It's true then.
Vassar leaving TVE. After almost two years of rumors, the Vassar school board of education voted on Monday night to accept an initial offer from the Greater Thumb West conference to join the league beginning in the 2008-09 season.
Now, Vassar just has to wait for the governing board of the GTC to approve the move, which is pretty much a given.
This is a good move for the Vulcans.
Early projections have Vassar's enrollment falling to somewhere around 450 students within the next two years, which will drop the Vulcans to Class C.
Cass City recently fell to Class C as well, meaning that every team in the GTC, with the exception of Bay City All Saints (D), will be a C school.
Just for the the sake of competition, this is a good move.
It has become clear that with the growing enrollment at some of the other TVE schools (i.e. North Branch, Bridgeport), the ability for Vassar to compete has become extremely difficult.
It's a numbers issue....every school has a few good players, but when you can choose a supporting cast from a school of 800+ students as opposed to around 450, well, the more students you can choose from the better the supporting cast will be.
And Vassar does not have the historical ties to the TVE. When I was a kid, the Vulcans played in the old Thumb B, competing against Cass City, Lakers, Bad Axe, Marlette, Caro and North Branch.
When I was a sophomore, Millington jumped to the Thumb B (back in 1989) and we played in the conference for two years. It wasn't as good a fit for us, at that time.
Vassar left the Thumb B in 1991 and joined the newly formated Tri-Valley East, mainly because the old TVC was split, with the Saginaw area schools (Hemlock, Carrollton, Swan Valley) going in the Tri-Valley West.
So. historically, Vassar has ties with the GTC. They have competed with Reese for years, although not in the last few for football, and they still play most of the GTC teams in other sports.
This would also solve some scheduling problems for two of Vassar's old non-conference rivals.
For years, Vassar always opened the football against Frankenmuth and closed with Millington.
Now, instead of Muth opening with teams like Standish and Millington having to travel to the likes of Cros-Lex, maybe the schools can reach back to the past and bring back what was a pretty good schedule.
So, I think this is a good move for the Vulcans.
Now, ofcourse there is also a rumor that the GTC has been courting Millington as well...the Vassar move also began as a rumor so I guess we'll see.
Now, Vassar just has to wait for the governing board of the GTC to approve the move, which is pretty much a given.
This is a good move for the Vulcans.
Early projections have Vassar's enrollment falling to somewhere around 450 students within the next two years, which will drop the Vulcans to Class C.
Cass City recently fell to Class C as well, meaning that every team in the GTC, with the exception of Bay City All Saints (D), will be a C school.
Just for the the sake of competition, this is a good move.
It has become clear that with the growing enrollment at some of the other TVE schools (i.e. North Branch, Bridgeport), the ability for Vassar to compete has become extremely difficult.
It's a numbers issue....every school has a few good players, but when you can choose a supporting cast from a school of 800+ students as opposed to around 450, well, the more students you can choose from the better the supporting cast will be.
And Vassar does not have the historical ties to the TVE. When I was a kid, the Vulcans played in the old Thumb B, competing against Cass City, Lakers, Bad Axe, Marlette, Caro and North Branch.
When I was a sophomore, Millington jumped to the Thumb B (back in 1989) and we played in the conference for two years. It wasn't as good a fit for us, at that time.
Vassar left the Thumb B in 1991 and joined the newly formated Tri-Valley East, mainly because the old TVC was split, with the Saginaw area schools (Hemlock, Carrollton, Swan Valley) going in the Tri-Valley West.
So. historically, Vassar has ties with the GTC. They have competed with Reese for years, although not in the last few for football, and they still play most of the GTC teams in other sports.
This would also solve some scheduling problems for two of Vassar's old non-conference rivals.
For years, Vassar always opened the football against Frankenmuth and closed with Millington.
Now, instead of Muth opening with teams like Standish and Millington having to travel to the likes of Cros-Lex, maybe the schools can reach back to the past and bring back what was a pretty good schedule.
So, I think this is a good move for the Vulcans.
Now, ofcourse there is also a rumor that the GTC has been courting Millington as well...the Vassar move also began as a rumor so I guess we'll see.
Comments
The NCTL can stay the same:
Along with Vassar, have Caro and Millington leave the TVE, join the "new" Thumb League and basically beef up the GTC.
Another rumor is that North Branch may be too big for the TVE and they could move.
Where? No clue... maybe to the BWAC or GAC, maybe even Flint Metro?
I think this will be a good move for the god of fire and volcanoes. Maybe in a more appropriate conference, they will be able to compete in the upper tier. On a whole, they have been very disappionting in the TVC.
OLD THUMB B
Caro
Millington
Vassar
Cass City
Bad Axe
Sandusky
Marlette
EPBP
OLD THUMB C
Harbor Beach
Ubly
Deckerville
USA
Mayville
Reese
Brown City
BCAS
Would this divisional alignment bring back historical rivalries? You gosh darn betcha!
Brown City & BCAS were never in the old Thumb C league, but enrollment and competitive wise are great fits. Would the extra cost for travel be mitigated by the equality of opponents?