Christian's Cerebrations

Rumor Mill

Is Millington in line to be the next team to jump conferences? I have heard from multiple sources that Millington is waiting on the Greater Thumb West (GTW) to say yes, to the Cardinals joining the conference. A decision is supposed to made by November, and if the decision is yes, then Millington will begin play starting with the 2010-2011 school year.

If a move happens, the GTW would have eight schools. Deckerville is leaving the Greater Thumb East (GTE) which would make only six schools left. The Greater Thumb would most certainly be unbalanced, unless the GTE gets a replacement for Deckerville.

Adding football rich Millington to traditional powers Reese, USA, and Laker High would likely put the rest of the conference on the backburner for most falls. It is this reason that I do not see the GTW saying a resounding YES.

Playoff Talk

Tuscola County has only two schools with automatic bids for the playoffs - Millington and Reese. North Branch and Vassar can clinch births this Friday with victories over Yale and Frankenmuth respectively.

The Broncos will look to enter the playoffs for only the second time in school history with a victory at Yale. The Bulldogs hold a slight 7-6 margin over North Branch, but Yale has won the last three match-ups. The two schools have one common opponent this year - Imlay City. North Branch defeated Imlay City in week one by a score of 35-7, while Yale won in week five 55-14. The week four loss to Garber will come back to haunt Doug Griffin and his Bronco teammates, because I do not think they will win on Friday. Prediction - Yale 35 North Branch 21.

Vassar is hosting Frankenmuth this Friday with a chance to make the playoffs for the second time in school history. The task will uphill for the Vulcans, because Frankenmuth holds a 42-7 advantage since 1955, including the last four match-ups. Both schools have played Caro this season. Vassar losing the week one contest 26-12, and Frankenmuth winning the week three contest 29-22. Coach Jason Kiss has finished each of his first two seasons with a 5-4 record. This year he led Vulcans to their first GTW conference championship, and I think they will get by Frankenmuth for a trip to the playoffs. Prediction - Vassar 28 Frankenmuth 14.

Project

At the beginning the season, I started a project to put together a statistical record book for the Thumb area for football. I have a lot of work into this, but I know I am missing many, many stats. In the football link of this blog, I have a link to the stats that I have found. Please take a look and let me know what I have incorrect or what I have missed. Please excuse my HTML as it is not very good. Thanks.

Comments

Andrew Selich said…
I don't want to see Millington jump to the GTW. We tried that move back when I was a sophomore in HS when they moved from the old TVC to the old Thumb B conference.
After two years in that, the conference folded (don't know why) and we were back in the new TVC-East for my senior year, where Millington has been ever since.
It's a bad move that it being put into place due to Millington's declining enrollment. Other than football, the Cards are not real competitive in a whole lot of sports in the TVC-East right now.
So, although it probably will happen, I am against it.
Oct 21, 2009, 11:03:00 AM
Anonymous said…
Bad Axe is close to the East teams. So theoretically they could go to the east bring Millington into the west to keep conference balanced with 7 teams on each side.
Oct 21, 2009, 6:26:00 PM
Anonymous said…
Unless the enrollment projections indicated a severe reduction in the very near future a Millington move to the GTC seems illogical. Millington would become the current TVCE version of North Branch.

The non-football competitive issues should be addressed and can be corrected with additional community emphasis.
Oct 23, 2009, 1:00:00 PM
Rick Glaza said…
Millington is awaiting word from the GTC....not the GTW.
Chances are they would be placed in the western division with BA moving to the east.

I think the better move would be Caro joining the GTC. Location and the competitive balance in all sports would make it a great addition.
Oct 24, 2009, 12:17:00 AM
c'mon really?? said…
I love the way you give a backhand to the rest of the Greater Thumb schools saying they would be on the back burner while Millington shines in the spot light as a "football rich" program along with Reese et all.

Also, do your research a little better, why would the GTW add another school while the east loses one creating a division with 8 and one with 6? The Greater Thumb Conference operates as one, having an east and west division. That conference would have to have ALL the memebers vote to allow/turn down Millington and then have a re-alignment plan (depending on the location of the new school) if they accept any new member.
Oct 24, 2009, 12:36:00 PM
Anonymous said…
Is the concept that difficult for you to figure out?

"why would the GTW add another school while the east loses one creating a division with 8 and one with 6?"

Hello? That is why they would move one GTW school to the GTE.
Oct 26, 2009, 3:50:00 PM
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