Not too long ago, Carlynton High School football coach Ryan Gevaudan had lunch with Springdale coach Chuck Wagner -- he wanted to pick Wagner's mind on ways to turn the Carlynton program around.

With the WPIAL football realignment looming, and knowing Carlynton would be dropping to Class A, Gevaudan had written down what schools he thought would be in which Class A conferences.

"He asked if he could see what I came up with," Gevaudan said. "He was interested in seeing how I thought it would go."

It didn't go the way Gevaudan thought it would.

The WPIAL released its football realignment and schedules for the 2008 and '09 seasons last week. Gevaudan was surprised to find Carlynton in the Eastern Conference along with Springdale.

"I thought they'd put us in the old Black Hills Conference with Burgettstown, Chartiers-Houston and those teams," said Gevaudan, who completed his fourth season as Carlynton's head coach in the fall. "I was surprised they put us in the Eastern with Avonworth, Clairton and Springdale."

Carlynton is one of four teams that have moved into the Eastern Conference for at least the next two years. The others are North Catholic, Avonworth and Brentwood. They join holdovers Leechburg, Riverview, Springdale and Wilkinsburg.

Because of the demise of the Class AA Tri-County North Conference -- four of the schools in that conference were Class A in size and decided not to play up in classification for the next two seasons -- and the new PIAA enrollment guidelines for football classification because the Philadelphia Catholic League schools are joining the PIAA next school year, the WPIAL had a major reshuffling of teams in conferences. The moving of teams was more extensive in the two lower divisions.

In the PG West area for example, six schools beside Carlynton were moved.

Sto-Rox and Quaker Valley move into the Class AA Century Conference from the Midwestern Athletic Conference. Bishop Canevin joins the Century after playing in the Class A Black Hills and Cornell moves into the Century after a two-year stint in the Tri-County North.

The other teams in the Century are Keystone Oaks (which had been in the Class AAA Big Seven Conference), Northgate, Seton-LaSalle, South Fayette, South Park and Steel Valley.

"We're back in what was the old Three Rivers Conference," Canevin coach and athletic director Bob Jacoby said. "That's the conference we were in from 1983 until '99. We've been in Class A since 2000."

Jacoby said it will be nice to renew old rivalries, although the conference won't be easy with South Park, Steel Valley, Seton-LaSalle and Sto-Rox.

Riverside joins the MAC along with Mohawk after playing in the Tri-County North. And Burgettstown drops to the Class A Black Hills after being in the Class AA Century.

"The thing I don't understand is why the WPIAL thinks we are rivals with Brentwood when we are really not," Gevaudan said. "It must see us as rivals because we're in the same conference with Brentwood and play them the last game."

While playing in the Eastern Conference will not be any picnic, Gevaudan said it will be nice to go against schools more Carlynton's size. The Cougars were one of the smaller Class AA schools last year.

"I know you can play only 11 at a time, but it will be nice to look across the field and not see 70 players on the other side," he said. "Those numbers wear on you after a while."

Riverside has always aligned itself more with teams in Beaver County than Lawrence County. With that in mind, Riverside coach Jesse Rosenberger doesn't have any problems playing in the MAC.

"Back 100 years ago when I played [at Riverside] we had some great games against Aliquippa," he said. "We play Beaver Falls, New Brighton, Ellwood City in other sports, so this won't be any different."

Riverside played two MAC teams -- Beaver and Beaver Falls -- in the WPIAL playoffs this past season, beating Beaver.

What does bother Rosenberger is the way the WPIAL cross-scheduled teams in the MAC to play against Class AAA schools. Riverside was cross-scheduled against Hopewell, which has been a very good Class AAA team in the past. New Brighton was cross-scheduled against Blackhawk.

"I know those games don't count in the standings, but why should the teams in the MAC have to go against some very good Class AAA teams while other conferences don't have to do that," he said. "We have to play Hopewell and then get ready for Aliquippa two weeks later."

The other three Class AA conferences have 10 teams, which eliminates any open dates until the 10th week. Riverside also opens at home against talented Beaver Falls the first game.

Jacoby wishes he had an open date at the start of the season so he could renew a rivalry against North Catholic.

After making trips to Lawrence County for Tri-County North games, Cornell coach Dan Knause is glad the Raiders will be playing closer to home.

"With games against Quaker Valley, which is just across the river, and Sto-Rox and Canevin it will be much better," he said. "We thought we'd get put in with those teams and that's what happened."

One of the reasons the WPIAL decided to pack all 39 teams in Class AA into four conferences was to eliminate a wild-card entry into the playoffs. It was necessary, with five Class AA conferences, to have a wild-card team to fill out the playoff brackets.

Next season, the top four teams in each Class AA conference will qualify for the playoffs.