OVC & SOC Merge Talk

[Sonny Weaver]

A lot of speculation about Logan, Chillicothe and Warren darting from the SEOAL. What is the OVC and the SEOAL merged? You could call it the Southern Ohio Valley League.

Coal Grove
South Point
Rock Hill
Chesapeake
Fairland
Gallia Academy
Jackson
River Valley
Portsmouth

Maybe ask Symmes Valley and Oak Hill in and maybe split into two divisons

been talkin about this for 12 years lol aint gonna happen

[BuckeyeBlood]

OVC1
Spring Valley
Jackson
Cabell midland
Huntington high
Ironton
Ashland
Portsmouth
Russell

OVC2
South point
Coal grove
Fairland
Rock hill
Chesapeake
Green
Oak hill
Northwest

This is the dumbest I’ve seen yet lol.

Why would Portsmouth agree to that?
Also why would Green agree to that?

People seem to only live in the moment when making these posts. Green is having a good year. That said Northwest did beat them, Rock Hill would likely beat them. South Point would give them a game, Coal Grove and Fairland would put a running clock on them. Fairland & CG would have a field day in this conference that ultimately wouldn’t help them come playoffs. Portsmouth wouldn’t win a game if that were this year, maybe Russell, I think they may be down a bit this year. Ashland would probably be a good game, they already lost to SV, although it was a good game. Midland, Jackson & Ironton all beat them. Hungtington may be a decent game. This one is pretty bad.

[Beergogglebluez]

I laugh at seeing people put Portsmouth with Jackson, burg, spring valley and cabell midland lol. Trojans have improved The past few years but not on those levels like the Trojans of old.

They almost beat spring valley lol

Almost is not a win lol

[baseball16]

A merge has to happen. then all AD's, Principals, and Super sit down in a BIG room and work out the Logistics that again would Benefit ALL SCHOOLS at a Competitive Situation. That would be a Start.

[sparksgl1]

There is no reason for the SOC to change.

[Sonny Weaver]

There is no reason for the SOC to change.

Valley, NW, Oak Hill have no business playing either SOC 1 or 2 the way it's currently set up. Too good for 1, too bad for 2.

[pmow3]

There is no reason for the SOC to change.

There are more schools in the SOC than the one you cheer for. The SOC has teams in it that are outmatched in numbers for div 1 and are too big for div 2. There will be expansion and there will be another division.
So get ready for it.

[pmow3]

There is no reason for the SOC to change.

There are more schools in the SOC than the one you cheer for. The SOC has teams in it that are outmatched in numbers for div 1 and are too big for div 2. There will be expansion and there will be another division.
So get ready for it.

Hopefully it will be a football only thing. But it needs to be done.

[DcP3407]

I think that is the key, it seems like most are mainly thinking about football when this comes up. There are so many other sports to consider when thinking about competitive balance. I would be interested to see a spreadsheet of all the schools in soc/ovc and any others mentioned here, with all the boys/girls sports they offer - along with enrollment numbers. I think that would be a good place to start. Then you can begin to cross reference with wins per season/ playoff wins/ conference wins.... and so forth... that is if you were looking at creating leagues and trying to keep them competitively balanced.

[Beergogglebluez]

I could see oak hill to the ovc and valley. Northwest is a hike for Lawrence county teams. Ovc is majority Lawrence county teams. But I like it the way it is now.

[HERO]

With the new road Valley and NW have much easier trips to Lawrence Co than they used to have

It would be great for these two conferences to get together and work something out

Would Waverly and West want to play Ironton every year in football?

[art_vandelay]

There is no reason for the SOC to change.

There are more schools in the SOC than the one you cheer for. The SOC has teams in it that are outmatched in numbers for div 1 and are too big for div 2. There will be expansion and there will be another division.
So get ready for it.

Exactly. People need to get it out of their heads that there is a solution that's perfect for everybody. But the biggest issue right now for both the SOC and OVC is the competitive disparity in football divisions. And like you said, the "merger" could be for football only and no other sports affected.

Football-only divisions:

Division 1
Ironton
Fairland
Gallia Academy
Portsmouth
Wheelersburg
Waverly
West

Division 2
Minford
Valley
Northwest
Oak Hill
Coal Grove
South Point
Chesapeake
Rock Hill

Division 3
Notre Dame
Green
East
Symmes Valley
South Gallia
Beaver Eastern

In an ideal world, Jackson would be added, and join either OVC or SOC for their other sports. If not, Minford could go either D1 or D2. It's not perfect, but it would be a lot better than current setup of both conferences for football*

[pmow3]

The new highway is making it doable now.
Rock hill posted on its Facebook that they were discussing g conferences at their next meeting.
A fair 3 division conference is likely. With playoff expansion, it helps schools to play schools their own size.
Some of the OVC will be left out in my opinion. But a lot of them will join in the next 3 years. In my opinion.
This is no longer just internet BS. There are actual discussions going on. I hope in 2 years, they can have something new in place.

[pmow3]

There is no reason for the SOC to change.

There are more schools in the SOC than the one you cheer for. The SOC has teams in it that are outmatched in numbers for div 1 and are too big for div 2. There will be expansion and there will be another division.
So get ready for it.

Exactly. People need to get it out of their heads that there is a solution that's perfect for everybody. But the biggest issue right now for both the SOC and OVC is the competitive disparity in football divisions. And like you said, the "merger" could be for football only and no other sports affected.

Football-only divisions:

Division 1
Ironton
Fairland
Gallia Academy
Portsmouth
Wheelersburg
Waverly
West

Division 2
Minford
Valley
Northwest
Oak Hill
Coal Grove
South Point
Chesapeake
Rock Hill

Division 3
Notre Dame
Green
East
Symmes Valley
South Gallia
Beaver Eastern


I can’t see Ironton being asked to join. Gallia either.

[transplant]

So it would be select OVC schools not all? Might be hard to do, unless Ironton goes independent.

[art_vandelay]

pmow: if Ironton and Gallia not included, just move Minford up to Division 1. I would assume Ironton and Gallia try to join FAC at that point.*

[80sballer]

Just a hunch of what will happen. SOC and OVC merge. There will be 3 divisions. Conferences set up for football and then conferences set up for all other sports. So some schools could be middle tier for all sports and then be in small tier for football for example or vice versa.

[sparksgl1]

There is no reason for the SOC to change.

There are more schools in the SOC than the one you cheer for. The SOC has teams in it that are outmatched in numbers for div 1 and are too big for div 2. There will be expansion and there will be another division.
So get ready for it.

Which schools from soc 1 are too big for division 2? Northwest will be moving back to div 2 next season. Valley and Oakhill have been successful in recent memory. Just because they aren't competitive right now doesn't mean things will stay that way.

[VetteMan]

I could see oak hill to the ovc and valley. Northwest is a hike for Lawrence county teams. Ovc is majority Lawrence county teams. But I like it the way it is now.

I could be wrong but I think in Oak Hill's situation, If ( And I mean a big "If") Oak Hill was looking to move to another Conference, they might look to the TVC before the OVC. I'm not sure of the years, but I'm pretty sure that Oak Hill was in the OVC back in the 1950's/1960's.

[BigBoneJerome]

What’s this about?