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Spirited high school rivalries do come and go, but usually with good reason. But we're not seeing any good reason for the shakeup next school year for the new Columbia Basin Big Nine Athletic Conference that ends the long-standing league-play rivalry between Davis and Eisenhower high schools.

We understood the math two years ago when the rivalry between Selah and West Valley went by the boards. West Valley outgrew the Class 2A Central Washington Athletic Conference and moved up into the 4A/3A Columbia Basin League.

But that rationale doesn't apply to Davis and Ike. They are now in different divisions of the same conference, which means that in most sports, particularly football and basketball that were key sparks for the rivalry, games will be nonleague affairs. While that may not be a life or death issue, it certainly is a component in the community's noteworthy calendar of events. What's wrong with a little bit of tradition?

And we're told that one of the reasons for the new arrangement is consideration of the ever-escalating cost of diesel fuel and the subsequent cost for trips. While that's important, we don't see a lot of fuel efficiency in the new setup:

* Columbia Division: Davis, Sunnyside, Kennewick, Wenatchee, Moses Lake, Pasco, Southridge.

* Cascade Division: Eisenhower, Kamiakin, Hanford, Richland, Eastmont, West Valley, Walla Walla, Chiawana.

What we do see is a lot of inter-school trips around the conference to Yakima, Tri-Cities and Wenatchee and a conference that is pretty spread out geographically to begin with. Elimination of the cross-town trip in league play doesn't seem a good fit for any fuel-savings argument.

But the real eye-opener was the method by which the new look happened.

As we reported last week, the decision was made jointly by administrators from the conference members -- 11 4A schools, three 3A schools, plus a new 4A school in Pasco, Chiawana, joining the ranks in 2009-2010.

Arguments over Big Nine tradition, travel inequity, natural rivalries and a possible imbalance of power went on for hours. Finally, unable to break the stalemate, the administrators ultimately simply drew numbers.

Other rivalries eliminated besides Ike and Davis included Wenatchee and Eastmont and Kamiakin and Kennewick. Where's the fuel efficiency?

The realignment doesn't seem to have been well thought out. That said, this should go back to the drawing board. Let's have another run at alignment. How about designating one rival for each school and then a random drawing?

* Members of the Yakima Herald-Republic editorial board are Michael Shepard, Sarah Jenkins, Bill Lee and Karen Troianello.