The All-American Conference is a high school athletic conference made of up of schools from Trumbull and Mahoning Counties in Ohio. they compete in the Ohio High School Athletic Association.
The All-American Conference (AAC) was formed in 2008 following the merger of the Trumbull Athletic Conference and the Metro Athletic Conference. From its inception, the AAC utilized a tiered alignment system based primarily on school enrollment to maintain competitive balance. At various points, the conference included four tiers: Red, Gold, White, and Blue, which grouped schools with similar student populations while still maintaining conference-wide competition in many sports. This structure allowed large Division I schools to compete in the same league as smaller Division III and IV programs while minimizing competitive disparities.
During the early 2010s, the AAC became one of the largest high school athletic conferences in Ohio, eventually expanding to more than 20 member schools across its tiers. Schools such as Austintown Fitch, Warren G. Harding, Canfield, Poland Seminary, and Howland represented some of the conferenceâÂÂs larger programs, while schools such as Champion, LaBrae, and Newton Falls competed among the smaller-enrollment tiers.
In 2017, conference administrators voted to restructure the leagueâÂÂs alignment beginning with the 2019âÂÂ20 school year in response to changing enrollment numbers and new competitive balance factors introduced by the OHSAA. The proposal reduced the number of tiers in most sports and reorganized several schools within the conference structure.
Major realignment occurred following the 2017âÂÂ18 school year when several mid-sized schools left the conference to establish the Northeast 8 Athletic Conference. Founding members of the new conference included Lakeview, Niles, Girard, Hubbard, Struthers, Poland, and Jefferson, and South Range.
Further changes followed in 2019 when Lakeside, Edgewood, and East High School departed the AAC to join the Chagrin Valley Conference and Steel Valley Conference, respectively. These departures further reduced the size of the conference and contributed to additional restructuring.
In 2020, the schools that made up the AACâÂÂs Blue Tier announced their withdrawal from the conference to form the Mahoning Valley Athletic Conference alongside former members of the Inter-Tri County League. The move significantly altered the leagueâÂÂs structure and left the conference primarily composed of larger schools in the region.
Despite the departures, the AAC continues to operate, removing the tier system after 2020. In July 2025, Louisville announced they will join the conference beginning with the 2026âÂÂ27 school year after previously competing as an independent program.