9-man- Way to early 2023 outlook

[ChickenNuggets]

Here is my best guess as to how the Regions shake out next year.

Region 1:
1- LaMoure/LM
2- Wyndmere/Lidgerwood
3- Maple River
4- Seargent County

Richland
Hankinson
Hatton-Northwood
Griggs County
Enderlin
Tri-State

I think LaMoure and W/L are the top two teams and then the next 3-4 teams could be battling for the remaining two playoffs spots. in that region.

Region 2:
1- North Prairie
2- Nelson County
3- New Rockford/Sheyenne
4- St. John

Northstar
Four Winds
North Border
Larimore
Midway-Minto

This will be one of the deepest/strongest regions. in the state. The top 5-6 teams are going to be very good as long as they all stay healthy.

Region 3:
1- WNG
2- Divide County
3- Surrey
4- Tioga

Central McLean
TGU
Alexander
MLS
Dunseith
Lewis & Clark

WNG and Divide County should be towards the top of this region. Surrey is always respectable and should compete well. After that I'm not so sure. This is the region I am least familiar with.

Region 4:
1- New Salem/Almont
2- South Border
3-Grand County/Flasher
4- Linton HMB

Hettinger County
Hettinger/scranton
Napoleon
Beach
Kidder County
Richardton/Taylor/Hebron

New Salem will lose some very nice pieces to their championship team, but has a lot coming back. South Border will have a few pieces to replace as well, but I think they will be just fine. Linton and GC/F both have a really big senior class this year and will have a lot of pieces to replace. GC/F will have their All-State QB returning. He'll be a solid weapon for them. Linton HMB is a solid football program and it would be difficult to count them out in any year, but especially as they transition back down to the 9-man ranks.

[justplayalready]

Have 2 9 man playoff divisions...Play the season out and have the top 8 or 12 teams play in one playoff and take the next 16 and play another. I think there was only one, one score game in the first two rounds, the rest were all 3 score+

[ChickenNuggets]

Have 2 9 man playoff divisions...Play the season out and have the top 8 or 12 teams play in one playoff and take the next 16 and play another. I think there was only one, one score game in the first two rounds, the rest were all 3 score+

Or just have two 9-man divisions. There are 40 teams. You could easily have two 20-team divisions. You could even raise the enrollment cap a bit for the higher 9-man division. There are EIGHT 11-B schools opting down into the 9-man division for next year to begin with.

two 20-Team divisions. Each division has two 10-team East/West regions. That gives you 9 regular season games. Top 4 from each division make playoffs. That gives you 3 weeks of playoffs. Geography shouldn't matter. The playoffs are already seeded for Quarterfinals so there wouldn't be any more travel. It likely would make for much more competitive games int he regular season and eliminate some of the huge blowouts in the early rounds of the playoffs. Plus the real small schools now can have an opportunity to compete in the smaller division against similarly sized schools AND you could get rid of the ridiculous success points formula that sends schools in 9-man up to play teams 2-3 times their size.