The Suburban Council should consider changing its name to something else this fall.
With former Big 10 schools Albany, Schenectady and Troy joining the Council for the 2015-16 year — along with private school Christian Brothers Academy — the league is no longer suburban. It will be the lone large school league in Section 2 and a step closer to creating classification play in all sports.
When the Big 10 disbanded last year, it was at the point where there was too much disparity between school sizes and, depending on the match-ups, too much distance to travel between schools. There was little benefit for a large school such as CBA to play a small school such as Bishop Gibbons in most sports. Bishop Gibbons could barely put enough kids on a team roster to compete, and CBA would often dominate.
Amsterdam’s predicament as the outlier of the Big 10 was worse. Not only did it have a hard time competing in most sports, it also had to deal with long trips to play schools such as Troy and Catholic Central. In the end, it made more sense for Amsterdam to leave for the Foothills Council than to stay in the Big 10 — a move that led to the dissolution of the league.
For its part, the Suburban Council didn’t have to add any of the remaining Big 10 teams. It already had a full roster of 12 Class AA and A schools covering a large geographical area from Bethlehem to Saratoga Springs. Its member schools often don’t schedule non-league games because their teams are playing 16-game schedules in most sports, which is close to the maximum allowed by the New York State Public High School Athletic Association. Adding schools could add scheduling headaches.
Yet, the Suburban Council chose to add the four largest schools from the defunct Big 10. It was a logical choice given how Albany, Schenectady, Troy and CBA fit, both in terms of school size and location. Still, the league must now decide how to create divisions and schedules to best serve its 16 schools. It also faces the challenge of having only 15 schools offering girls sports, since CBA is an all-boys school.
Ultimately, though, we think the Suburban Council should consider a name change to reflect the diversity of its member schools. Albany is no more a suburb than Boston or New York City, no matter how small its population is in relation to those other nearby metropolis’. The same goes for Schenectady and Troy. Perhaps the league should resurrect the Metroland Conference name, once attached to this region’s high school football scene. Or maybe the Tech Valley League after the nickname given to the area when nanotech companies began putting down roots in the region.
No matter what, the Suburban Council should retire the name because the league is no longer an association of strictly suburban school districts. It is a reflection of the heart of our region — an amalgam of suburban and urban areas strung together.
