In an alternate universe, Lathrop and Ripon Christian are Central California Conference football rivals.

Meanwhile, Ripon is duking it out with Manteca Unified’s East Union and Sierra in the Valley Oak League.

And Manteca High must go through the likes of St. Mary’s and old-school foil Tracy in the Tri-City Athletic League.

Additionally, some historic leagues in this half of the section don’t even exist.

This could be the new reality if the Sac-Joaquin Section’s initial realignment proposal for the 2028-2032 cycle passes. The plan was presented on the section’s YouTube channel Thursday morning.

Commissioner Mike Garrison and his assistants not only unveiled these potential new-look leagues, but outlined the how the section mapped it out.

“We want our membership to understand not only what is being proposed, but why,” Garrison said in the video. “With nearly 200 schools spread across a large and diverse geographic area, there will never be a perfect alignment for every individual school.

“Our responsibility is to look beyond any school or league and develop a structure that best serves the section as a whole. Competitive equity will remain at the center of that work, while also recognizing the realities of geography, travel, enrollment, program offerings and the unique needs of our member schools.

Under the proposed realignment, the Trans Valley League, established in 1959, and the San Joaquin Athletic Association (1972) are no more, and traditional rivals will be broken up.

“What saddens us is the Trans Valley League doesn’t even exist with all the history it has and the great structure that’s in place,” Ripon Christian athletic director Kevin Tameling said. “That would be a sad thing for our area.”

Manteca is breaking away from the VOL, where it has long battled Oakdale and intra-city rivals East Union and Sierra. Ripon, Escalon and Hughson leave the now-defunct TVL and headed for the VOL.

There will be a total of 13 leagues in the SJS, each divided into two competitive-based tiers — Capital and Valley, the former being the more competitive of the two. Each league will also have an all-sport alignment, and a separate one for football.

In this iteration of the TCAL, Manteca is in the Capital tier for football and all-sport, sharing both spaces with current VOL league-mate Central Catholic, St. Mary’s, Lincoln Tracy and Kimball.

“Us leaving the VOL is disappointing. Obviously, we’ve been in the VOL for a long, long time,” said Manteca athletic director and former football coach Eric Reis.

While disappointing, it’s not an entirely surprising development for the Buffaloes. The section previously recommended that Manteca be placed in the TCAL for this current four-year cycle but ultimately kept the Buffs in the VOL.

Enrollment-wise, Manteca fits with a higher-division league like the TCAL. Competitively, football has driven the school’s athletic program.

“We all realize the football part and knew it was going to happen, we just weren’t sure if football would be totally separate,” Reis said. “We understand being put in Capital for football, but for (all-sport) we didn’t get Valley, which we thought would be a thing.

“You look at some sports, like girls basketball, now we’re put in with St. Mary’s, which would obviously be extremely difficult. The other side to it is in wrestling, we don’t have to deal with Oakdale anymore. It just depends on each sport.”

Also in the TCAL are fellow Manteca Unified school Weston Ranch, Bear Creek, Chavez, Edison, Franklin-Stockton, Lodi, McNair, Stagg, Tokay and West.

In the revamped VOL, Sonora returns to rejoin traditional rival Oakdale. Included are Downey, Enochs, Gregori, Mountain House, Patterson, Pitman and Turlock. East Union and Sierra are both in the Valley tier for football, but in Capital for all-sport. Ripon is placed in Valley for both.

One of the more surprising moves among area schools involves Ripon Christian, one of the section’s smallest with an enrollment close to 300.

The proposed realignment puts RC in the Central California Conference with MUSD’s Lathrop, a school with nearly 1,500 students. Lathrop would arrive from the now-extinct Western Athletic Conference with Beyer, Central Valley, Ceres, Grace Davis, Johansen, Livingston and Pacheco.

Ripon Christian’s depth in all sports would also be tested against Atwater, Buhach Colony Golden Valley and El Capitan.

Three schools in the new CCC have more than 2,000 students.

“I was not expecting anything like that at all,” Tameling said. “Not sure that’s necessarily bad, but it’s not ideal. We understand the section has to think globally, and there’s moving parts in place. A lot of schools are shocked and in the same boat as us.”

The massive deficit in enrollment isn’t all that makes Ripon Christian’s placement in the CCC a bit perplexing. “Scope of athletic program” is supposed to be one of the primary criteria in the section has set in place for league placement. In Ripon Christian’s case, it does not offer some sports, such as swimming or water polo, while the much larger schools in the proposed CCC do. Also, Ripon Christian has a coed tennis program, which is traditionally the case for small schools in the section, whereas the larger schools have separate boys and girls teams.

“Still trying to process all this, but scope of sport is a big concern for us,” Tameling said.

River Islands, which had its first graduating class in the spring, is in a unique position.

Currently, the Riptide is a member of the Mother Lode League for football and the Central California Athletic Alliance for the rest.

The 2028-32 plan has River Islands in the MLL Valley tier for football and all-sport. This year, River Islands is the largest school in Division VII for football, and with expected growth in the coming years, administrators are likely to lobby for a more competitive league.

The proposed MLL includes holdovers Big Valley Christian, Bret Harte, Calaveras, Linden and Summerville, while ushering in Denair, Delhi, Gustine, Hilmar, Le Grand, Mariposa, Orestimba, Riverbank and Stone Ridge Christian.

“We understand why the section office put us where they did,” River Islands athletic director Justin Graham said. “Our data reflects that we’ve only had varsity sports for two years, and we’re growing. There’s a process for this, so we are going to go through with the process and request to be somewhere else. But we understand the ‘why’ behind where we’re placed.

“I just think when you look at where we are as a school, we are growing real fast, and when you at the league where they have proposed for us to go, in some cases, we’ll be two times bigger than the other school we play. Our enrollment will continue to grow, as are our pool of athletes and competitiveness.

“Nothing against those schools, they have some fine athletic programs, but with where we’re going when that realignment starts in 2028, our school will be in a much different place than what the data reflects in this realignment cycle.

“When you look at this process, it makes a lot of sense for other schools with a lot of history, but for us, we’re new.”

There are three criteria the section is using to for realignment. Primary criteria includes competitive equity, scope of athletic program and school enrollment. The desires of the schools, school districts and leagues make up the secondary criteria. Lastly, general considerations such as distance traveled and geography are examined.

The section has also devised a way to quantify competitive equity, using data such as final MaxPreps rankings, playoff performance and league standings from the past three years.

“It’s just the first step,” Graham said. “We all have the opportunity to make our case for where we want to be. We know it’s not set in stone. At this site, we’re ready to do the work and advocate for our kids and our programs.”

The next step is for schools to send their proposals, which are due Oct. 30. A public hearing for the southern half of the SJS will take place Dec. 8, and members from the northern half will have their say the following day.

A final realignment plan will go to to the schools for vote, and the SJS Board of Managers makes it vote on April 21.

“League alignment is one of the most important responsibilities we have as a section,” Garrison said. “It impacts competition, scheduling, travel, school communities and, ultimately, the experience we provide for our student-athletes ...”

“Our goal is to provide a process that is thoughtful, transparent, data driven and focused on the long-term health of our membership.”