Why Northville and Novi are better off in the OAA.

Written Saturday March 28th at 1:20 PM 

In this world of conference expansion, there is a lot of change.

It started with Shane Hynes decision to have Waterford Kettering and Waterford Mott come back to the OAA.

Little did everyone know, this triggered some massive changes and ultimately the death of a conference namely the Kensington Lakes Activities Association (KLAA).

It started as a big merger between the Kensington Valley Conference and the Western Lakes Activities Association back in 2008.

Northville, Novi, Brighton, Howell, Hartland, Plymouth, Plymouth Canton, Plymouth Salem, Westland John Glenn, Livonia Churchill, Livonia Franklin, Livonia Stevenson, Wayne Memorial, Kettering, Mott, South Lyon, South Lyon East, Milford, Lakeland, Walled Lake Central, Walled Lake Northern, Walled Lake Western, and Pinckney.  

They would add schools like Grand Blanc others but there was some frustration over how the league worked out. Set divisions, enrollment discrepancies, competitive balance, and travel.

Things changed in 2018. The KLAA went in a different direction. 

They went more south. 

They added Belleville, Dearborn, and Dearborn Fordson.

They kicked Grand Blanc out of the league. 

Kettering, Mott, South Lyon, South Lyon East, Milford, Lakeland, Walled Lake Central, Walled Lake Northern, and Walled Lake Western all left to form their own league, the Lakes Valley Conference. Pinckney left for the Southeastern Conference (the SEC).

Following those decisions, the league tried to keep it together but the frustrations mentioned above continued to linger. The Livonia schools decided to move to the Lakes Valley Conference. The KLAA responded by adding Dearborn Crestwood and attempted to merge with the SEC but the SEC rejected the merger.

It caused the KLAA schools to make the best possible choices for themselves.

Northville and Novi both joined the OAA and will participate in the 2027-2028 season.

Despite talks to join the OAA and other conferences, the SEC decided to add the remaining KLAA schools (Brighton, Hartland, Howell, Plymouth, Canton, Salem, Belleville, Dearborn, Fordson, Crestwood, Westland John Glenn, Wayne Memorial) for the 2027-2028 season. The SEC with adding those twelve schools will be at 27 schools.

So why is Northville and Novi's move to the OAA better than their remaining KLAA counterparts heading to the SEC.

Simple. The four things underlined.

The OAA does not have set divisions, in most sports they offer three levels of competition (Varsity, JV, and Freshman), the OAA is strong on competitive balance aligning their best teams in the highest division and others based off their competitiveness. In football in particular, they take enrollment into account when aligning. Travel will be an issue with schools going to and from Northville and Novi but both schools and the league are confident that they will work it out. In Northville and Novi's case, they could be in separate league divisions but they will be able to still play each other, also you win your division you move up a division, if you finish last, you move down a division but they also take competitive balance into account as well.

The SEC decided to go set divisions based off both geographic, travel, and enrollment. One of their divisions features all the smallest schools in one division. Just like the old KLAA, there is no movement in the new SEC. From a football standpoint, Howell, Belleville, and Saline are primed to dominate their divisions year in and out. Now other teams will compete but looking at their newly aligned divisions, it looks like unless there is some form of change, those three teams will dominate.

It is going to be interesting to see how all these KLAA teams interact with their new leagues in 2027-2028.