The N.C. High School Athletic Association's Realignment Committee made some much needed improvements to the 2009 Realignment proposal, but there is still some work to be done.

How can the current Tri-Eight Conference have nine teams in it in 2009 when they are surrounded by three conferences with only seven teams?

Having nine teams in a conference is never a good idea, and I was under the impression at the beginning of this process that this scenario would be avoided if possible.

Well, it is possible, and I'll tell you how.

The PAC-Six Conference, which is in the Durham area, only has seven teams. I can understand why the Committee would not want to put a team in this conference. The two schools most likely to go to this conference from the Tri-Eight are Panther Creek and Green Hope. This would break up some tremendous rivalries with other schools.

Another option is to put Athens Drive in the Cap-Seven where they came from in 2005, but Athens requested to stay in the Tri-Eight Conference.

Here are my two proposals:

• Take Holly Springs out of the Tri-Eight Conference and put them back into the Greater Neuse River Conference. This would put nine teams into the GNR. To prevent that from happening, take Harnett Central out of the GNR, and put them into the Cumberland County conference which only has seven teams. This would keep the three Wake County conferences the same as they are now, and the Cumberland County conference would have eight teams.
• The Committee could keep Holly Springs in the Tri-Eight Conference, but take Lee County out and place them into the seven-team conference in Cumberland County. This would also keep the conferences equal.

Wake County has been more than willing to work with schools from other counties, but having nine teams in a single conference is ridiculous - especially when there are other 4-A conferences surrounding it that have seven teams in it.

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