Salem’s move is a lateral one — for now

Salem moving to the Northeastern Buckeye Conference has its benefits but also its shortcomings.

When the All-American conference was set up, there was a lot of moaning and groaning between schools because of the disparity between some of the programs, so they split the league into three tiers. There's still some moaning and groaning from some schools about bailing on the conference. That prompted Salem to make the jump to the NBC.

According to superintendent Tom Bratten, Salem didn't want to be stuck in a situation where the AAC lost teams and the choices for the Quakers would be to join the Red Tier of the conference with larger schools Poland, Canfield, Howland and Niles, or to go independent.

By shifting to the NBC it will provide some stability for Salem at least in the short term. It's beneficial to be among a league race and should create some new rivalries assuming the team stays put.

Therein might lie a problem.

Salem will be the smallest school in the NBC. By the looks of enrollment numbers, that's not going to change anytime soon. In fact, enrollment is in a position where Salem might drop even further and be forced to drop to Division IV or Division III depending on the sport (Salem is currently in Division III in football, Division II in basketball). They would be the only Division IV football school in the NBC should enrollment drop.

Salem is in a tough spot. It's too big for the Inter-Tri County League, illustrated by the fact that the conference turned Salem down two times.

But Salem is almost too small for the NBC.

Looking at enrollment numbers, Salem (510) is the smallest by nine students, second to Carrollton (519). After Carrollton, the closest school is Minerva at 552. Canton South is at 562, West Branch is at 636, Marlington 657, Alliance 661 and Louisville 786.

That can make for a big difference in certain sports, especially basketball and football -where say what you want, strength in number matters.

What is beneficial is the opponents are closer. 12 of 15 AAC teams are more than 22 miles away compared to just three in the NBC, making it more likely Salem residents will make the trek to away contests than than they do currently.

It's also good in that it provides scheduling flexibility in sports like basketball, baseball and softball, where currently Salem is tied into having to play everyone in the AAC, every tier, at least once. With 14 NBC league games, Salem can do a lot to keep up rivalries with Canfield, Poland and East Liverpool, but also United as well as other ITCL schools in the remaining schedules.

What it all amounts to in every sport, is will Salem be competitive in the new conference? Enrollment is more important to some sports than others, football specifically. There's a reason Louisville cleans house most of the time in the NBC on the gridiron -they have a larger pool of kids to choose from.

It's been difficult for Salem to keep up in certain sports consistently. While some programs have thrived, some have struggled, and again, a lot of it has to do with numbers.

It's good that Salem will have a home. But if the teams aren't competitive a few years into the NBC, and Salem's size as a school drops further, I'd be willing to put money on the ITCL reconsidering the Quakers.

For now, it's basically a lateral move. I don't think it will have an enormous impact on the school's success right now. But if it does down the road, Salem might be looking for another conference to call home.

Time will tell.

E-mail B.J. Lisko at bjlisko@salemnews.net