The 25th football season for the Keystone Shortway Athletic Conference will be its last.

In a press release issued by District IX on Wednesday, the KSAC and Allegheny Mountain League both voted to dissolve and form one league consisting of 22 schools.

The league would include one large-school division and two small-school divisions. The desired result is to yield more games between similar-sized schools.

“After several years of discussion and observation,” the press release stated, “the majority of administrators across District IX voted to establish one league as a step in helping to establish a more equitable playing field among the football-hosting schools and also to aid in the preservation of the sport for some schools' programs.”

The KSAC was formed in 1993 and split into two divisions — Big (Class AAA and AA) and Small (A) — for football in 2010. But even under that format, half of a team's schedule every season was against schools in a different classification because of crossover meetings.

The AML has existed for over 30 years.

According to D9sports.com, the new large-school division would consist of six schools currently in the KSAC — Karns City, Moniteau, Clarion, Brookville, Punxsutawney and St. Marys — and four schools from the AML in Bradford, Brockway, Kane and Ridgway.

Each team will play the other nine schools each fall, with the opportunity to play one game outside of the division.

Bradford is the biggest school affected by the change. The Owls are a Class 4A program. Karns City, Punxsutawney and St. Marys are currently Class 3A teams.

Karns City coach Ed Conto has been involved with football in the KSAC every season since its inception.

“It was time for a change,” he said. “There is good and bad to it, though. What I don't like is that we are locked in to nine games. I liked being able to go out and schedule two games against other teams, other districts.”

This season, the Gremlins scheduled Armstrong, a WPIAL team, and Clearfield, a school that competes in District 6.

“We do have the chance for that 10th game and we could schedule someone there,” added Conto. “Overall, I like the change. I've been a proponent of it for a while.”

Moniteau is currently the biggest Class AA school in the entire district with 174 male students. But the Warriors began this season with just 26 players. Due to injuries, the team is now taking the field with even fewer kids.

Now that Moniteau's schedule will include more games every season against bigger schools, it is even more urgent for the school to get more students out for football.

“We'll rise to the challenge,” said first-year Moniteau coach Jon McCune. “Hopefully, we will get more kids playing football and it will drive us to improve.”

Union/A-C Valley, which will be in the third year of a co-op in 2018, will be in one of the two small-school divisions consisting of six schools apiece. Each small school will play five games within its own division and four crossover games against teams from the other division.

“We will be in the Small School-South Division (with Clarion-Limestone, Curwensville, Elk County Catholic, Keystone and Redbank Valley,” said Falcon Knights' coach Dave Louder. “I started (assistant) coaching at Keystone in 2002 and I can remember a merger being talked about back then. We thought we had one in place before the 2015 season, but the AML backed out at the last second due to some scheduling issues.

“I'm ecstatic about this,” he added, “except that I feel bad for Ridgway.”

That's the most glaring glitch in the new format. Ridgway, though in a co-op with Johnsonburg, still remains a Class A team, but will be competing in the Big School Division.

“My heart goes out to them,” said Louder. “They're a small school and will be competing against bigger schools basically the entire season. I'm sure they're not happy about it up there.”

The PIAA releases new classification requirements due to enrollment every two years, meaning the membership in each division could be fluid.

“Ridgway, Redbank Valley and Clarion are three schools I know of that were teetering right on that line between Class AA and A this time,” said Louder. “The deal we have is for the next two years and we'll see what happens, but we finally got a good compromise.”