Superintendents vote against allowing 4 Big North schools into Northern Michigan Football Conference
Sep. 28—GRAYLING — The Northern Michigan Football Conference will stay as is. For now.
Superintendents from 20 northern Michigan K-12 school districts voted Tuesday to reject the applications of current Big North Conference members Alpena, Cadillac, Gaylord and Petoskey to join the football conference. NMFC athletic directors approved the proposal earlier this month.
The vote was split by division, and both Petoskey and Gaylord fell a vote shy of the six necessary to gain entry.
Alpena, Cadillac, Gaylord and Petoskey are looking for a new home after it was announced Traverse City Central and Traverse City West high schools will exit the BNC and join the Saginaw Valley League for the 2022 season.
A fourth division for the NMFC — which is split into the Legends, Legacy and Leaders divisions — could have been created with the addition of the four BNC schools, but several superintendents voiced concerns about the size discrepancy between some of the larger schools that would be joining the NMFC as compared to current members.
Kingsley Area Schools Superintendent Keith Smith voted "yes" on allowing Petoskey and Gaylord to join but voted "no" on Alpena and Cadillac.
"Just because a school applies to your league, the league needs to look at how it benefits the member schools and how does it sure up the league. When you're looking at schools that are twice the size of current members, that's just kind of a tough sell," Smith said.
Smith said room was left for the proposal to be brought back with "some other reconfiguration" that looks at the needs of the current members.
"What might be in my district's best interest might not be in your district's best interest," he said. "It's tough to balance that out. We're trying to strengthen the league for everybody and start by looking at what is good for the league and the member schools."
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