PEA RIDGE — The speculation is over and the deal is done.

Shiloh will be exiting the 4A-1 conference at the end of the 2011-12 school year.

On a vote taken by the Arkansas Activities Association, Shiloh will be moved up to the 5A classification for the 2012-2013 and 2013-2014 school terms. They were initially moved down to 3A status, and could have stayed in the 4A, but they chose to request the move into 5A.

As long as Shiloh remained in the 4A-1, their junior high teams would not be allowed to participate in any sport in the district as per a vote over a year ago. Moving them to 3A was a very unpopular idea for the 3A-1 schools, and with Shilohs’ vastly superior facilities and penchantfor the “bright lights,” Shiloh didn’t want to be a part of a conference of small schools with tiny stadiums. With the move to 5A, the Shiloh junior athletes now have a place to compete in.

The Shiloh athletic director firmly believes that they will do well on the 5A level because they have done exceedingly well in the 4A class. However, 5A isn’t 4A, as it is a step up and pretty significant one at that.

While the 5A West will lose Greenwood to 6A in 2012-2013, the multi-year state champion in that classification, Greenbrier and Morrillton were potent teams last year.

Outside of Huntsville, none of the 5A West teams are a pushover.

The AD’s over-confidence was shown up last year when he took his senior-laden power house squad to play a national powerhouse team in Texas Stadium, the home of the Dallas Cowboys.

He actually made plans for their post-game victory celebration, which was canceled after the Texas school ran up over 80 points on their team in a nationally-televised blowout. I think he might someday pick up the AAA’s offer to place them in 3A.

The transfer rule that was put into play last year by the AAA, has had a devastating affect on Shilohs’ recruiting. The rule requires that any incoming athlete, once he has attended a school in the seventh grade somewhere else, has to sit out a year after transferring to any private school, including Shiloh, of course. The powerhouse Shiloh teams of late were led almost exclusively by players who had built up a reputation for being athletically gifted prior to their transferring to Shiloh. The Springdale school was even formally reprimanded for the recruitment of West Forks’ future All-American quarterback who is now playing for the defending NCAA champion Auburn Tigers. However, while there was abundant proof that the QB in question was recruited illegally, there was no proof that the school administration was aware of it.

Under then AAA rules, if a booster or group of same recruits an athlete to a particular school, the penalty for that is a letter of reprimand. In most any other state, the boosters activities at Shiloh would have gotten the athletes involved declared ineligible and their school perhaps suspended from competition.

So, without their ability to cherry pick other schools for their athletes with the enticement of instant athletic glory, I don’t believe that Shiloh will be able to maintain their present athletic success. To miss a whole year of athletic participation will deter most if not all athletic stars who may choose to stay where they are. Their lack of loyalty to their own home won’t be as great as their distaste for sitting out a year.

Some folks, especially new to the area, don’t understand the animus that the Shiloh school stirs in some many people. I think it is akin to the recent NBA finals, where the Dallas Mavericks whipped the Miami Heat, a team that spent a bundle to bring what they thought were thebest three players in the NBA to south Florida.

The Heat was hated nation wide with their new players’ display of arrogance and conceit.

Miami was trying to buya title but the two all-star mercenaries were duds when it counted most.

Even Miami fans were fed up as thousands of them sold their game tickets to the last game to Dallas fans who were hoping to get in. Anyone who believed or used to believe that LeBron James will ever supplant Michael Jordan as the greatest player of all time now knows that will never happen. As so often is borne out, talent without character often proves too tough a combination to overcome Siloam gets bad news

After weeks of lobbying and campaigning for a new alignment for Arkansas’ athletic conference, Siloams’ plan for district placements was shot down with the AAA recommending the schools go with the Panthers’ worst nightmare.

When Arkansas went to a seven-tier classification system several years ago, it was done to ostensibly “give more athletes a chance for success.” I personally think it was done to dramatically increase the AAA’s annual income which largely comes from the various sport playoff games.

The more playoff games, the more championship games, the more money.

The seven-class system has been an expensive system for several schools as travel increased dramatically for a lot of members.

With Siloam moving into 6A as the smallest school in that class, they would have had to travel literally thousands of miles a year as nearly all of 6A schools in the current cycle are in eastern and southern Arkansas. Siloams’ plan was to move the 16 biggest 5A schools into 6A, then move the biggest 16 schools of 4A into 5A, leaving 7A with 16, 6A with 32, 5A with 32, and 4A with 32. The AAA committee universally disliked the idea.

As for me, I hoped it would pass.

The plan that the AAA will advance to the schools meeting in August will simply combine the 7A and 6A schools together. That will cut down on a lot of travel for the affected schools, but it will more than likely cut down on the trophy haul that Siloam was accustomed to having every year. The AAA is rarely ever overturnedon a plan they favor when put to a vote by the whole membership and it is very doubtful that this vote will turn out any differently.

This means that beginning a year from this fall, Siloam will take the field against Bentonville, Fayetteville and the Rogers and Springdale schools as a member of the 7A West. Their inclusion into the 7A West bumpedlong-time conference members Fort Smith Northside and Southside into the 7A Central. It was decided to retrieve former 7A West member Van Buren back from the Central to go with Siloam in a swap for the Fort Smith schools.

This will be a huge leap for the Panthers, much as it was for Bentonville in the late ’80s. After years of being the biggest school in 5A, they will now be the smallest in the 7A-6A classification.

Bentonville’s meteoric rate of growth (it is now the largest high school in the state) helped them over the hump, and the presence of a lot of moneyed interests has given Bentonville unparalleled athletic facilities.

I don’t know if the Panthers can emulate the success of Bentonville, but they are a growing community. I wish them the best of luck.

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Editor’s note: John Mc-Gee is the art teacher at Pea Ridge elementary schools, coaches elementary track and writes a regular sports column for The Times. He can be contacted through The Times at [email protected].

Sports, Pages 8 on 06/15/2011