The quick answer is no. In fact, the correct answer is no ... but there are a lot of background factors and decisions that played into the creation of 4A football districts in eastern Iowa, and therefore the effective dissolution of both the Mississippi Valley Conference (MVC) and the Mississippi Athletic Conference (MAC), at least as far as football goes.
First off, this all nearly happened over two years ago. All other classes of football in Iowa had played under a district scheme since 1992. The 4A schools continued with conferences - in addition to the MVC and MAC, there were the Missouri River Athletic Conference (Sioux City and Council Bluffs areas) and the Central Iowa Metro League (everybody else, from Fort Dodge and Mason City, through the Des Moines area, to Ottumwa). Conferences made their own schedules and governed their own schools, and the state used a point system for playoff qualification.
By the 2011 season, several of the schools in central and western Iowa were looking for a better way to schedule. Travel was killing some of these schools. With only five teams in the MRAC, those schools had to fill their schedules with teams from the CIML, which entailed a lot of expensive and time-consuming travel. There was an infamous situation (and I think this was in 2011) where Marshalltown had to travel to one of the Sioux City schools for a game on a Thursday night. That meant the Marshalltown kids faced a nearly four-hour bus ride home after the game, then were expected to be in class on Friday morning.
So, after the 2011 football season, the state was asked to consider moving the 4A teams to a district setup statewide. After forming a committee, receiving input from the 4A schools, and much discussion, the state decided to bring districts to the west side of the state only for 2012. The MVC and MAC, which didn't have the travel problems faced in the west, would remain intact. This seemed to work well for the 2012-13 seasons.
However, in late October 2013, members of the MAC brought up the idea of bringing districts to the east side as well. I am not certain as to exactly why this topic reappeared, but speculation seems to center on the lack of playoff success MAC teams were finding versus MVC squads. Since 2009, MVC teams were 25-13 vs MAC teams in the playoffs, and five of those 13 MAC wins were Bettendorf alone. As an example of the MAC's playoff difficulties, teams from that conference went 1-6 against MVC teams 2009's first round. Since the MAC had only 10 teams, they played nothing but a round-robin schedule against each other. The MVC's 14 members meant schedules changed every two years, with the schools seeing a wider range of opponents. Perhaps this was seen as an advantage in preparing for postseason play, and the MAC schools were looking to vary their schedules ... hence, districts.
By and large, the MVC schools seemed to be leaning against change. As in 2011-12, much discussion ensued, although this time the state association stayed on the sidelines and let the conferences try to work things out. Ideas of cross-conference play were floated (giving the MAC teams a chance to play MVC teams during the regular season), but not everyone was happy with that idea - I have heard Davenport Assumption was solidly against that plan, while Xavier said their continued MVC membership was contingent on the conference remaining as-is, with no out-of-conference games.
By December, the MAC had decided their only option was to go to district play for football in 2014. Assumption had announced their intention to drop to 3A football, and the MAC realized they didn't have any other choices. This posed some problems ... namely, who would they play, other than themselves? If the MVC remained set, there were simply no other 4A teams available to play the teams along the Mississippi (except perhaps Ottumwa, but that's about it).
Immediately following that, Dubuque Wahlert announced they were dropping out of 4A (and therefore the MVC football schedule) to play as a 3A school for 2014-15. Here's another issue in all this: Wahlert, Assumption and Xavier had been playing above their school size for quite some time. Iowa defines 4A schools as those with BEDS enrollment numbers above 700 (that's in grades 9-11), and then adds the members of the 4A conferences are 4A by virtue of their conference membership. Wahlert and Assumption had been far from that 700 number for years and years; Xavier might have breached that in the mid-to-late 2000s, but had fallen back below 700 for the past several years. None of the three fit the criteria for a 4A school, except for the conference membership.
So, once Wahlert said they were out, Xavier immediately followed. Xavier had always insisted they would remain in the MVC and 4A as long as the MVC didn't change members or outside scheduling ... Wahlert's departure meant the MVC had changed, and Xavier made the decision to play in their proper class by school size (3A). That pretty much meant district play was the only option remaining for the east side of the state. In January the MVC talked about trying to remain as a 12-team conference, but considering the nine MAC teams were basically homeless and looking to fill out their schedules, I can't believe the state athletic association would have let that stand. So ... the state was asked to create districts for 4A throughout the entire state for 2014-15.
That's a quick summary of how things went down, as far as I have insight to them. This next year is going to be very different, not only for Xavier but for all the former MVC and MAC teams. I'll take a look at the upcoming season, well ... coming up.
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