Big Nine drops to five members

By Lisa Paine
INDEX Sports Editor

GENESEE COUNTY — Although its member schools have tried in vain to find a new conference, the remaining five teams left in the Big Nine Conference — Grand Blanc, Davison, Carman-Ainsworth, Flushing and Flint Powers Catholic — will have to make do with the five-member configuration this season.

The Big Nine was formed in 1960 as the Big Eight and switched to the Big Nine when Mt. Morris joined in 1962. Schools included Ainsworth, Beecher, Clio, Davison, Flushing, Grand Blanc, Kearsley and Owosso. In 1976, Swartz Creek and Powers Catholic put the league at 10 teams. Beecher was expelled in 1997 after it failed to field enough teams and was cited for poor sportsmanship.

Owosso has been in and out of the conference several times, going independent some years, before returning and eventually leaving in 2005-2006. Clio left in 2005, Swartz Creek in 2006.

Flint Kearsley, the last member school to defect from the Big Nine, was granted entry into the Flint Metro League beginning this fall. That will bring the Metro League to 10 teams — Lapeer East, Lapeer West, Oxford, Ortonville-Brandon, Swartz Creek, Linden, Holly, Clio and Fenton. The remaining Big Nine teams had petitioned the Metro for en mass entry in June 2007, but were denied entry.

Kearsley’s defection doesn’t just affect the marquee sports of football, basketball and baseball, but has major implications down to the swim and dive teams, leaving Davison’s swimmers without not only a pool, but also a team. The combined Kearsley/Davison squad that was 30 members deep from Kearsley, and about 10-15 from Davison will no longer be allowed to collaborate as one. League bylaws in the Metro and Big Nine prohibit such cross-league collaborations.

Kearsley must now find a new co-team or try to go it alone in the tough Metro League, while Davison will struggle to field a full team of its own. The pool issue has been resolved short term as Kearsley has allowed the Cardinals to continue to use its pool. Practice begins for the girls’ squad Aug. 10.

In football, Big Nine teams will play each other once in the nine-game schedule and had to fill in the holes with all going in different directions. Grand Blanc will face White Lake Lakeland, U of D Jesuit, Ypsilanti Lincoln and Waterford Mott. Davison opted for games with Lowell, Rockford, Lansing Sexton, Orchard Lake St. Mary and Holt. Flushing picked up DeWitt, Flint Beecher, Midland Dow, Mt. Morris and Carleton Airport.

Carman-Ainsworth filled its schedule with Belleville, Warren DeLaSalle, Traverse City West, East Lansing and Monroe and Flint Powers went with many Class D Catholic school opponents that include Detroit Crockett Tech, Saint Johns, Detroit Country Day, Birmingham Brother Rice and U of D Jesuit.

With the change, a notable game missing from the slate is the one against Lapeer West. West and Grand Blanc typically faced each other in nearly every sport. Kearsley, on the other hand, will play each of its Metro counterparts once during the season, filling up its schedule in one fell swoop. That will have implications on the soccer fields, golf courses and in ice arenas, just to name a few. Baseball and softball seasons also will see a new foe, as the Hornets, especially in softball, are contenders every season.

The former Big Nine schools, and even some neighboring ones who often declined invites to face Big Nine opponents, could care less about their current woes. For decades, the Big Nine was perceived as the powerhouse five and the rest as also-rans struggling to put up one or two wins in the marquee sports each season. Now that those teams have found success in the Metro, they are simply thumbing their noses at the teams that couldn’t have cared less about them as members.