GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (WZZM) -- Six months after the O-K Conference board of directors, principals and athletic directors agreed on a new conference realignment template to begin in the fall of 2016, Hastings High School decided to toss a monkey wrench into that plan.
"Two weeks ago, Hastings informed us that they were going to move into the Interstate-8 Conference, beginning next fall," said Jim Haskins, who is the commissioner of the O-K Conference. "According to our conference bylaws, they were supposed to give us two years notice, but they had an opportunity to move into a new conference, and they decided to go in there."
The Interstate-8 Conference is losing Charlotte, which wants to move back into the Capital Area Activities Conference. That created a hole in the Interstate-8 and Hastings jumped at the chance to fill it.
"This sudden move created a problem for us because we would have one conference short a team," added Haskins.
When the 2016-2017 O-K Conference realignment was approved back on April 29th of this year, the O-K Red Division had 8 teams, and the remaining six O-K divsions had seven teams each, creating balanced cross-over opportunities.
"With Hastings leaving, it disrupted the O-K Gold and O-K Green from their cross-over games," said Haskins.
Haskins says the O-K Conference executive board, presidents and athletic directors, have been conducting impromptu meetings over the past two weeks, to discuss how to quickly fix this problem.
"The executive board and the presidents voted to refer back to our realignment committee, which is composed of eight principals and eight athletic directors," said Haskins. "We put the new realignment to an electronic vote, which was due by noon today."
The proposal put to vote was to take Jenison out of the O-K Red Division and move it to the O-K Black Division, then move Wyoming from the Black to fill the vacancy left by Hastings in the O-K Gold.
"This leaves us with seven divisions of seven teams in each," said Haskins. "The vote passed by a 40-9 margin, so this realignment was approved and will be in place for the 2016 and 2017 school years."
Football schedules for next fall are due, so this curve-ball by Hastings forced the O-K Conference board to act quickly.
"Football schedules for 2016 are due after week nine of this season concludes," added Haskins. "We use playoff points from last year and this year to determine the cross-over match-ups, so this sudden realignment needed to be decided upon immediately, and it thankfully was."
The O-K Conference drops from 50 schools to 49.
So, here is how the O-K Conference divisions will look for the 2016-2017 school years:
OK RED
East Kentwood
Rockford
West Ottawa
Grand Haven
Grandville
Hudsonville
Caledonia
OK WHITE
Forest Hills Central
Ottawa Hills
Northview
Lowell
Greenville
Forest Hills Northern
Cedar Springs
OK BLACK
Union
Jenison
Mona Shores
Reeths-Puffer
Muskegon
Kenowa Hills
Fruitport
OK GREEN
Holland
Byron Center
Zeeland East
Zeeland West
Hamilton
Holland Christian
Unity Christian
OK GOLD
East Grand Rapids
Grand Rapids Christian
Middleville
Wayland
Forest Hills Eastern
Wyoming
South Christian
OK BLUE
Sparta
Coopersville
Spring Lake
Allendale
Comstock Park
Catholic Central
West Catholic
OK SILVER
Kelloggsville
Belding
Godwin Heights
Hopkins
Lee
Calvin Christian
NorthPointe Christian
