Salem and West Branch have plans in motion for their next league landing spots.

The two schools have applied for positions in the Mahoning Valley-based All-American Conference and the Medina, Portage and Summit county-based Metro Athletic Conference.

The AAC league affiliation would be for all sports but football, while the MAC would encompass all sports.

The Quakers and Warriors have been scrambling to get something done after the collapse of the Eastern Buckeye Conference was made known in March when Carrollton, Minerva and Marlington decided to leave for the new Northeast Senate League.

If Salem and West Branch were to opt for the AAC, they would link up with Austintown, Boardman, Canfield, Howland, Louisville and Warren Harding.

If the Metro is the preferred plan, it would have the Quakers and Warriors going along with Mogadore Field, Norton, Streetsboro, Woodridge, Kent Roosevelt, Cuyahoga Falls and Tallmadge plus possibly more.

“It would likely be a 10- or 11-team league if we went to the Metro,” West Branch athletic director Ryan Wolf said.

West Branch, Salem and Alliance have been working together in exploring these league options, but it is unclear whether they will all end up in the same place.

Salem athletic director Matt Freeman said the Quakers would like the AAC option because travel is an important factor.

“You have to take that into account,” Freeman said. “We want our people to be able to go to the games and the Youngstown area is kind of our traditional footprint. We know these schools have good facilities. We work with these schools already and I think we would get good (media) coverage if we went that way.”

Salem and West Branch’s athletic directors said they weren’t sure what way Alliance would lean, but they believed the Aviators would prefer the Metro option.

Wolf said he wouldn’t say which way he preferred because there still has to be discussions that take place.

The three schools will meet with the MAC next week.

“We just want to do our due diligence to see what is the right fit for us,” Wolf said.

Wolf said travel will come into play as a factor and the status of non-varsity sports for the current MAC schools could weigh in on the decision.

“You look at Streetsboro on Tuesday,” Wolf said. “They had a levy fail and the district announced it was cutting middle school, freshman and junior varsity sports. Norton had a levy fail as well too and we don’t know what they will be doing.”

The current MAC is eight teams with Coventry leaving for the Principals Athletic Conference at the end the current school year. Cloverleaf will leave in after the 2027-28 school year for the same league. Ravenna and Akron Springfield will leave in 2027-28 for the Greater Portage Athletic Conference.

As for the fallout from the breakup of the EBC, Wolf said not much has been said from the departing schools.

“We had a conference meeting the other day and not much was said at all about that,” Wolf said. “It was very different. Usually we’re talking about future plans.”

Salem and West Branch hope to know their league fate in June.

Freeman said he thinks the Salem administration will wait on input from a new superintendent before it decides.

“Ideally I think we would likely want to hear from them,” Freeman said.

League notes

• Freeman said he routinely talks with East Liverpool, Beaver Local and Crestview but didn’t really bring up league talk.

“We want to try to schedule these schools more,” Freeman said.

• Salem will not be adding girls flag football next school year.

• West Branch had initially said it wanted to be done with the EBC at the end of the school year, but with no league in place it has to serve out the last season in the EBC.

“We have everything scheduled for next year but spring sports,” Wolf said.

• Salem said it has four football opponents ready for 2027. Freeman said Crestview would likely be another addition if things work out.