North Dakota Preps

Class AAA
East
West Fargo
Davies
Sheyenne
Red River
South
GF Central
North

West
Minot
Century
Legacy
Bismarck
Williston
Mandan
Dickinson

AA
Jamestown
Devils Lake
St. Marys
Shanley
Watford City
Turtle Mountain
Wahpeton
Grafton
Valley City
Central Cass

A
Region 1
Oak Grove
Hillsboro
Kindred
Milnor
Ellendale
Lisbon
Northern Cass
Enderlin

Region 2
Park River
Barnes County
Langdon
Carrington
Bottineau
Harvey
Rugby
Westhope

Region 3
New Town
Stanley
Lewis & Clark
Des Lacs-Burlington
Garrison
Velva
Kenmare
Nedrose

Region 4
Beulah
Washburn
Dickinson Trinity
Hazen
Standing Rock
Belfield
Bowman County
Shiloh Christian

9-Man
Region 1
Steele-Dawson
Linton
Napoleon
Wishek
Strasburg

Region 2
Oakes
Wyndmere
LaMoure
Hankinson
Richland

Region 3
Thompson
May-Port-C-G
Northwood
New Rockford
Hope/Finley

Region 4
Cavalier
Larimore
Lakota
North Border
Midway

Region 5
Four Winds
Dunseith
North Prairie
Benson County
North Star
St. John

Region 6
Central McLean
MLS
Surrey
Bishop Ryan
TGU
Drake-Anamoose

Region 7
Trenton
Tioga
Killdeer
Ray/Powers Lake
Divide County
Parshall

Region 8
Mott
New Salem
Richardton
Beach
Grant County
Hettinger

That's messed up. Why have more regions with less teams? You will have to play a bunch of non region games. What good is that. Why not just keep it the way it is.

Think it has everything to do with travel and possibly getting more teams into the playoffs. I should say different teams into the playoffs. Overall it's about travel and money for the schools
About

Bacon wrote:That's messed up. Why have more regions with less teams? You will have to play a bunch of non region games. What good is that. Why not just keep it the way it is.

more regions more teams, AA is shrinking to make it almost all 'Class A' schools in AA and AAA. Also some of the AA teams were big coops that are dissolving so 1 team moving down could be 2 teams in 9 man now as well.

In short more teams and more regions

There are no more teams in 9 man than this year. They are just making more regions with less teams. This year there are 6 regions with 7-8 teams. Now they go and do 8 regions with 5-6 teams. There will still be travel as each team will have to play 3-4 non region teams. What good does getting in the playoffs do if the team shouldn't be there anyway.

The number of teams are roughly the same (give or take 1 or 2). I haven't seen the playoff bracket but I'm assuming it will be the same number of teams that qualify, 24. Currently that's 6 regions x 4 qualifiers. Under this alignment it will be 8 regions x 3 qualifiers. What the 8 regions accomplishes is there will be 8 #1 seeds, the region winners, who receive a bye in the first round of the playoffs. Currently there are 6 #1 seeds (region winners) and 2 #2 seeds receive a bye. Those 2 #2 seeds just rotate through the regions each year, it is not based on any on-field success. This makes the playoff bracket cleaner, win your region and get a bye.

I agree, plus I think it is good to have more out of region games, it allows teams to schedule better competition in non-region games. Take Region 7, Divide shouldn't lose a game, ever, assuming Killdeer opts up. So now Divide Co. can go schedule 4 games that can help them get prepared for the playoffs. Or you can look at it from the other end of the spectrum. Take region 6, Surrey won't win a region game there, ever, so now to help build that program up they can go out a schedule 3 games they think they could win. I think smaller regions benefits everyone more.

Has the deadline passed for optups for the new plan? Interesting to see what Larimore and Killdeer do if it hasn't. Did the board allow the Berthold/OR split and the Ryan/OR coop? Would just flip flop those two teams between A/9man.

I also like the switch back to 8 regions for the above mentioned reasons.

30th is the deadline I believe

Is it just me or are there a couple teams missing? New coops?

Ball4Him wrote:Is it just me or are there a couple teams missing? New coops?

I know that Drayton/Valley-Edinburg and Sargent Central are no longer fielding teams after this season. Drayton is going to Grafton, Valley-Edinburg is going to Park River, and Sargent Central is going to Milnor/North Sargent.

Center-Stanton is moving from 9-man to Independent 6-man. South Prairie will be playing an Independent JV schedule in the next plan.

Here are the updated enrollments with preliminary regions:
http://www.ndhsaa.com/files/2015_16_Spo ... lments.pdf

The link also has 9-man regions if they went to 6 regions

ndlionsfan wrote:Did the board allow the Berthold/OR split and the Ryan/OR coop?

Looking at the above link, I guess they did not approve the co-op as OR is staying with Berthold.

Seems dumb to me to deny it just because it was past the deadline. If all 3 schools are in favor of it, why make them push it back two years. It's not like it would screw up the current plan. Ryan/OR would just move up to A and take the current Berthold/OR coop's place and Berthold moves down to 9man in place of Ryan.

Doesn't look like they allowed Parshall and Whiteshield to split either. Whiteshield wanted to play independent 6man.

ndlionsfan wrote:Seems dumb to me to deny it just because it was past the deadline. If all 3 schools are in favor of it, why make them push it back two years. It's not like it would screw up the current plan. Ryan/OR would just move up to A and take the current Berthold/OR coop's place and Berthold moves down to 9man in place of Ryan.

Doesn't look like they allowed Parshall and Whiteshield to split either. Whiteshield wanted to play independent 6man.

The NDHSAA does whatever they wish depending on the situation. Precedent doesn't necessarily mean anything

Excuse my ignorance but what is independent 6-man.

Montana has 6 man, Alexander goes over there for sure to play, maybe center is going to do the same thing? That'd be my best guess

Hard to believe killdeer will be 9man. They are a power in A division. Does anyone know if they are planning on opting up. Think they opted up last time they realigned.

Last I heard Killdeer will not be choosing to opt up.

I heard from Killdeers AD that they will opt up to A. I also heard Oakes and Larimore will opt up, as will Bishop Ryan.

I'm just curious Killdeer, Oakes, Larimore, & Minot Ryan all opted up to class A like cmplx6 said. Then will some teams from class A drop down or will 9 man cut down on a few regions and have 6 instead of 8. Interesting in how this will all unfold I would like to see the update on the new regions for next year once they opted up. I know the deadline is the 30th for teams to opted up.

If those teams opt-up, then yes other teams will be pushed into 9-man. I don't know about Killdeer, Ryan and Oakes but I would be VERY surprised if Larimore opted up. They have 13 Seniors this year, so from their roster of 26 they only have 13 returning players next year, I don't know how many they will get from their incoming freshman class but I do know they have only ONE freshman on the roster this year (Sophomore next year). Those numbers don't bode well for trying to play 11 man over the next two years.

I just have a question about the opt-up rule. If a school like Killdeer, Oakes, etc... decided to opt-up from 9-man to 11-man, doesn't there have to be a school that would be willing to drop down to 9-man?

There will be no more than 32 teams in class A for the 2017-2018 football seasons. Teams can request to opt up from 9-man, but the request can't be approved unless a class A team agrees to move down to 9-man. I don't think there will a problem finding schools willing to move down. Time is short ! I'm anxious to see what the regions in both classes look like after all the dust settles. Things are getting very interesting with all the speculation . Good stuff !

EEDA wrote:There will be no more than 32 teams in class A for the 2017-2018 football seasons. Teams can request to opt up from 9-man, but the request can't be approved unless a class A team agrees to move down to 9-man. I don't think there will a problem finding schools willing to move down. Time is short ! I'm anxious to see what the regions in both classes look like after all the dust settles. Things are getting very interesting with all the speculation . Good stuff !

I guess I thimk there will be teams who will want to move up but will not be aloud to because of a lack of teams willing to move to 9 man. When looking at the list I would guess New Town and Bowman County would be willing to drop. I can't see any others willing to make the drop. I think region 3 11 man looks awfully weak. Maybe they could find some takers there.?.?.?.

d_fense wrote:
I guess I thimk there will be teams who will want to move up but will not be aloud to because of a lack of teams willing to move to 9 man. When looking at the list I would guess New Town and Bowman County would be willing to drop. I can't see any others willing to make the drop. I think region 3 11 man looks awfully weak. Maybe they could find some takers there.?.?.?.

Agreed with Region 3 for class A. Velva will win that region every year, and Kenmare will take second. Don't know that any team there will even compete with them. Bishop Ryan could jump into that region and make it more competitive same with Killdeer. Maybe Lewis&Clark and DLB form a Coop to field a more competitive team.

I think Region 4 will be the toughest region in Class A. Region 2 would be next. Region 1 could give region 3 a run to be the worst region. No real powerhouse programs there either.

d_fense wrote:

EEDA wrote:There will be no more than 32 teams in class A for the 2017-2018 football seasons. Teams can request to opt up from 9-man, but the request can't be approved unless a class A team agrees to move down to 9-man. I don't think there will a problem finding schools willing to move down. Time is short ! I'm anxious to see what the regions in both classes look like after all the dust settles. Things are getting very interesting with all the speculation . Good stuff !

I guess I thimk there will be teams who will want to move up but will not be aloud to because of a lack of teams willing to move to 9 man. When looking at the list I would guess New Town and Bowman County would be willing to drop. I can't see any others willing to make the drop. I think region 3 11 man looks awfully weak. Maybe they could find some takers there.?.?.?.

Shiloh, Bowman, and Enderlin/MV are the three lowest enrollments in A. I could see all three agreeing to play 9man if the three teams in question do decide to opt up. Maybe Shiloh has larger classes coming up and will decide to play 11man, but since they've been 9man the whole time I doubt it.