An always-evolving sports landscape can also mean an ever-changing series of schedule adjustments.

The Colonial League’s announcement on Monday to keep its contests primarily in house meant a conglomerate with the Schuylkill League for football would be pushed back until the fall of 2021, a delay that was met with disappointment on both sides.

But it didn’t take long for the latter to unveil an eight-week slate for its 16 member schools on Tuesday.

“We had our meeting yesterday and we knew the Colonial League had voted to go to a league-only schedule, so the initial discussion in our league led to a couple of different scheduling options,” said Lehighton Director of Student Services and Facilities Planning and Schuylkill League Football Chair Kyle Spotts. “Ultimately, the league schools decided to go to a breakdown of a nine-division format and seven-division format, with the 3A and 4A schools in one division and 1A and 2A schools in another.”

The schedule, which will run from Sept. 11 through Oct. 30, was approved by a 12-4 vote.

The Colonial League is set to begin its league schedule on Sept. 25.

Marian, Mahanoy Area, Nativity and Shenandoah Valley voted against the schedule.

All four open the season with games against schools from the bigger division. The Colts will start the season at home against Jim Thorpe before traveling to Panther Valley in Week 2.

“Our kids have been great, the turnout has been great; we have over 35 kids,” said Marian head coach Stan Dakosty. “We’re working hard and excited about the season. I’m excited that we’re going to be playing a great playoff team in Jim Thorpe (Week 1), so we’ll certainly have our hands full. And then we’ll have a local rival in PV, so it’s a great way to open things up.

“But the big thing is it’s one step closer. The way things have been going, with the twists and the turns and the uncertainty, we’re now starting to see a goal at the end of the tunnel, so to speak. It’s a reachable goal, it’s an attainable goal. Anything can happen in these three weeks, but it validates who we’re going to play; yesterday at this time I didn’t know who I was going to be playing. Now we know who we’re playing, where we’re playing and all of that. We’re that much closer to playing football again.”

Jim Thorpe, Lehighton and Tamaqua will be in the seven-team big school division, while Marian and Panther Valley will compete in the nine-team small school division.

“For the majority of it, it’s teams that we have played either recently or in the past,” said Blue Raiders’ head coach Sam Bonner. “Pine Grove Area is one that’s a little bit different that we haven’t seen in a while, except in scrimmages maybe six or seven years ago.

“Shenandoah we haven’t played for a while, but that’s a team that we played a lot in the past. So it’s a little bit of familiarity, but a little bit different considering we thought we were going to be playing a lot of those Colonial League schools this year.”

Tamaqua opens the season at Shenandoah and hosts Pine Grove in Week 8.

Lehighton will travel to Panther Valley to open the season.

For a complete league schedule, check out a PDF attached to this story online.

“I’m sure it was a difficult decision for everybody that was involved to make,” Panthers’ coach Rick Jones said. “There’s no perfect scheduling because of the circumstances, and we pretty much assumed that, even a couple weeks ago, that the two leagues were going to separate for at least this year, we just didn’t know how everything was going to work out.

“I think that they did as good a job as they could, considering the circumstances. I think that they didn’t overwhelm any of the smaller schools with brutal schedules; at the same time, trying to keep everything within the county they had to play some smaller schools against some bigger schools. But we’re just happy that we’re having the opportunity to compete against the type of schools that we are competing against.”

Tri-Valley will not play its first game until Oct. 2, which means Tamaqua will be looking for a Week 3 opponent.

“Hopefully, we can find a game for that open date,” said Bonner. “Already missing two (games), we don’t want to miss three. So we’re hoping we can find someone to pick up for that week.

“Aside from that, we’re pleased and happy moving forward with it.”

Other quirks in the schedule include Minersville, which has also delayed the start of its season, playing at Pottsville on Sunday, Sept. 20. The Tide will play at Lehighton the following Saturday, Sept. 26.

Minersville’s Week 1 contest against Tri-Valley will amount to a canceled game.

Blue Mountain will also travel to Lehighton for a Thursday contest on Oct. 15.

Tri-Valley was scheduled to play Nativity in Week 2.

“With 16 schools, obviously the easiest breakdown would have been eight and eight, then there’s seven and nine (breakdown) given the school sizes,” said Spotts. “Obviously, those were discussed at length because those were the easiest identifiable choice.

“And then it was just a matter of getting a consensus from the league, which direction they wanted to go and sitting down to work out a schedule that involved those divisional requests. And there was a request to have crossover games included in the schedule so teams did not have to look outside the league, so that’s how we were able to come up with some of those crossover matchups to help fill schedules. Unfortunately, with a school or two delaying their start, it just impacts the other school with having to find something outside the area for the time being.”

Jim Thorpe, which is in the process of installing turf at its football stadium, will play its first three games on the road before a home game against North Schuylkill on Oct. 2. The Olympians will play four of their final five games at home.

“For us, we’re excited about our late stretch of games being at home,” said Jim Thorpe head coach Mark Rosenberger. “Hopefully, our field will be complete by that point in time.

“You don’t usually like starting on the road for the first couple of games, but in this case we’re excited about that and we’re hoping by October our field is ready to go.”

A postseason format is still to be determined.

“I think that will be something at our next meeting we could come up with some type of options,” said Spotts. “The big school division, everybody plays each other, so that one is pretty cut and dry. The smaller schools, with having nine teams in an eight-week season, it’s impossible to play everyone, so with that one, just taking the results and standings and factoring it in ... but we didn’t have that discussion yesterday.

“That really wasn’t anything that the ADs were hung up on. They just wanted to get something on paper, get the kids some games and then figure out down the road, if we’re fortunate enough to get through this thing, how we’re going to handle the playoffs and all that stuff.”

But Tuesday’s announcement was a great start in getting there.

“It’s nice having a firm, tentative schedule here,” said Rosenberger. “We’re just excited about playing anybody. For us, playing football is the main thing; who it’s against really didn’t matter. But now knowing we open up with Marian, we’re excited about that and looking forward to the first Friday night.

“As a program here at Jim Thorpe, we’re excited about the opportunity to play football. We’re hoping it’s a safe situation for all and we’re looking forward to opening night on Sept. 11.”