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Another round of SEC expansion looms on the horizon.
The Southeastern Conference – the one for Michigan high school sports, not the one for colleges down south – will expand with the addition of 13 schools in the 2027-28 school year, the conference announced on Saturday, Feb. 28. 12 schools will join from the Kensington Lakes Activities Association (KLAA), set to dissolve after the 2026-27 school year, one will join from the Interstate-8 Conference.
The schools joining the SEC from the KLAA in 2027-28 are:
- Brighton
- Hartland
- Howell
- Salem
- Canton
- Plymouth
- Dearborn
- Dearborn Fordson
- Wayne Memorial
- Westland John Glenn
- Belleville
- Dearborn Heights Crestwood
Jackson Northwest is the I-8 school joining the league.
In total, the SEC will grow from 14 teams to 27 by the start of the 2027-28 school year.
Athletic directors in the two conferences started conversations last March at the Michigan Interscholastic Athletic Administrators Association conference regarding a potential merger. The decision to expand comes after the SEC Board of Directors voted against a merger at the end of September. After the vote, the SEC reached back out to KLAA schools and posted a statewide message that the conference was looking to expand.
"That began more dialogue," SEC executive director/commissioner Wayne Welton said. "We then wrote a letter inviting all members of the KLAA to join the Southeastern Conference. I reached back out, personally talked to every AD in the KLAA by phone, so that put it back on their plate a little bit."
Along with the 12 schools from the KLAA, Jackson Northwest will leave the I-8 conference to join the SEC. Northwest is slated to join the SEC White division, comprised of schools with smaller enrollment sizes.
Dearborn Heights Crestwood was scheduled to leave the Western Wayne Athletic Conference for the KLAA for the 2026-27 school year and will follow its new leaguemates to the SEC.
The new SEC conference will be divided into four divisions that mirrors current alignment in the conference as well as the KLAA's East and West Divisions. Welton said the expansion allows the conference flexibility in scheduling and potentially hosting large-scale events in sports such as wrestling, cross country and track and field.
"We may start as four separate divisions and we think we will see some crossover," Welton said. "If I'm projecting, between the SEC Red and what was the KLAA West. I think we will see Brighton, Howell, Hartland and the three Plymouth schools do some scheduling with the SEC Red. ...
"That's not to say that at cross country or wrestling or track, we wouldn't get really creative and do some really cool stuff. That is all part of our work that lies ahead. We are fired up about it."
What happens to Northville, Novi?
The SEC expansion spells the death of the KLAA, which has existed since 2008.
The schools that are not a part of the migration to the SEC include the three Livonia schools – Churchill, Franklin and Stevenson – and neighboring rivals Northville and Novi. The Livonia schools announced last year that they would join the Lakes Valley Conference, along with Farmington's two high schools, for the 2026-27 school year.
Northville and Novi jointly announced Monday that the two schools will be joining the Oakland Activities Association (OAA) in 2027-28.
"The SEC voted [the merger] down in late September, and when that happened, a lot of individual schools started to go and explore what was best for them as an individual school and community," Northville athletic director Brian Samulski said. "That's when the conversations with the OAA as an individual school of Northville really picked up this fall."
After making sure both individual communities would do what is best for their respective school, Northville and Novi wanted to stay together to keep a longstanding friendly rivalry between the neighboring schools. The OAA offers competition at every skill level and school size, providing stability if there are any enrollment changes or competitive gaps.
"We want to stay with Novi in that rivalry where we can make sure we are playing them in every sport regardless," Samulski said. "That was definitely part of the process, working with them, and I think it was a really good one."
SEC conference 2027-28 alignment
Here is the projected conference alignment announced by the SEC on Saturday:
SEC Red
- Ann Arbor Huron
- Ann Arbor Pioneer
- Ann Arbor Skyline
- Dexter
- Saline
- Temperance Bedford
SEC White
- Adrian
- Chelsea
- Jackson
- Jackson Northwest
- Pinckney
- Tecumseh
- Ypsilanti Community
- Ypsilanti Lincoln
SEC Silver
- Belleville
- Dearborn
- Dearborn Fordson
- Dearborn Heights Crestwood
- Monroe
- Wayne Memorial
- Westland John Glenn
SEC Blue
- Brighton
- Canton
- Hartland
- Howell
- Plymouth
- Salem
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Jared Ramsey covers high school sports for the Detroit Free Press. Contact him at [email protected]; Follow Jared on X or Bluesky.
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Michigan high school sports: SEC to expand; Northville, Novi to OAA