The Oakland Activities Association was first formed with schools from an amalgamation of different leagues. The G.O.A.L. (Greater Oakland Activities League), Metro Suburban Activities Association and the Southeastern Michigan Association (plus one independently associated school) were all merged in 1994 into the Oakland Activities Association, with the goal being to form a more geographically-centered league.
2002 also marked a period of decline for the OAA, beginning with Brandon High leaving to join the Flint Metro League that year, where it currently resides. Two years after that, in 2004, Madison and Lamphere left to join the Macomb Area Conference, while Clawson left to join the Metro Conference, and in 2008, Waterford Mott and Waterford Kettering left to join the Kensington Lakes Activities Association. However, in 2010, the OAA gained a new member in Oxford, who had come from the Flint Metro League. After that, the next school to leave the OAA for another conference did not come for another 11 years, when Hazel Park left to join the Macomb Area Conference in 2019.[1]
However, the OAA has been beginning to fill these holes in their membership, extending an invitation to Ferndale University in 2020, who had been co-oping with Ferndale for football for years, and extending another invitation to their first non-Oakland County school in Harper Woods, who was previously an independent, in 2021.
There have also been a significant amount of closings and consolidations of various Oakland County schools in recent years, which also has not helped the OAA's membership. These aforementioned consolidations are Dondero High School closing and merging with Kimball High School to create Royal Oak High School in 2006, Pontiac Central High School closing and merging with Pontiac Northern High School to create Pontiac High School in 2009, Lahser High School closing and merging with Andover High School to create Bloomfield Hills High School in 2013, Southfield-Lathrup High School closing and merging with Southfield High School to create Southfield Senior High School for the Arts and Technology (commonly abbreviated to Southfield A&T) in 2016, and Harrison High School closing in 2019.
The members of the Oakland Activities Association is divided into divisions which vary by sport. Before 2007, these divisions were labeled after Roman Numerals, with there typically being three divisions, labeled I, II, III, and occasionally a fourth, labeled IV. Nowadays, though, these divisions are labeled after colors, with most sports typically having three divisions: red, white, and blue. However, some sports are only divided into the red or white divisions while some are divided into a fourth division, gold.[3]
