League history
The BVC's roots lie in the Hancock County League often known as the Little 9/8/7 League, which formed in 1922. Arcadia, Arlington, Liberty-Benton, McComb, Mount Blanchard, Mount Cory, Rawson, Van Buren, Vanlue were the founding members. Cory-Rawson was formed by the consolidation of Mount Cory and Rawson in 1950. The eight team lineup lasted for another decade, until Mount Blanchard (due to consolidate into Riverdale in 1962) joined the Hardin County League.
The remaining seven members decided to reorganize the league in 1965 and add other schools, giving birth to the BVC. Hardin Northern, Leipsic (football only), and Westwood signed on to make the conference a 9 member/10 football member conference. When Westwood was absorbed by the Bowling Green City School District in 1966, Pandora-Gilboa replaced them in the league for the 1966–67 school year in football only. Leipsic and Pandora-Gilboa were both members of the Putnam County League for all non-football sports at this time.
Leipsic and Pandora-Gilboa were able to work out schedules with the PCL to be able to join the BVC in all sports, while keeping membership in both conferences, in 1971.
On April 19, 2012, Ada High School of the Northwest Conference, along with Calvert, Hopewell-Loudon, and North Baltimore of the Midland Athletic League made pitches to join the BVC after answering a letter of interest made in February 2012. [1]
On May 21, 2012, the BVC extended invitations to Hopewell-Loudon and North Baltimore with the following report coming from the Findlay Courier:
By an 8-0 vote, with two abstentions, member schools of the Blanchard Valley Conference on Monday voted to approve expansion. North Baltimore and Hopewell-Loudon were formally invited to join the league. Those two schools have until July 1 to accept. Expansion would take effect for the 2014-15 school year. BVC officials still hope to add two more schools to eventually make the conference a 14-team league. Football would be split into two divisions, based on boys enrollment figures combined with a multiplier of wins over the previous four seasons. The schools would then be ranked 1-12 (or 1-14, if two more schools are added); odd-number ranked teams would make up one division and even-number ranked teams the other. There will be no North-South, East-West or straight enrollment-based split of divisions. Under a 12-team format, each football team would play the other teams in its division once, have two crossover games with the other division and an eighth conference game against a team in the same slot in the other division. Each school would have a second non-conference game on its schedule. All other sports will be in a single-division format. The two BVC members who are also part of the Putnam County League, Leipsic and Pandora-Gilboa, will remain full members of the PCL. [2]
North Baltimore accepted the BVC's invitation on June 19, 2012, and Hopewell-Loudon did the same a day later. [3] Both schools joined for the 2014–15 season.
In April 2013, BVC President Traci Conley indicated the BVC wanted to expand to 14 members and first sent an invitation to Riverdale High School. [4] Riverdale accepted the invitation on April 22, 2013, [5] which meant the BVC wanted to pursue a 14th member to join the league. Riverdale's membership in the N10 was terminated shortly thereafter, [6] and they would likely not have joined the BVC until 2015–16 at the earliest, but with Hardin Northern dropping football in 2013, Riverdale was admitted for all sports beginning in 2014. [7]
This expansion of the conference of the latest 3 schools was controversial, and charged with nickname the "Liberty-Benton Membership-Extension Addition" because it was an obvious attempt by the school to balance average school enrollment figures for Liberty-Benton to justify continuing their membership in the conference. Supporting Evidence of this nickname comes from Liberty-Benton officials commenting on spectator and media statements of the school needing to apply for a new conference because of the school is placed in Division V for football as all other schools in the conference were only in Division VII. School Officials said the school would have to look for a new conference by 2016 if the expansion didn't pass.
In May 2013, Upper Scioto Valley publicly indicated that they were interested in joining the BVC as its 14th member, since they felt that its league, the Northwest Central Conference was no longer stable. [8]
In late 2013, the NWCC extended an invitation to Hardin Northern, which also required a response by March 1, 2014. [9] After suspending Hardin Northern from league play in football from 2013 to 2015, the BVC voted 9-1 (HN the lone dissenting vote) to refuse a guarantee that Hardin Northern would return to the league for that sport. [10] This pressure caused Hardin Northern's school board to decide on February 19, 2014, to withdraw from the BVC and apply to the NWCC for membership. [11] The NWCC accepted Hardin Northern as a full member for 2014–15 on March 19, 2014, with football joining in 2015–16. [12]
In August 2017 Hopewell-Loudon announced that they would leave the BVC for the Sandusky Bay Conference in the 2019–2020 school year after being offered an invitation to replace Shelby. [13] [14]
In August 2020, Elmwood High School of the Northern Buckeye Conference announced they had received a formal invitation from the BVC and were seriously looking at the opportunity. [15] Following a school board meeting on February 8, 2021, multiple sources confirmed that Elmwood had unanimously approved to leave the NBC and join the BVC for the 2023–2024 school year or sooner. [16]
At a board meeting on March 18, 2021, Cory-Rawson voted to leave the BVC for the Northwest Central Conference (NWCC) in 2023. [17]
In August 2021, North Baltimore announced that their football team would go independent beginning with the 2022 season but remain in the BVC for the rest of their sports. [18] This however, would change on Nov. 2, 2021 when North Baltimore announced they would join the NWCC fully for the 2023–24 school year. [19]
In May 2022, Liberty-Benton and the BVC announced that the Eagles would be leaving the league after the 2025–2026 school year, citing the district's student enrollment, competitive accomplishment and athletic facilities as reasons for the decision. [20] At the time of the announcement, Liberty-Benton did not indicate if they had another league they were invited to join or to consider for membership.
On December 16, 2022, the BVC Governing Board voted to remove Vanlue's football team from the conference beginning with the 2023–24 school year. [21] Vanlue intends to continue fielding an 11-man football team, but has no league affiliation yet going forward.
On April 26, 2023, the school board at Ada voted to accept the BVC's invitation to join their league. [22] No timeframe had initially been set for when the Bulldogs would switch conferences, [23] but it was reported in June 2023 that they would join the BVC for the 2024–25 school year. [24]
During a special board meeting held on Sunday, May 21, 2023, the Leipsic school board voted to rejoin the BVC. Similar to Ada, a timeframe for returning to their old league was not initially established, [25] but they are aiming to get in the same time as Ada. [26]
