Principals and athletic directors of the 21-team All-American Conference voted 11-10 on Wednesday to bring the conference back to three divisions in all sports, starting in the 2019-2020 school year.

As of now, every AAC sport consists of three tiers — Red, White and Blue — except for football, which also has a Gold Tier that features Warren G. Harding, Boardman, Austintown Fitch and Ashtabula Lakeside.

Beginning in 2019, however, those four schools, along with Youngstown East, will make up the AAC Red Tier in all sports. One school in that group that has struggled to make a footprint in the AAC thus far is Lakeside.

“If you look at the numbers, there are still over 400 boys in the school,” AAC Commissioner Rick King explained. “A couple of ADs pointed out that Lakeside is still a Division I-II school, and they were still willing to play Lakeside on an annual basis.”

According to King, part of the decision on the vote was based on the new OHSAA Competitive Balance numbers being released. King also said that when the current league format was approved in 2013, and then put into play beginning in 2015-16, the enrollment numbers dictated expansion.

The new alignment causes a slight shakeup in the White Tier, known for its “medium-sized” schools. Eight schools, including Canfield, Girard, Howland, Hubbard, Lakeview, Niles, Poland and Struthers all play together starting in 2019.

Currently, teams like Canfield and Howland are fixtures in the Red Tier, but move down in ’19, while Girard, a Blue Tier school, move up to join old TAC-8 rivals Hubbard and Lakeview, along with backyard foe Niles.

The Blue Tier, meanwhile, consists of eight teams. This includes Edgewood, Brookfield, Campbell, Champion, Jefferson, LaBrae, Liberty and Newton Falls. Edgewood, currently a White Tier team, will be the only one making any movement up or down, while the rest will remain in the Blue for ’19.

The move, as previously mentioned, mainly affects football, especially for schools like Niles and Poland, who hold dual-tier status in the Red and White.

“The one thing is, the way it (the new alignment) sets up, it gives all teams seven weeks, Week 4 through 10, to schedule conference opponents,” King said.

“With Niles and Poland being in other tiers, their schedule is tied up between Week 2 and 10, so this gives them the flexibility with non-conference scheduling from Week 1-3.”

As for the close vote itself, King says that there were two similar plans introduced leading up to this vote, and he believes that Blue Tier schools, being the smallest, may have the most to lose long-term, which could be one explanation for a down-to-the-wire vote.

Schools have until May 1 to decide if they wish to leave the conference, but King went on to explain that it’s not that simple.

“There’s always concerns about schools leaving the conference, and everybody’s hung up on May 1,” King said.

“But, these schools are locked-in to a contract. The executive committee has the power to re-vote again before 2019, should there be a shakeup with teams leaving, and it’s always a possibility. (However) I hope everybody decides to stay the course.”