Hartland. Howell. Novi. Northville. These are the names that Brighton High School students and fans have come to expect on the yearly sports schedules. Ever since the late 2010s, the Bulldogs’ athletic programs have participated in the 16-team Kensington Lake Activities Association (KLAA), a conference that has provided fertile grounds for this school to reach new heights on a regional stage.
Unfortunately, all good things must come to an end.
Instability has become a common theme across all American sports in the last few years. Whether it has been the Big Ten Conference expanding westward in the college ranks or the National Hockey League adding franchises in Salt Lake City, Utah, and Seattle, Washington, the post-COVID-19 pandemic world has driven an unprecedented level of change in the sports landscape.
Given this context, it should not be all too surprising that Brighton now finds itself in the middle of an athletic earthquake; earlier this year, Livonia Franklin High School, Churchill High School and Stevenson High School all announced their departure from the KLAA. This has put the Bulldogs’ conference at a reduced 13-team total. According to Brighton’s own athletic director, Mr. John Thompson, a transformation of this kind spells scheduling problems, as weekly sports, such as football, need an even number of teams to ensure all members have an opponent.
“Leagues work better with certain numbers,” Thompson said. “That presented a challenge to the remaining [KLAA] schools.”
In an effort to preserve the association, which has been in athletic operation since its founding in 2008, the KLAA began shopping for new members. After a half-year process that saw negotiations with many different schools (including a merger proposal with the Southeastern Conference, more commonly known as the SEC), the Chargers of Dearborn Crestwood were ultimately invited; upon accepting the invitation, Crestwood became the conference’s 14th member.
So what does this mean for Brighton’s athletic programs? In the short term, athletes can expect changes to who and where they are lining up against. While most 2026-2027 schedules have yet to be finalized, early reports suggest that Brighton’s football schedule will drop Novi and the P-CEP schools (Salem, Plymouth and Canton) for the likes of John Glenn, Wayne Memorial and Dearborn. Furthermore, the Conference will exchange the old West-East division structure for a new Black-Gold model that will pit the Bulldogs against Howell, Hartland, Crestwood and the aforementioned three new entries on the schedule in the race for a conference championship berth. As for other sports, schedules largely remain a mystery, but Thompson echoed his goal of keeping Hartland and Howell as regular opponents for all programs.
In the long term, things get even murkier. The KLAA has promised to continue searching for new potential additions, but at this time there are no specific schools resting in the pipeline. This uncertainty has led to conversations between athletics directors within and without the conference.
“I was in West Bloomfield last Friday night… [I] probably spent 20 minutes with their athletic administrator,” Thompson added on this notion.
Regardless of how these conversations go, Thompson echoed that the fundamental goals of high school athletics will remain the same.
“Somebody’s going to finish first, somebody’s going to finish in the middle and somebody’s going to finish last,” Thompson said. “And that’s true whether you have an eight team league, 16, 24 or whatever it is.”
As long as this fact remains true, the Brighton community should remain confident about where this school stands, especially when considering that Thompson’s comments came on the heels of the football and volleyball programs participating in district championships.
“At the end of the day, my responsibility is to do what’s best for Brighton Area Schools and our students and families… I think we’ve built a strong athletic department through the years, and I think the results [reflect] that,” Thompson said.
