Want to keep the Central California Conference name? Then win it

The results are in on my highly unscientific Twitter poll, the one that asked readers to vote on which faction of teams should retain the name “Central California Conference” when Sac-Joaquin Section realignment goes into effect for the 2018-19 school year.

Under the section’s realignment plan, Turlock and Pitman will leave the CCC in two years and join the Modesto Metro Conference. But Turlock, like current MMC member Modesto, was a charter member of the CCC back in 1957. Turlock and Pitman don’t mind moving, as long as the CCC moniker moves with them. Meanwhile, the remaining CCC schools – Merced, Golden Valley, Atwater, Buhach Colony and newcomer El Capitan – believe possession is nine-tenths of the law, and the name should remain in Merced County.

With almost 1,700 votes cast, the winner of my poll is … Turlock/Modesto, by nearly 300 votes.

What does this mean? Not much at all.

Perhaps more Stanislaus County readers have Twitter accounts than do readers in Merced County. Perhaps there was a better get-out-the vote effort in the north. Or maybe a group of Turlock High students got together in their second-period class to vote en masse for Turlock/Modesto. That’s a possibility, I suppose.

Ultimately, it will come down to the administrators, athletic directors and conference commissioners of the two leagues involved – the Modesto Metro Conference and the CCC. According to MMC commissioner Ed Felt, meetings will begin in May to try to hash out a solution. More likely, a coin flip will be necessary to solve this. Former Merced High principal Tom Scheidt won the coin flip back in 2004 that allowed the current CCC schools to keep the name when the Modesto City Schools split off to form the MMC.

This much is certain: Last week’s column touched a nerve. I was stunned by the number of people who came up to me and offered their opinions on the matter.

Wayne McGhee, former Modesto High basketball coach (who led the Panthers to the 1984 Division II state championship), called the other day and suggested they simply call one league the CCC North and the other the CCC South.

Reader Paul Langley, of Turlock, had that same idea.

Golden Valley assistant football coach Mike Mondo, with whom I attended Merced High more than 30 years ago, suggested the name be scrapped altogether, with each conference selecting new names.

Both are cogent, pragmatic ways of dealing with the issue. But something tells me it isn’t going to be that easy.

Tradition runs deep.

For the past 60 years, kids at Turlock High have dreamed of scoring the touchdown, or sinking the basket, or hitting the homer that clinches the Central California Conference title. Nothing else.

Decades ago, Merced kids dreamed of doing those very things in the Yosemite League, as one reader pointed out in an email. But Merced eventually got used to playing in the CCC, so much so that now it doesn’t want to give up the name.

Things change.

Several readers offered up very interesting alternative names … such as the Turlock-Modesto Athletic Conference (colloquially referred to as the T-MAC), the Mid-Valley Athletic League/Conference (take your pick) and the Stanislaus County Athletic League/Conference.

Solid options all.

But one Twitter follower – Travis Cardoso – really grabbed my attention with his suggestion. Cardoso thinks the schools should settle the issue between the white lines.

This is my favorite idea.

A quick glance at the MaxPreps standings in five CCC boys sports – baseball, basketball, football, soccer and water polo – for the 2015-16 school year gives us a fairly competitive snapshot. If you assign one point for a first-place finish and six points for a last-place finish – lowest score wins – Turlock delivers a total of 12 points, followed by Merced (13), Pitman (16) and Atwater (18).

By this metric, Turlock would win what I’ve dubbed the “CCC Cup” and, thus, earns the right to keep the conference name.

For the 2017-18 season, the last before realignment kicks in, factor in all boys and girls sports – a total of 22 different sports – and the Cup winner keeps the conference name. So, let the games begin.

It beats the hell out of a coin flip.

This story was originally published March 27, 2017 at 1:20 PM with the headline "Want to keep the Central California Conference name? Then win it."