Pioneer Athletic Conference sets plans for realignment beginning in 2024-25
The Pioneer Athletic Conference is set to embark on a new era beginning with the 2024-25 school year.
The administrators of the 12-member Pioneer Athletic Conference approved a proposal for divisional realignment on May 23 that will organize the Liberty and Frontier divisions based on a ‘competitive balance formula’ instead of the traditional enrollment model.
The realignment will be grouped in two-year windows, beginning with the 2024-25 and 2025-26 school years. The changes will not affect the forthcoming 2023-24 academic calendar.
Only select sports will be subject to realignment, including: boys and girls soccer, field hockey and girls volleyball in the fall; boys and girls basketball and wrestling in the winter; and baseball, softball and girls lacrosse in the spring.
Sports that play all league opponents (tennis, golf, swimming, boys lacrosse) or only in-division opponents (football, cross country and track and field) are not affected, except wrestling.
Football is among the sports that will not be affected in part due to the significance of an opponent’s PIAA classification in the District 1 power ranking formula. Classification factoring into the power rankings is exclusive to football.
The PAC’s new ‘competitive balance formula’ takes into account District 1 power points over a four-year average along with enrollment size.
At its basis, a team’s district points average is added to its enrollment quotient (enrollment divided by smallest school enrollment) to generate a competitive balance formula (CBF) rating. Teams with the highest six CBF ratings go in the Liberty Division, the lowest six ratings in the Frontier.
The most common outcome of the formula results in one team from each division swapping places. Boys soccer, girls volleyball and wrestling exist as outliers for different reasons: boys soccer will keep its current divisions while volleyball and wrestling see two teams in each division swapping.
Norristown is the most common mover, shifting to the Frontier Division in eight of 10 sports (girls soccer, field hockey, girls volleyball, girls’ basketball, wrestling, baseball, softball and girls’ lacrosse). The unique case is boys basketball, where Pope John Paul II is to join the Liberty while Owen J. Roberts goes to the Frontier.
Upper Perkiomen, the second-smallest school in the PAC behind only Pope John Paul II, joins the Liberty in girls soccer, field hockey, wrestling and softball. Despite its lower enrollment, recent on-field success — Upper Perk has recent PAC championships in girls soccer and field hockey, and finals appearances in softball — elevated those programs into the Top 6 in CPF points, and therefore the Liberty Division.
Phoenixville will see its girls’ basketball, baseball and girls’ lacrosse teams join the Liberty division; Pottsgrove moves up to the Liberty in wrestling.
Teams have the option to request placement in the other division regardless of formula ranking.
One such example occurred in girls lacrosse. Upper Merion ranked sixth and Perkiomen Valley seventh, signaling division changes. Both teams requested to remain in their current division, which was granted.
The shift is a result of administrators challenging the PAC’s athletic directors to create greater competitive balance in a conference that has featured 12 schools in two divisions since the introduction of Norristown and Upper Merion in 2016.
The scheduling committee, led by Pottsgrove athletic director Steve Anspach and Norristown AD Tony Palladino, explored multiple models over a period of ‘several months’ before establishing a consensus with the adopted ‘competitive balance formula’ model.
“There was a lot of work that went into this. It’s unique and that’s what we were tasked to do. The scheduling committee did a fantastic job and spent many hours to get it to the best of our ability for competitive balance in our league,” Anspach said.
With inconsistent divisions even in a single sport — Norristown, Owen J. Roberts, Phoenixville and Pope John Paul II will see their boys and girls basketball teams in opposite divisions, for instance — there expects to be an acclimation period with the change.
“I don’t think it’s overly complicated, but it’s going to be a change in the way of thinking,” Palladino said. “Once we came up with the formulas and the philosophy of how we were doing it, a lot of it is just putting numbers into the matrix on a spreadsheet to see where we stand and staying on top of it.
“There will be some rare occasions where we may have a dual-gender sport like basketball where one team is in the Liberty and the other in the Frontier, obviously they are going to be on different scheduling groups so they will have to be working with their facilities, maybe having a game on a Monday instead of a Tuesday. That is where it can get tricky in some instances but it is not an insurmountable obstacle.
“There are more moving parts than just enrollment-based, but we still felt that the benefits outweighed that hurdle.”
Moving away from an enrollment-only divisional model is a novel concept in southeast Pa. and beyond, and the PAC leadership intends to be nimble when it reaches its new format.
“We’re also understanding that there may be some growing pains and we will be looking at ways to make it better by evaluating over two and four years to improve it and see how we are doing,” Anspach said.
The PAC schedules and division alignments are adopted for the next two-year cycle (2024-25, 2025-26). The alignment will be reevaluated for the following two-year cycle.
A sport-by-sport breakdown of the Pioneer Athletic Conference alignment for 2024-25 and 2025-26:
(Divisions listed in order of complete balance formula ranking; asterisk on teams changing division)
FALL
Cross Country
Divisions: Two divisions, based on enrollment (no district power points)
League schedule structure: Only division opponents (five events)
PAC postseason: Regular season division champions, plus PAC championship meet
Field hockey
Divisions: Subject to competitive balance formula
League schedule structure: 10 divisional games (home and away) plus three crossover games
Liberty Division: Methacton, Upper Perkiomen*, Boyertown, Owen J. Roberts, Perkiomen Valley, Spring-Ford
Frontier Division: Phoenixville, Upper Merion, Pope John Paul II, Norristown*, Pottsgrove, Pottstown
PAC postseason: Final Four featuring division winners plus two wild cards based on best PAC record (13 games)
Football
Divisions: Two divisions, based on enrollment
League schedule structure: Only division opponents (five events)
Liberty Division: Norristown, Spring-Ford, Boyertown, Perkiomen Valley, Owen J. Roberts, Methacton
Frontier Division: Upper Merion, Phoenixville, Pottstown, Pottsgrove, Upper Perkiomen, Pope John Paul II
PAC postseason: Week 10 featured PAC championship game between division winners, plus crossover contests corresponding to division ladder (second place vs. second place, etc.)
Boys Soccer
Divisions: Subject to competitive balance formula
League schedule structure: 10 divisional games (home and away) plus three crossover games
Liberty Division: Boyertown, Spring-Ford, Owen J. Roberts, Perkiomen Valley, Norristown, Methacton
Frontier Division: Phoenixville, Upper Perkiomen, Upper Merion, Pottsgrove, Pope John Paul II, Pottstown.
PAC postseason: Final Four featuring division winners plus two wild cards based on best PAC record (13 games)
Girls Soccer
Divisions: Subject to competitive balance formula
League schedule structure: 10 divisional games (home and away) plus three crossover games
Liberty Division: Owen J. Roberts, Spring-Ford, Boyertown. Upper Perkiomen*, Perkiomen Valley, Methacton
Frontier Division: Pottsgrove, Phoenixville, Pope John Paul II, Upper Merion, Norristown*, Pottstown
PAC postseason: Final Four featuring division winners plus two wild cards based on best PAC record (13 games)
Girls Tennis
Divisions: Single division
League schedule structure: Play all league opponents (11 events)
PAC postseason: Regular season division champion, plus PAC singles and doubles tournaments
Girls Volleyball
Note: Beginning in 2023 there will be 12 teams
Divisions: Two, subject to competitive balance formula
League schedule structure: 10 divisional games (home and away) plus three crossover games
Liberty Division: Pope John Paul II*, Boyertown, Perkiomen Valley, Upper Merion*, Methacton, Spring-Ford
Frontier Division: Owen J. Roberts, Pottsgrove, Phoenixville, Norristown*, Upper Perkiomen, Pottstown
PAC postseason: Final Four featuring division winners plus two wild cards based on best PAC record (13 games)
WINTER
Boys Basketball
Divisions: Two, subject to competitive balance formula
League schedule structure: 10 divisional games (home and away) plus three crossover games
Liberty Division: Spring-Ford, Methacton, Norristown, Boyertown, Perkiomen Valley, Pope John Paul II*
Frontier Division: Phoenixville, Upper Merion, Owen J. Roberts*, Pottstown, Pottsgrove, Upper Perkiomen
PAC postseason: Final Six playoffs featuring top two per division plus two wild cards based on best PAC record (13 games)
Girls Basketball
Divisions: Two, subject to competitive balance formula
League schedule structure: 10 divisional games (home and away) plus three crossover games
Liberty Division: Spring-Ford, Methacton, Perkiomen Valley, Owen J. Roberts, Boyertown, Phoenixville*
Frontier Division: Pope John Paul II, Norristown*, Pottsgrove, Upper Merion, Pottstown, Upper Perkiomen
PAC postseason: Final Six playoffs featuring top two per division plus two wild cards based on best PAC record (13 games)
Swimming
Divisions: Single division
League schedule structure: Meet all league opponents
PAC postseason: Regular season division champion, plus PAC championship meet
Wrestling
Divisions: Two, subject to modified competitive balance formula
League schedule structure: Only division opponents (five events)
Liberty Division: Spring-Ford, Boyertown, Owen J. Roberts, Upper Perkiomen*, Pottsgrove*, Perkiomen Valley
Frontier Division: Phoenixville, Methacton*, Norristown*, Pope John Paul II, Pottstown, Upper Merion
PAC postseason: Champion determined by combination of regular season results and performance at PAC championships
SPRING
Baseball
Divisions: Two, subject to competitive balance formula
League schedule structure: 10 divisional games (home and away) plus six crossover games (District 1 power points only include conference contests)
Liberty Division: Spring-Ford, Owen J. Roberts, Boyertown, Phoenixville*, Perkiomen Valley, Methacton
Frontier Division: Pope John Paul II, Pottsgrove, Upper Perkiomen, Norristown*, Upper Merion, Pottstown
PAC postseason: Final Four featuring division winners plus two wild cards based on best PAC record (16 games)
Boys Lacrosse
Divisions: Single division
League schedule structure: Play all league opponents
PAC postseason: Final Four featuring top four regular-season finishers
Girls Lacrosse
Divisions: Two, subject to competitive balance formula
League schedule structure: 10 divisional games (home and away) plus three crossover games
Liberty Division: Owen J. Roberts, Methacton, Boyertown, Spring-Ford, Phoenixville*, Perkiomen Valley
Frontier Division: Upper Merion, Upper Perkiomen, Pottsgrove, Norristown*, Pope John Paul II, Pottstown
PAC postseason: Final Four featuring division winners plus two wild cards based on best PAC record (13 games)
Softball
Divisions: Two, subject to competitive balance formula
League schedule structure: 10 divisional games (home and away) plus three crossover games
Liberty Division: Spring-Ford, Boyertown, Owen J. Roberts, Methacton, Upper Perkiomen*, Perkiomen Valley
Frontier Division: Norristown*, Phoenixville, Pottsgrove, Upper Merion, Pope John Paul II, Pottstown
PAC postseason: Final Four featuring division winners plus two wild cards based on best PAC record (13 games)
Track and field
Divisions: Two divisions, based on enrollment
League schedule structure: Only division opponents (five events)
PAC postseason: Regular season division champions, plus PAC championship meet
Boys tennis
Divisions: Single division
League schedule structure: Play all league opponents
PAC postseason: Regular season division champion, plus PAC singles and doubles tournaments
