Last week, there was an article on the Sports Illustrated Web site about how high gas prices and the general state of the economy have led to a decline in tourism revenue, which is forcing some schools across the country to cut funding for athletic departments.

Luckily, the talk in this area has been more about raising fees than making cuts, but we aren’t immune to the high gas prices or tough times. While, hopefully, the towns will help keep the programs like lacrosse and girls hockey in Whitman-Hanson and freshmen sports in East Bridgewater going, school departments across the state and the MIAA should do their part to help by doing a little restructuring of the leagues.

Whitman-Hanson’s move to the Patriot League could not be coming at a better time. With the price of diesel fuel over five dollars per gallon, imagine the cost of another year of sending up to five teams per season down to Sandwich, Falmouth, Dennis-Yarmouth and Nauset. Now, the Panthers will have to go as far as Scituate, Silver Lake and Middleboro in the extremes in the more localized Patriot League. While the Panthers may be cutting their gas costs, teams like Quincy and North Quincy will still be making the ever-expensive trips down to the Cape in the ACL. With gas prices showing no signs of coming down significantly, the league may no longer be feasible.

East Bridgewater’s South Shore League was better geographically than the Atlantic Coast League, but still Harwich and Mashpee are long rides for the Vikings. You also have to consider the matter from the point of view of Harwich and Mashpee. The Vikings only have to make two trips per team to the Cape while they have to go to East Bridgewater, Norwell, Hull and Abington twice for every team each season.

Most bizarre of all is the Mayflower League, which contains South Shore and Southeastern Vocational Schools and neighboring West Bridgewater. The league spans from Avon, Holbrook and Blue Hills Vo-Tech to Westport, Bristol-Plymouth, Diman and Chatham. For South Shore, which is in the Mayflower Large Division with Chatham, it is a 1 hour 26 minute drive each way according to GoogleMaps, and that is without traffic. It’s like they made that league using lottery balls. How about the South Shore League trades Harwich and Mashpee to the Mayflower for West Bridgewater and a town to be named later?

Between the Mayflower, Atlantic Coast and South Shore League teams alone, you could make more efficient conferences without really sacrificing fair competition, it just takes people willing to do it. While it seems like a lot of work for a little return, saving a few hundred dollars in gas money could mean the difference between whether a school is able to get things like new uniforms for a freshman team or new wrestling mats for their gym. It could also mean the money could go to keep unfunded programs afloat not to mention it saves kids from coming home at 10 at night on a school night after a trip to the Cape and having to study for a test the next day.

I know it’s the middle of July and nobody really wants to think about school right now. But there are people who have to be thinking about making sure there is money for these programs and a little savings at the gas tank wouldn’t hurt. I don’t know what the people at the MIAA do over the summer, but hopefully they are thinking about what they can do to help the towns.

To restructure the leagues in this way would be a greater undertaking than one school just deciding to move. For it to happen, everyone involved needs to start talking.