By Chris Rossetti
Imagine in mid-November the NFL making an announcement that the Buffalo Bills were really a member of the NFC North instead of the AFC East and had been since the middle of the summer.
Then imagine the NFL placing the blame for the fact people believed the Bills were in the AFC East instead of the NFC North on ESPN or CBS or NBC.
It’s unthinkable, right?
Well, apparently to the KSAC it’s not.
Because that is exactly what the conference did Thursday when it sent a letter to District 9 media outlets saying that Clarion is a member of the KSAC Large School Division as opposed to a member of the KSAC Small School Division, where the Bobcats have resided since the conference split into two divisions prior to the 2010 season and then said it was that way all along and it was the media that had been reporting it wrong.
The fact the KSAC didn’t make an announcement prior to the season of this change didn’t seem to bother the powers to be, including league president Todd Amsler of Moniteau, who sent the letter out.
In fact, the media was just supposed to know that Clarion, which moved up to 2A under the PIAA’s new six-classification system only because of a co-op with North Clarion – Clarion would actually be the seventh largest 1A school if it didn’t co-op, was now in the Large School Division because of a provision in the KSAC by-laws that said any school 2A or above was automatically in the Large School Division.
It doesn’t seem to matter to the KSAC that those bylaws were written in a day when the PIAA only had four classifications instead of six. Or that unlike the letter stated, a 2A school (A-C Valley in 2010 and 2011 was a member of the Small School Division.
It also doesn’t seem to matter to the conference that the season IS ENTERING ITS SEVENTH WEEK OUT OF 10. Yes, seven weeks into the season, everything we thought we knew about who was in first place in the KSAC, who the best players in each division are, was all for nothing.
All because the KSAC couldn’t communicate changes with the media.
In fact, certain – to be left unnamed – people associated with the conference were asked by D9Sports.com in August if there had been any changes to the KSAC football conference set up. The answer all those people gave D9Sports.com was nothing had changed.
Well, I don’t know about you, but I pretty much take nothing has changed to mean nothing has changed. As a colleague at another media outlet that covers the KSAC said to be Thursday after we both received the letter, “Are we supposed to have a crystal ball?”
Obviously, the KSAC brass thinks we should have.
And now it’s our fault that it has been reported wrong all season.
Maybe it’s time for the KSAC to admit to its mistake. Maybe it’s time for the KSAC to say, yes we knew we had changed our conferences at the start of the season but we forget to tell anyone. Maybe it’s time for the KSAC, which is made up of educators, to take the responsibility they teach their students.
But don’t count on it. This is a conference that has shown a lack of understanding about athletics in a lot of areas for a long time. This is just another in a long line of examples that new leadership is needed.
