An already strained relationship intensifies

Hammonton vs. Seneca would make for a good football rivalry.

The Blue Devils and Golden Eagles are Group 3 programs that play a similar, sturdy style - with a heavy emphasis on the wing-T ground game - and represent schools in the same neck of the South Jersey woods. It's maybe 15 miles on a scenic drive through the Pine Barrens on Route 206 between the campuses.

And the guess here is that the game will happen in 2014.

But what matters most is how it happens.

And whom the Golden Eagles replace on the Blue Devils schedule, and whom the Blue Devils replace on the Golden Eagles schedule.

And what that means for South Jersey football in terms of conference alignment, scheduling issues, and the widening rift between public and nonpublic programs.

All football people with whom I talk say they've never seen the uneasy alliance between public and nonpublic schools in a more tense and tenuous state. It has become the No. 1 issue in the sport.

As a result of the nonpublic schools' near-desperate need to be successful in football - and the wide-ranging ramifications of that imperative - something as seemingly simple as building a schedule has become a nightmare scenario for conference administrators.

Cape-Atlantic League officials recently threw up their hands after a preliminary proposal to split the conference into two divisions for football drew howls of protest from coaches and athletic directors.

Hammonton did more than complain. The Blue Devils initiated the process of leaving the Cape-Atlantic and joining the Tri-County Conference - which automatically would make them a member of the West Jersey Football League - for the 2014-15 school year.

Hammonton athletic director Frank Torcasio said there are "a bunch of reasons" that the school is considering the move, and Blue Devils football coach Pete Lancetta stressed that the decision will be made by administrators who will determine what's best for the entire athletic program, not just the football team.

But let's not lose sight of the main issue: The CAL's struggles with football scheduling is the primary reason why Hammonton is considering a move to the Tri-County.

And the CAL's struggles with football scheduling are a function of having three nonpublic members - St. Augustine Prep, Holy Spirit, and St. Joseph - that are seriously committed to success in the sport.

It's an overstatement to say, "Nobody wants to play the Catholic schools anymore."

But not by much.

The West Jersey Football League just finished its new schedule for the 2012 and 2013 seasons. One of the first things that officials had to do was to keep one of the best public-school programs in South Jersey away from one of the best nonpublic programs in South Jersey - even though they are similar in size and would make for natural division rivals - because of tension between the teams.

That's just one issue. There are lots of others. How happy do you think Seneca, Moorestown, Cherry Hill West, and Timber Creek are that as members of the Constitution Division they have to play both Camden Catholic and Paul VI? While there are similar-size public schools that don't play any games against nonpublic programs?

"One thing I would love to see is the Catholic schools go in one division and play each other only," Seneca coach Bill Fisher said in an e-mail. "I think it is unfair to play Catholic schools during the regular season, and losing to them will affect whether you get into the public-school playoffs."

Fisher is not a whiner, and he's not alone. Lots of public-school coaches and administrators feel the same way - and their misgivings about competing against nonpublic schools will only intensify as those programs continue to push to improve their facilities and attract more students and win more games and gain more notice and create more school spirit and engage more alumni.

The nonpublics have to do that. They're in a fight for survival in an era of shuttered Catholic elementary schools and consolidated parishes and global-wide economic distress.

My guess is that the Cape-Atlantic League will join with the West Jersey Football League for the next scheduling cycle for the 2014 and 2015 seasons. Coincidentally, if that happened, it would serve the same purpose for Hammonton as a jump to the Tri-County from a football standpoint.

There won't an all-nonpublic division - although that's what many public coaches and administrators would like to see - but with more than 80 schools, there will be enough divisions to fan out the non-publics and spread the "hardship" among a greater pool of public programs.

Prediction: Hammonton and Seneca will play in 2014.

But as the non-publics continue to see football success as a key to their survival and the publics continue to chafe over their perception of an unlevel playing field, the road to that new rivalry is going to be rockier than ever.