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Relegation is a term used in the English Premier League, the world's top soccer league based in Europe in which the bottom three teams each season are sent down to a lower league and three teams from the lower league replace those teams the next season.
According to a report from the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette earlier this week, Butler High School would like to bring a form of relegation to the PIAA.
The school made a presentation to the PIAA's strategic planning committee that involved a team being allowed to ask to move down in classification due to a lack of competitiveness over the years and would not be limited to just football.
It was argued that the opposite already exists with the PIAA's competition formula that has pushed both the Bishop Guilfoyle Catholic football team (from 1A to 2A) and the boys basketball team (from 2A to 3A) up from the classification those teams should be playing in based off their numbers.
It should be noted that Butler's football program is finishing up a four-year run of playing against a District 10 and independent schedule after leaving the WPIAL in football only following the 2019 season in an effort to rebuild its faltering program.
The PIAA and Butler got involved in a legal battle on whether the school could compete in the District 10 postseason, and Butler tentatively plans to return to the WPIAL in football next season.
The proposal is scheduled to be discussed at the January PIAA meeting, and because the new two-year classification cycle starts next season, any enforced relegation plan would not happen until the cycle that will run from fall of 2026 until spring of 2028.
Obviously it's still in the discussion stages, but there are plenty of questions that would have to be answered. What constitutes a struggling program? Four straight 0-10 seasons? Four straight 4-6 seasons with no playoffs? That would need a concrete answer.
Most importantly, just as the competition formula does not impact 6A schools, relegation would only hurt 1A schools, which often are the programs hurting the most.
It is in 1A where this area has seen the majority of co-ops formed and programs lost. Sending bigger schools down a level would just make things worse on these schools already struggling to not only stay competitive but field a team.
Teams at smaller schools have the choice to play up, but playing down feels different.
How would Altoona feel winning a District 6 title at Class 5A or even 4A? The guess is slightly embarrassed. Though State College has been impressive and one of the best teams in the state recently, the players and coaches for the Mountain Lions believe they can beat the Little Lions if they play their best, and taking that opportunity away from them for an easier route doesn't seem like the best mentality.
Michael Boytim can be reached at mboytim@altoonamirror.com or 814-946-7521, Follow him on X @BoytimMichael.