For several years, Allan Hancock College has been a member of the Western State Conference in all sports. Hancock and Cuesta College in San Luis Obispo are the farthest north teams in the conference, which means a little extra travel time is required.

Both schools have had their ups and downs in the WSC, but have formed terrific rivalries with teams from Santa Barbara, Ventura and Los Angeles Counties.

 That situation is in serious danger of changing if the California Community College Athletic Association (CCCAA) gets its way. At a recent CCCAA (formerly the COA) meeting, a committee tried to rush through a document that would realign all of the conferences in the state.

 The most interesting, and scary, proposal was for Hancock and Cuesta, along with Bakersfield College, to join the Central Valley Conference — which is made up of teams in the San Joaquin Valley, as far north as Merced.

If passed, AHC and Cuesta will lose every rivalry they have formed to the south and, most concerning, have to travel two of the most dangerous state highways on a regular basis, while increasing their travel expenses dramatically.

Highways 166 and 41/46 are two-lane highways for the most part that have a history of traffic fatalities going back to Hollywood legend James Dean.

Hancock is vehemently opposed to the switch, which was almost ramrodded through committee and voted on without debate. That idea was tabled — momentarily — and will now come up for vote on Dec. 5.

Hancock athletic director Kim Ensing, her entire staff without exception and the school’s administration are fighting the proposal and putting together a very strong argument against it.

Volleyball coach Julio Molina did some research and found some interesting and shocking statistics from the California Highway Patrol Web site. Accidents and fatalities from those accidents in the counties that cover the Valley Conference are substantially higher than the three counties in the WSC — by a whopping 3-to-1 margin.

The CHP reported that in 2007 there were 61 fatalities in Santa Barbara, Ventura and San Luis Obispo counties, while there were 155 in Kern, Tulare and Fresno. The difference in injuries in unincorporated state highways were 1,144 compared to 4,927.

The mileage and time for student-athletes to be out of school will increase significantly, incurring a greater cost to the athletic department’s travel budget. And keep in mind, the expenses and the dangers of traveling those roads for the other Valley Conference teams coming south and west to play in Santa Maria and SLO.

With the new alignment stretching from Santa Maria to as far as Merced, the travel time itself will be enormous.

In a look at the six teams in the WSC North, Hancock has the longest round-trip to Pierce College in Woodland Hills (270 miles) with a round-trip travel time of 4 hours and 40 minutes.

Taking the six Valley Conference teams to Santa Maria, four schools are as far or farther than Pierce. They include Sequoias (Visalia 332 miles), West Hills -Coalinga (270), West Hills-Lemoore (280) and Fresno (350).

The shortest trip of the Valley schools is Taft (195, 3 hrs, 30 min). There are three WSC schools closer, Santa Barbara (125), Ventura (192) and Cuesta (60).

“In the document the committee provided, the mileage that they proposed would be an increase on average to Hancock of 16 miles,” Hancock athletic director Kim Ensing explained. “I believe this is very inaccurate. What they used was the entire WSC and their averages.

“They didn’t take into consideration of what Hancock’s WSC North schedule is per sport. Even though we don’t play West L.A. or L.A. Valley in a regularly scheduled conference game, they still took those locations into consideration when determining mileage averages.”

Mens basketball coach Ralph Gorton is one of many Hancock coaches who are part-time coaches. They have full-time positions in the community and work their schedules around practices and games.

“Imagine us playing in Fresno, Merced, Visalia or Reedley on a regular basis,” Gorton said. “I will now miss more of my job having to travel and worse yet, not get home until 2 a.m.

“What about the kids who have to go to class the next morning? These are students, too, you know. And don’t get me started on the highways we have to go on everytime.”

Ensing is concerned about how the extra travel time will affect coaches and players.

“How many coaches are we going to lose because now they have to take additional time out of their full-time employment to travel,” she lamented. “Now we are asking our student-athletes to take longer periods of time to represent Hancock.

“There will also be a greater challenge in scheduling their classes and insuring they can get to classes the next day.”

Yes, the new alignment of conferences will save miles for several schools, but not a significant amount, but mileage will skyrocket for not only Hancock and Cuesta, but for the newly aligned conference opponents.

“I like our trips up north,” said Ventura baseball coach and sports information director Don Adams. “I’d much rather go to Cuesta or Hancock than always going into Southern Los Angeles County. It’s a nice drive.”

This decision must be defeated if only for the highway situations. Both schools already put more mileage in than the other WSC members, but those are four-lane highway miles. It is much easier to go 180 miles round-trip on Highways 101, 405, 210, etc. then it is to go 120 miles on 166 or 41.

“The whole thing is very frustrating,” Ensing said, “and I feel very passionate about supporting our coaching staff and student-athletes in opposition to this. It’s very disturbing.”

It might even make more sense for the two schools to travel up the 101 to be in the Coast Conference with Hartnell in Salinas, San Jose CC, DeAnza in Cupertino, Gavilan in Gilroy, West Valley in Saratoga and Monterey Bay.

Of course this move will not affect Bakersfield or Hancock in the recently formed Southern California Football Association. Even with the realignment, the two schools would stay put for football.

No use breaking up well established rivalries. Oh wait ... the NORCAL and Valley conferences of the NCFA do not want to add two football powers to their one-game championship mix.