By DOUG DONNELLY

Whiteford and Erie Mason will play a non-league schedule against Lenawee County Athletic Association football teams in 2025 and 2026.

Athletic directors from those two schools and the LCAA have hammered out a future scheduling agreement after several weeks of discussions. Whiteford will play all eight LCAA schools plus Erie Mason in a home and away set-up for those two years. Mason will play seven LCAA schools and Whiteford, leaving the Eagles with just one open date on the 2025 and 2026 schedule.

Steve Babbitt, the LCAA president, called the agreement a win-win for both the LCAA and Whiteford and Erie Mason.

“They are not joining the LCAA, but it helps them fulfill their non-league schedule and it helps the LCAA schools fill our non-league schedule,” Babbitt said. “This is a step-by-step process. We wanted to get the games on the schedule. That is a starting point.”

Whiteford Athletic Director Jermey Simmons said the conversations with the LCAA have been productive.

“I like the approach right now,” he said. “Let’s see how this works for a couple of years.”

Whiteford and Erie Mason are members of the Tri-County Conference, which is down to three 11-player football schools after Madison left to join the LCAA last year and Sand Creek pulled out of the TCC to join the Big 8 Conference for football only starting next year.

Simmons said finding non-league games for next year and beyond has been difficult. He sent out e-mails to hundreds of schools across the state and heard back from only a few.

Whiteford approached LCAA officials during the football season that just ended to inquire about scheduling games for the future.

“There are no games for them to play,” Babbitt said. “They are looking for seven games, which is a scheduling nightmare. They came to us and said, ‘can we work something out?’”

With Erie Mason also coming on board, it means all eight LCAA schools can play a normal league schedule, plus Whiteford and Mason in non-league games, to get to a nine-game schedule. Erie Mason and Hillsdale, however, decided not to play each other due to the distance, leaving those two schools with one open date moving forward.

The agreement, Babbitt said, will help all of the parties involved.

“Onsted is playing Saginaw Nouvel; Hudson has had some really long road trips. People are hunting for non-league games,” Babbitt said. “This helps alleviate that.”

Under the current format, Whiteford and Erie Mason will not compete for a league championship. All of the games against LCAA schools will be non-league games. Down the road, Babbitt said, that could be considered, but that was not the intent of the athletic directors right now.

“I don’t think we want to rush into any type of expansion,” Babbitt said. “Besides, that is an executive council decision. The athletic directors can’t make an expansion decision. We are just scheduling the games at this point.”

With Whiteford and Erie Mason joining the LCAA schedule, however, there will be some changes to the league’s schedule. Some teams, for example, will be playing league games in Week 1. Traditionally, the LCAA has played weeks one and two as non-league games and weeks three through nine as league games.

The move also means Whiteford and Summerfield, rivals for decades, will not play each other in 2025 or 2026.

“It’s not ideal at all,” Simmons said. “But driving to Buchanan isn’t either.”

While the scheduling agreement for JV and varsity football is for 2025 and 2026, Whiteford and Mason will play some LCAA schools as part of a new middle school schedule in 2024.

Babbitt said the league and Whiteford and Erie Mason are forging a relationship now and what happens down the road is still up in the air.

“It’s wait-and-see,” he said. “For now, this is a win-win. If the MHSAA changes its scheduling and goes down to eight games with everyone making the playoffs, for example, this will have to be looked at again. Our priority is the LCAA schedule.”