COLUMN: Don't blink — the SBC just changed its lineup again

Editor's note: This story appears in the Sandusky Register and Norwalk Reflector's 2023 football preview special section. The 32-page edition will be received automatically by home subscribers and is available Friday, Aug. 18 on newsstands and at our offices. A Greek philosopher once said "change is the only constant in life." That wise guy wasn't talking about football, of course, but his wisdom can be applied to our country's favorite sport. High school football in Ohio — and here along the north coast — seems to be changing constantly. Nothing as dramatic as college football, though. (I blame former Big Ten commish Kevin Warren for this recent realignment mess because he just had to poach USC and UCLA, which all but guaranteed the death of the Pac-12. And there's no way the SEC would've taken them. I also despise Warren for trying to cancel Big Ten football in 2020, but let's get back on track.) Change. We've had division realignment, and not just in the SBC. Teams have dropped from 11-man to 8-man football. More playoff games. Quality officials retiring because they're sick and tired of getting yelled at. While we're in change mode, how about moving up kickoffs to 6:30 p.m. on Fridays? That would be cool. The Sandusky Bay Conference, a 22-member alliance that has schools in five counties, has undergone a few facelifts since it expanded to super conference status in 2017. Eighteen of the league's teams play football, and keeping everyone happy is about as likely as finding someone without a spray tan on Jersey Shore. The league's 2023 reboot has Bellevue playing in the SBC Bay Division. Bellevue in the Bay? That doesn't seem right, but if the Lake and Bay can only accommodate five schools each, I guess Bellevue will be staying put for a while. The Redmen have been good for a long time, but their enrollment is the sixth highest in the SBC — and quite a bit lower than Perkins' number. Ideally, all three SBC divisions would have eight teams, like the River does now, but there aren't enough big schools in the area. Geography limits the SBC's options. You can't go north. No teams in Lake Erie. Looking east, things are Cleveland-centric. Small schools to the south and west. The SBC kicked the tires on Elyria Catholic and Liberty-Benton in the past year as possible "big school" additions, but neither was deemed to be a good fit. Elyria Catholic is a private school in prime recruiting ground, so its SBC candidacy never picked up steam. Vermilion certainly would not welcome EC, which draws students from the Sailors' footprint. Liberty-Benton would be a great fit ... if it were about 90 minutes closer to the SBC core. L-B is located a few miles west of Findlay. If you've ever driven to Findlay, imagine that drive for a tennis team after a weeknight match. Fremont Ross might make a nice addition to the SBC, but the Lake schools freak out over the mere mention of Ross — even though it's not especially great at anything. But Ross has the enrollment numbers that could awaken a sleeping giant. Little Giants become, well, Giants? Ross' football enrollment number this year is 409 and the Little Giants are one of the state's smaller Division II programs. For comparison sake, Norwalk's enrollment number is 363 and Sandusky's is 358, and those two programs will be picked to finish in the bottom half of the Lake this season. So here we are. Oak Harbor, which will have a fabulous football team this season, bolts for the Northern Buckeye Conference. The dominoes have fallen. No telling when they will stop. The playoffs We are embarking on the third season of the OHSAA's misguided 16-team region setups for the playoffs. The greedy power brokers in Columbus asked the coaches a few years back what they thought about the idea and were told in so many words: Are you serious? Forget it. Well, things changed anyway. The OHSAA, spooked by COVID, which hit the association where it lives (in its bank account), was determined to grab all the cash it could. A recent column by the Toledo Blade's talented David Briggs outlined how the OHSAA has built its cushion to $20 million. How much higher will it go? It's kind of like state government: Money rolls into Columbus on rivers of gold and comes back to the hinterlands in a trickle. Same with the OHSAA. When Margaretta's girls basketball team qualified for the state finals last spring, the Polar Bears' stipend from the OHSAA covered a fraction of the trip. Luckily for Margaretta, athletic director Drew Grahl is a smart guy, and the fan base supports its teams. The Polar Bears got to eat more than PB&Js. It's time for the OHSAA to loosen up; the association is back on its feet. Teams shouldn't have to go back to the same pockets for the upteenth time to pay for stuff the OHSAA should supplement in a more nonprofit-like manner. New coaches, etc. Coaching turnover in the high school ranks has been fast and furious since COVID ended, but it was fairly mild this year. Just three area schools — Norwalk, South Central and Danbury — have new football coaches. Keith Mora is the new man in charge in Norwalk. He left Danbury to move up to the Lake Division. I've chatted with Mora several times in the past few years and he always struck me as a guy who had the chops to move to a bigger school. Very smart. Innovative, as evidenced by his embrace of 8-man football when it made total sense at Danbury. Mora should lend some stability to a Truckers program that has had a few flat tires. -- The cost of attending football games and other events in the SBC this school year went up a dollar for adults, from $7 to $8. Not because the SBC plans on throwing a big party on Put-in-Bay next summer. It's because the cost to hire officials is going up because officials are hanging up their whistles. That's because many fans are idiots. Calm down, people. -- Western Reserve will unveil new bleachers, a new press box and a new track this year. -- One big change at Sandusky's Strobel Field is the new blue paint in the bleachers on the home side. Looks pretty sharp. Now about that old turf... RIP, legends We lost two great football contributors in July. Clyde's Mark Rosche and Bellevue's Dan Sabo both passed away, leaving large voids in those two quality programs. Rosche, who handled PA duties and kept Clyde fans informed with his CGS News Flier page, was a retired school teacher who knew everyone in the community. He always greeted media members with a smile and sometimes a joke. I'll miss his running commentary during Fliers games. I'll also miss Sabo and his texts on game nights and throughout the week. Sabo, a retired teacher, kept stats for years for the Redmen. The Bellevue native also was a former coach and track & field official. He always was willing to help out, and did it with a smile. "Dan was on my sideline for pretty much every game over the last 32 years and was the first one at my house after the game," Bellevue coach Ed Nasonti said. "He'd be the guy who would text you every week throughout the summer giving you a countdown to the first game. "He meant a lot to our program and his family has meant a lot to our program. He'll be dearly missed." RIP, men. ----- OHSAA football enrollments The 2023-24 school year marks the second year of the two-year base enrollment data cycle provided by the Ohio Department of Education. In football, competitive balance data from the previous season is used every year to create a new adjusted enrollment count, which covers boys in grades 9-11. How SBC and Firelands Conference teams stack up in the OHSAA, which has seven divisions for high school football: Division III School League Football enrollment Norwalk SBC Lake 363 Sandusky SBC Lake 358 Columbian SBC Lake 340 Clyde SBC Lake 284 Division IV Perkins SBC Lake 268 Bellevue SBC Bay 238 Vermilion SBC Bay 235 Division V Port Clinton SBC Bay 200 Willard SBC River 199 Edison SBC Bay 169 Huron SBC Bay 154 Division VI Crestview Firelands 144 Margaretta SBC River 143 Lakota SBC River 141 Western Reserve Firelands 132 Mapleton Firelands 129 Woodmore SBC River 119 Division VII Hopewell-Loudon SBC River 111 Gibsonburg SBC River 109 Plymouth Firelands 103 South Central Firelands 98 Monroeville Firelands 91 St. Paul Firelands 88 Calvert SBC River 58 Fremont SJCC SBC River 57