30 miles.

The maps and charts were the work of committee members Jason Olexa, principal at Brentwood, and Mike Burrell, athletic director of Cardinal Wuerl North Catholic. The committee had previously used maps but the charts were new, O'Malley said.

Their numbers showed that the longest conference bus ride in Class 5A will be 59 miles between Gateway and Albert Gallatin. Only two miles separate Bethel Park and Upper St. Clair, the shortest trip.

“They did a nice job,” O'Malley said. “They did a lot of work.”

However, the football committee wasn't convinced that the conferences were divided equally in terms of success and discussed rearranging them, but ultimately stuck to their maps.

“Geography drove it,” O'Malley said.

An expanded playoff field could offset any imbalance. It's likely that Class 5A will have a 16-team WPIAL playoff bracket next season, so five teams from each conference would make the postseason. The WPIAL did not announce football schedules or playoff format Monday.

Football schedules will be released by the end of January, O'Malley said. However, the WPIAL playoff format won't be decided until after the PIAA reveals updated state brackets, he said. The PIAA board is scheduled to meet Jan. 24. The WPIAL board next meets Feb. 19.

The WPIAL will again play some football championships at Heinz Field, but won't know how many until the PIAA releases brackets. Some WPIAL champions will enter the state playoffs in the quarterfinals while others join in the semifinals.

“The plan is to go to Heinz Field on one weekend,” O'Malley said. “We have to wait and see what we get.”

The WPIAL board also approved updated section alignments for field hockey, cross country, soccer, tennis, track and volleyball. Updated alignments for winter sports and the remaining spring sports will be finalized in February and March.

One fact the maps and charts proved were that some football teams just wouldn't fit well anywhere. O'Malley pointed to Waynesburg, which sits 81 miles from Beaver Falls and 77 from Burrell.

The Greene County school needed to share a Class 3A conference with one or the other. When that was the situation, the WPIAL football committee then looked at competitive balance.

This was the second time the WPIAL realigned football under the six-class format. The football committee needed about three hours last Thursday. The state-wide realignment process occurs every two years. The PIAA separates schools into classifications based on enrollment in grades 9-11, and then the WPIAL places teams into sections or conferences.

The first six-class alignment was 2016, and the WPIAL administration criticized the expanded-class format, but this time proved no better, O'Malley said.

“It's horrible,” he said, pointing to Class 4A, where the committee debated whether to move Indiana or South Fayette from the Northwest Nine to the Big Nine.

Indiana and Trinity are separated by 91 miles, but Indiana made a 100-mile trip to Blackhawk last season.

“That stinks (geographically),” O'Malley said, “but what are you going to do?”

Chris Harlan is a Tribune-Review staff writer. Reach him at charlan@tribweb.com or via Twitter @CHarlan_Trib.