B-oldtimer wrote:I don't understand this new alignment of football I can see no reason for class A 11 man football tier. I think they should have let schools decide if they wanted to play 11 man football stay with double A teams and if they didn't want to stay let them go to 9 man football. I look at this 11 man football teams in A travel is going to terrible now you are going to have to travel half the state to put a 8 game schedule together and now for JV football same thing will happen or you will be playing a lot of nine man teams and what is point of not just then letting schools decide what level their going to play at. I also think they should have looked at 6 man football this would have led to maybe fewer coops and travel cut down. I think coaches and traditionalist have problem with this but a lot of parents and fans could be won over with less travel and traditional rivals happening again instead of traveling all over the state. Montana has had for number of years and even one school from ND coops with Montana school and has participated in 6 man football. I know several of class A teams would have liked to opted down to 9 man football and now looking at who's left I can see why they wanted too.
Teams in the past have been allowed to decide if they wish to play up a level. There were several teams that have been doing that for the past few years. When your male enrollment and participation numbers are good, that makes this decision easier. When your male numbers drop or participation numbers drop then opting up might not be in your best interest. If you look at schools and their enrollment numbers it is a very challenging task on what is best for ND football. Dropping down to 6 man football, I think would be too much of a change for most of us. Maybe the older folks would remember 6 man football, but I don't recall every seeing 6 man football. So, yeah I agree...being a traditionalist it would just be weird. Pretty lame excuse I know
I agree with your logic in that it would make it easier to field a team, but it wouldn't effect co-ops like you think. I believe most co-ops are across the board co-ops and not just a one sport co-op. The two biggest reasons why schools chose to not opt up like they did in the past is travel and participation numbers. When your longest road trip will now be 100 miles vs your closest road trip at 150 miles makes this an easy decision. When you have 40+ kids out vs 25 kids out that also makes the decision easier. I know in another co-op one school has 350+ K-12 enrollment yet only have 3 kids out for football. Makes it pretty tough to be competitive, but yet how else do you classify which division teams are going to be in besides school enrollment? Not an easy task, but I do believe the current regulations (Class AAA-AA-A-9man) is the best solution. Not fun with travel no doubt. Hope this helps old timer.