scotscores

That is entirely possible - I have Drumchapel (joined from Central AFL for start of season) as the best Caledonian team this season, despite them being in the 1st Division. Any other teams coming from the Scottish Premier AFA would retain their rankings points going into the Caledonian 1st, and thus bolster that league's ranking considerably.

For this season, at least, taking into account only the top divisions of each league, the Scottish Premier AFA is the strongest league, with the Caledonian and Saturday Morning both being better than the Greater Glasgow Premier. Of course, things look like changing next season, but there are still a number of very decent teams in the SPAFA. 6 of the Top 10 teams in my Scottish Amateur rankings are from the SPAFA (2 from their Championship - Steins and Greenock HSFP). GGP only has 3 teams in the Top 50, with EKRR being the highest at 25, and currently has 7 reserve teams of SPAFA and Caledonian clubs in its 30-club membership.

Don't think there's any question that playing-wise, the top amateurs would probably be too good for Tier 9/10 - a look at their results in the Scottish Cup shows this (Cupar Hearts winning 5-0 at Tier 6 Abbey Vale this season, Shortlees winning at Tier 6 Tynecastle in 2018/19, and Colville Park beating 4 senior teams in the 16/17 and 17/18 seasons - including 7-0 and 5-0 wins). But as has been said elsewhere, it's whether the clubs would have any appetite to move "up" and go from top dogs to also-rans. There was a similar argument for the juniors remaining where they were a few seasons back, and they managed to hold out for a while, but we all know what happened there.

One can only hope - it might come sooner than we think. It's possible now to do it - teams could play at Level 11 or below as they are (amateur, with no upgrades necessary), with the highest finishing team that meets standards for Tier 10 going up, or a play-off for promotion. Essentially, you can just stick the amateur teams on to the bottom of the existing pyramid - although playing standards at the top of the amateurs are probably higher than Tier 10 in the seniors (Tier 9 in the East).

You can drop down the rankings if you don't live up to your own standards - once you get to the top, it's hard to stay there unless you keep winning as you would be expected to win (i.e. by 2 or 3 goals against teams further down the rankings, not just 1-0). Cupar's doing just fine just now - third place and a chance to win the Scottish (although now that they've got to 3rd, they'll be expected to win against Steins in the semi, and then win comfortably against Garrowhill in the final - anything less and they won't be going any further up).

Thanks - I'd overlooked that - I try my best to check eery week which teams are folding/sitting out the season so I can remove them from my rankings, but I often miss something due to the number of leagues!

Couple of U19 teams in the Scottish Premier AFA disappeared now as well - Glasgow Athletic and Cumbernauld Colts. Kinross has folded in the Kingdom of Fife AFA. The summer amateur leagues have started up again in the North. Inverness & District now down to 26 teams (8-9-9), with a new team in Kirkhill, Culbokie returning, and Loch Ness merging to form Balloan/Loch Ness. Caithness up to 15 (8-7) with the return of Halkirk. North West Sutherland a single division of 10 (with the return of Embo) - a new team, Mallard, will play in the cup competitions only. Shetland is again 19 clubs (7-12). Orkney is down to 19 clubs (7-5, with a reserve division of 7 clubs) - Streamline and Kirkwall Accies Reserves not there this season. Lewis & Harris is the same single division of 9 clubs. Uist & Barra is the same (single division of 6 clubs). West Highland League is the same (single division of 8 clubs). Arran is the same (single division of 3 clubs - unaffiliated to SAFA).