North Dakota Preps

I heard killdeer won't opt up because they don't want to play Bulah. Find it sad they played in the last 2 state title games and now want to stay down a division because they are scared to play a team. Where is the pride.

Killdeer may have to opt up to not play Beulah, their numbers seem to be going down along with Hazen and rumor has it that they may be solidly in A.

So now that the new plan is out, does anybody have any thoughts on it? I know Stanley is dropping Powers Lake to drop down to class A. How will that affect the rest of the placement? How many schools will petition down to 9-man?

cmplx6 wrote:So now that the new plan is out, does anybody have any thoughts on it? I know Stanley is dropping Powers Lake to drop down to class A. How will that affect the rest of the placement? How many schools will petition down to 9-man?

You can only opt up...not down. It'll all depend on those usual 'A' schools on if they opt up again.

I think It will be strange to see teams like Killdeer, Carrington, Minot Ryan, and Larimore in 9man. The AA division comes out with a nice similar group, but will be interesting to see how it's structured for the regular season and playoffs

In my opinion it's a joke to have a division with only 10 teams, but refuse to split a division that has 50 teams. By putting those extra teams down in the "A" division you are goin to watch a team like Bulah dominate the division. It's no fault to them as the miners have a great program, but they have competed for and won a state title on the AA division these last Couple years. They will really lay it on teams in this division

OK Looking at the new plan and seeing the problem that is the "A" division made up of 31 teams. I have made a few assessments.

1) There will be 7 former AA schools, 18 former A schools, and 6 former 9-man schools.

2) Looking at roster sizes from 2015 the two largest teams would be Harvey(47) and Park River(46). The smallest schools would be Trenton/Trinity/Christian(15) and New Town(17). Average roster size is 29 players.

3) 6 teams that were A schools are moved down to 9-man. 4 of those 6 schools have a roster size of 29 or larger.

4) One of the top 3 schools in enrollment has one of the bottom three roster sizes. And one of the bottom 3 schools in enrollment size has one of the top three roster sizes.

Conclusion is that they need to use roster size and not school size to help determine classification.

If Trenton and New Town have to play A in 2 years they will not have a soul out for football as they will be slaughtered. Larimore and Milnor will kill 9-man as they would have the largest rosters in that division.

When you start to look at the roster sizes throughout the divisions there is not a big difference in size until you get to the AAA classification.

How many did Larimore, Killdeer, Milnor/NS, Carrington, and Minot Ryan have on their rosters? I'm very interested in seeing these schools in 9man. I think between them and Cavalier we will be seeing the same teams in the quarterfinals for the next many years. The bottom half of 9man is not going to have much success.

cmplx6 wrote:Conclusion is that they need to use roster size and not school size to help determine classification.

Bad idea for obvious reasons.

ndlionsfan wrote:I think It will be strange to see teams like Killdeer, Carrington, Minot Ryan, and Larimore in 9man. The AA division comes out with a nice similar group, but will be interesting to see how it's structured for the regular season and playoffs

Did I miss something or are we assuming these schools won't opt up? I would find it hard to believe they wouldn't opt up, especially Ryan.

I haven't heard anything, but I think Larimore goes 9 man. Less travel, more natural rivalries, and the school isn't as big as it used to be.

I haven't heard anything either. If they don't opt up, I really think they should look at 2 9man divisions. Many teams just aren't going to be able to compete with those programs due to numbers.