Well, the question has been answered. 

The question, who is leaving the Inter-Valley Conference. The answer, nearly everybody. 

After three schools – Claymont, Tusky Valley and Sandy Valley – announced they were leaving the conference early this year, the other shoe dropped Friday morning when the entire North Division – Buckeye Trail, Conotton Valley, East Canton, Malvern, Newcomerstown, Strasburg and Tuscarawas Central Catholic – announced they were leaving. 

The seven schools involved in Friday’s announcement make up the entire North Division in what had been a two-division conference. 

The schools withdrawing will begin competing in a new, as of yet unnamed conference, in the 2028-29 school year. 

The move has been under discussion for some time, according to IVC Commissioner Don Spinell, but wasn’t official until Friday. 

“We knew this was coming, we just didn’t know when,” Spinell told Big Time Sports Friday evening. “The schools released the information. I didn’t find out until after the release had been made.” 

Claymont, Tusky Valley and Sandy Valley were competing in the IVC’s South, or big school division and this move strips the conference of most competition. 

Only Indian Valley, Garaway, Ridgewood and Hiland remain and Hiland does not field a football team. 

After the original move earlier this year, the IVC announced that it would be accepting applications to join the league, but received only inquiries from small-school applicants. 

“We wanted bigger schools, but everybody that wanted in wanted to go to the small division and that’s not what we needed,” Spinell said. “The small schools have been firm and together since the original three left.

“There have been many meetings and that’s what came of it.” 

The league has been in existence since 1968 and will remain intact for the next two years. 

Spinell said the IVC is still interested in applicants to join the conference.