History of the Muskingum Valley League

Football
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Updated post from the MVL Forum (mvlforum.com no longer exists).

This league shall be known as the Muskingum Valley League (MVL) and was established in 1938. It is the successor to the Big Five League organized December 15, 1930 (which became the Big Six League in 1933). Starting in the fall of 2020, the MVL will consist of twelve schools, all in good standing with the league rules and Ohio High School Athletic Association regulations. Muskingum Valley League Schools (and date of original membership) are Crooksville (1930), John Glenn (1930), Morgan (1930), New Lexington (1930), Philo (1938), Tri-Valley (1950), Maysville (1963), Sheridan (1966), West Muskingum (1966), River View (1974), Coshocton (2020), and Meadowbrook (2020).

MVL Membership Timeline

1930: MVL predecessor, the Big Five League, begins competition with member schools Crooksville Big Red, Glouster Tomcats, Malta-McConnelsville Big Reds, New Concord Little Muskies, and New Lexington Panthers.
1933: The Caldwell Redskins join and the league’s name is changed to the Big Six League.
1935: The Crooksville Big Reds change their nickname to the Crooksville Ceramics.
1938: The MVL is created when the Philo Electrics join the members of the Big Six League (7 teams total).
1943: The MVL disbands for one season due to wartime gas rationing.
1944: The MVL resumes with new members St. Thomas Irish and Roseville Ramblers (9 teams total).
1946: St. Thomas leaves the league (8 teams total).
1950: Dresden’s Jefferson J-Hawks join (9 teams total).
1962: The New Concord Little Muskies become the John Glenn Little Muskies.
1963: The Maysville Panthers join (10 teams total).
1964: Caldwell leaves the league (9 teams total).
1965: Glouster leaves the league (8 teams total).
1966: The Sheridan Generals and West Muskingum Tornadoes join (10 teams total). Malta-McConnelsville becomes the Morgan Raiders as schools in Morgan county consolidate. Dresden’s Jefferson consolidates with the Adamsville and Frazeysburg-Nashport to become the Tri-Valley Scotties.
1970: Roseville consolidates with Philo and becomes part of the Philo Electrics (9 teams total).
1974: The River View Black Bears join (10 teams total).
2003: River View leaves the league (9 teams total).
2020: River View rejoins the league, as well as, Coshocton Redskins and Meadowbrook Colts joining (12 teams total). The league goes to two divisions determined by OHSAA enrollment numbers for boys and girls combined in spring 2018. Big school division includes John Glenn, Maysville, Philo, River View, Sheridan and Tri-Valley. Small school division includes Coshocton, Crooksville, Meadowbrook, Morgan, New Lexington, and West Muskingum.
2024: Due to OHSAA combined boys and girls enrollment numbers from spring 2022, Morgan will move to the big school division and Maysville the small school division (starting fall of 2024). Big school division will include John Glenn, Morgan, Philo, River View, Sheridan and Tri-Valley. Small school division will include Coshocton, Crooksville, Maysville, Meadowbrook, New Lexington, and West Muskingum.

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Interesting history. Thanks teach1coach2.

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Thanks Teach!

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Unfortunate time for Morgan to make the jump to the Big School side as it seems their Football program is on the rise.

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Teach: is it official that Morgan and Maysville are trading divisions? Will Cambridge ever join the mix? What is in the future for Crooksville?

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It is official that Maysville and Morgan are switching divisions in two years (starting fall of 2024). Division changes (if any) occur ever 4 years.

Muskingum Valley League is not expanding beyond 12 teams. If anyone ever left, I certainly think Cambridge would be the frontrunner to join the league. Now that they have the Buckeye 8 I’m not sure Cambridge would be interested.

Crooksville is an original member of the MVL. There is no talk of leaving the MVL to my knowledge. If they did leave, where would they go??? TVC? A lot more traveling.

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Aren’t the current teams also locked in for 10 years (from 2020) when the league expanded? So if I team wanted to leave now wouldn’t they have to buy out of that contract? I feel like I read that when the league announced their expansion.

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Yes, but it is really not that expensive to buy your way out of the league if a school really wanted to leave. If I remember correctly it is like $2,000 a year. Not tough for most schools with million dollar budgets to afford.

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I was born in the Crooksville district, grew up and graduated from New Lex so I am not advocating for them to leave. There has been some chatter up here in the Columbus area about them being a fit for the Mid State small school. Miller, Rosecrans, Fisher Catholic, Fairfield Christian, Berne Union, Millersport, Grove City Christian, and for now Worthington Christian.

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On the Yappi sight (take it for what it is) there is a lot of talk and “insider” discussion of Crooksville being a fit in the MSL Cardinal. There seemed to be more when the Cardinal was about to break off… Ohio Division ultimately did, so who knows now. Culturally Crooksville makes more sense in the MVL… Competitively they make more sense in the MSL-Cardinal or TVC.

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Why would they not? Size wise it makes most sense a ton of sense. They play up in the MVL every game in every sport.

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2022 MVL-BIG
Pos Team W L PF PA Net Pts
1 Tri-Valley 1 0 21 0 21
2 John Glenn 1 0 20 7 13
3 River View 1 0 20 15 5
4 Sheridan 1 0 18 13 5
5 Philo 0 1 15 20 -5
6 Maysville 0 1 0 21 -21
2022 MVL-SMALL
Pos Team W L PF PA Net Pts
1 New Lexington 1 0 26 13 13
2 Meadowbrook 1 0 13 0 13
3 Morgan 0 1 13 18 -5
4 West Muskingum 0 1 13 26 -13
5 Coshocton 0 1 7 20 -13
6 Crooksville 0 1 0 13 -13

This correct?

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Crooksville should stay in the MVL. They are having it rough right now but it comes and goes. Top contenders in the past are struggling this year. It’s not going to get better traveling to Columbus to play private schools or beat up on schools with 49-70 boys like Miller, Fisher, BR, Millersport. Build the program and maybe find dominance in a particular sport. Berne and Crooksville float in that low 100 range (117) and Berne smashes the MSL Cardinal. Colts, New Lex, Cosh, West M all register around 30-60 more boys give or take but that’s not a giant gap. Also..I think Berne would be a good fit in the MVL but not wanting to drive to Sugar Grove…so I didn’t say that. I hope it stays at 12 with some inter division tweaks

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If the MVL did not require the 2 crossover games or limited to just 1 that would benefit Crooksville greatly. I agree there’s not much separation in enrollment with Crooksville and the likes of WM, NL, Coshocton, and Meadowbrook. Morgan is on the bigger scale comparatively but they flow up and down just like all those teams mentioned. So if Crooksville and the rest of those schools had the benefit of playing their 5 divisional games or 5 and 1 crossover that would give the freedom to go find 4-5 schools that are similar competition. If they choose to play the Big School Division as non league that’s fine too. I understand a lot of that was for consistency with scheduling and it could remain that way if the schools again chose to play each other. I think Maysville the last 2 years has played only MVL Schools. And for this season NL and Morgan can compete with anyone in the league from what I’ve seen. Crooksville has managed to score 6 points this whole season so far and who knows why they scheduled Fairfield Union and River View as their non conference.

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Yeah I definitely agree about the crossover games. It hurts the smaller teams and isn’t the same team so if you are tiny and draw Tri-Valley sucks to be you. Would be nice for you guys to be able to play some of the MSL or smaller area teams to be competitive and maybe get some gate $ also

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Crossover games are the two largest in each division (Tri-Valley, Sheridan vs Morgan, New Lex) the two middle in each division (John Glenn, River View vs Meadowbrook, Coshocton) and the two smallest in each division (Philo, Maysville vs West M, Crooksville). No fear of Crooksville playing Tri-Valley or Sheridan. Weeks 1-3 are non-league games or MVL teams can choose to play but does not could toward division champions.

Also, crossover games do not count toward division champion so after week 4 Morgan, Sheridan, John Glenn, and Coshocton are all 0-0 in division at this point.

Most years Crooksville would beat River View and Fairfield Union. River View has a senior heavy team and realistically may be looking at some 0-10 years coming up.

Don’t expect the number of crossover games to drop below 2. Some of the larger schools are having a heck of a time just finding opponents weeks 1-3.

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Crooksville went 1-1 vs FC in a recent out-of-conference, and Berne doesn’t really “smash” the MSL Cardinal either.

Berne would be an AWFUL fit in the MVL, dude.

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Is it common for leagues to split for size purposes and then force teams to continue to play the other division of the league? I’m sure Crooksville would be fine playing their 5 league games and then building a schedule to help them build their program. Why make them and other teams play up just because the big schools have trouble finding games? That sounds like let’s make sure our big schools have every chance to go to post season at the expense of the smaller schools.

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The Licking County League (LCL) does this, and it goes as disastrous as you would think it does. MSL used to do this, too, disastrously and so does the IVC.

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Part 1

Two-thirds of the schools in the MVL were content with the 9 team or 10 team one league set up. One or two non-league games to find. So the small schools were playing 5 big schools (based on 5 of 6 in big school division were in 9 team MVL) yearly with the old set up. The one-third that preferred/pushed for divisions were upfront that they were staying in the league if it stayed 9 or 10 teams, but preferred expansion to 12 with divisions. Before the three teams were added, reps from each school met to hammer out how each sport would be done. For instance, the 9 team MVL had 7 soccer schools (New Lex started soccer after MVL went to 12 schools) and played each other twice a season. Now at 10 teams (all but Crooksville and Meadowbrook) they play each other once. Volleyball, basketball, baseball, and softball played all teams twice. Now they play teams in division twice and other division once. Division games count in league standings if all teams play all teams. In football nearly all the schools did not want to go from hunting 2 non-league to 5 non-league. Two crossover games were agreed to by all based on size with flexibility to keep rivalry games. The move to 12 teams and divisions was unanimous with all teams accepting the conditions. That includes football crossover games, not allowed to be a member of other leagues (ex OVAC), how all league honors would be handled per sport and per division, etc.

So in football, MVL schools have to find 3 non-league games (weeks 1-3) instead of 2 prior to 2020. And the smaller big division schools and larger small division schools fill about half the week 1-3 games playing MVL schools they were not schedule to play. Crossover games were not put in place due to playoff points, but it does keep more points within the league. (Now that 16 teams per division make it, unless you schedule multiple teams that will win few games, a winning record should get you in.)