For the third time in as many classification cycles, Siloam Springs will be moving to a new football conference.
The Arkansas Activities Association's board of directors tentatively approved classification and football conference assignments for the 2016-18 cycle during the final day of the organization's workshop in North Little Rock.
Siloam Springs has competed in blended 7A/6A conferences the last three seasons and will do so again in 2015. The Panthers were the only Class 6A school in the 7A/6A-West in both 2012 and 2013 while playing in an evenly split 7A/6A-Central in 2014 and 2015.
Starting with the 2016 football season, 7A and 6A football teams will compete in separate conferences and the Panthers are scheduled to compete in the 6A-West Conference along with Benton, El Dorado, Greenwood, Lake Hamilton, Russellville, Sheridan and Texarkana.
The other 6A conference will be the 6A-East with Jacksonville, Jonesboro, Little Rock Hall, Marion, Mountain Home, Pine Bluff, Searcy and West Memphis.
Schools have until July 20 to appeal conference and/or classification assignments.
Their conference assignments are for football only. Schools will compete in blended conferences for basketball, baseball, softball, soccer and volleyball. Those assignments have not been released yet. Arkansas Activities Association director Lance Taylor told the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette he hopes to present those blended conferences to the AAA's governing body by Aug. 5.
For the 2014-16 cycle, there was already a conference comprised of all 6A teams in the 6A-South: Benton, El Dorado, Pine Bluff, Lake Hamilton, Sheridan, Texarkana, and Little Rock schools Hall and Parkview. Other 6A schools competed in blended conferences with Siloam Springs, Alma, Greenwood and Russellville in the 7A/6A-Central and Jonesboro, Mountain Home, Searcy and Marion in the 7A/6A-East.
Some classification numbers forced realignment. 6A-South member Parkview, and 6A-Central member Alma are dropping down to Class 5A, while West Memphis drops from 7A to 6A. Jacksonville moves up from 5A to 6A.
In Siloam Springs, there was some speculation regarding the football conferences about which direction the AAA would take with assigning conferences. It was believed Siloam Springs had as good of a chance to compete in a 6A-North conference as well as a 6A-West.
"We knew either one was a possibility," said Siloam Springs football coach Bryan Ross.
Having the opportunity to play a full conference schedule against 6A competition is a welcomed sight for Siloam Springs, according to Ross.
In three years of playing in blended conferences, Siloam Springs has gone 3-18 overall -- with a 1-13 mark vs. 7A competition and 2-1 vs. 6A competition in regular season play.
"I think everybody's looking forward to playing a 6A schedule," Ross said. "It's been strange to have to play in a blended conference. I don't even know that you could say us playing in the 7A-West was blended since we were the only 6A team. This past year it was certainly better for us, but you're still looking at facing teams like Conway and Bryant that are twice your size. Nobody thinks that's a good idea.
"We're going to have to travel, but I think almost anyone would rather do that and have a chance to compete against a school that's your size than travel 25 miles against a school twice your size."
Siloam Springs' new conference will include two members from their current conference in Greenwood and Russellville.
"I thought Greenwood and Russellville would be with us either way," said Siloam Springs athletics director Kevin Downing. "We'll be going some places we've never been and travel will be a little more difficult. But like I said when they first called me, whenever they finalize it and they come up with a schedule, we'll play it.
A complete list of classification and conference assignments for the 2016-18 cycle is available on the AAA's website www.ahsaa.org.
Sports on 06/14/2015