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AML CHAMPIONSHIP GAME HISTORY |
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Factual Information courtesy of Jim Melaro of the Olean Times Herald |
| It is loved my some, despised by other and
looked at indifferently by still others. It is the AML Title game which
pits the winner of the two halves of the Allegheny Mountain League
(currently the North & the South) in a championship game at the end of
the season.
The AML first held a championship game at the end of the 1986 season when Port Allegany (10-0) defeated Johnsonburg (10-1) 24-13. The two title game foes were determined by the first place teams after nine weeks of play in the AML East (Cameron County, Coudersport, Port Allegany, Otto-Eldred, Sheffield and Smethport) and the AML West (Eisenhower, Elk County Catholic, Johnsonburg, Kane, Ridgway and Youngsville). In 1994, District 9 added a semifinal round for the district playoffs. Hence, the AML decided that, in order to keep its title game, it would take the two teams in first place after eight weeks and match them in the ninth week for the league championship. If the two teams who were playing in the AML Title Game were not suppose to play each other in the ninth week, the teams they were suppose to play would play each other. In 1999, Brockway and Curwensville joined the conference. With their addition, the conference broke into the current North (Coudersport, Smethport, Youngsville, Sheffield, Eisenhower, Otto-Eldred, Port Allegany)-South (Kane, Johnsonburg, Cameron County, Curwensville, Brockway, Ridgway and Elk County Catholic) format. The 2000 season saw the game take on an added importance for the AML's Class A teams as it would act as the game to determine the conference's automatic Class A District 9 playoff representative if a Class A team won the title. The game was played at a neutral site from its inception until the 2002 season where it was decided that the North and the South teams would alternate home games starting with the North in 2002. |