I wanted to wait a few hours to let the dust settle a bit before rolling through some thoughts on the league alignment and schedules announced by CHSAA earlier this week. Monumental task that was undertaken by our state group and I think we ended up with a mixed bag of results. Great moves in many areas and head-scratchers in some others. Some coaches/fans are likely very happy with the setup and others are on the opposite end of the spectrum. Of course we’ll see by the end of the season how it all shakes out.
The lack of clinching a playoff spot by winning a league championship will make every game very important. In the past, a team could start 0-2, 0-3 and 0-4 but could still qualify for the post-season by winning their conference title. That scenario is out the door this year so a team that opens 0-2 in a six game regular season will be in a very tough spot to make the post-season, especially with a reduced field of eight playoff clubs.
To the league alignments, I was a bit surprised by the development of seven team leagues. The move causes unbalanced schedules for league members but in many cases it was unavoidable. The surprise comes from the addition of a seventh club to six member leagues that remained intact for Season A. In a full season, a seven team league is not a concern as the conference schedule can be worked out over the entire season. But with only six weeks and no byes, a balanced schedule is not possible. The end result is a few teams will play all their traditional league rivals while most do not have the full schedule. And depending on which league team you miss out on, the strength of schedule for RPI is greatly impacted.
And in moving teams around where possibly they didn’t need to be, the entire schedule had to be re-drawn. If a league of six teams all decided to play in Season A, their league schedule was already set and a sixth non-league game could have been added. No need to change locations or dates as the five conference games were also set back in the summer. And in some cases, the redrawing of schedules created teams going on the road against the same opponent for a second straight year. And that could turn into three straight seasons if we revert back to the original schedules in the second year of our current two-year cycle.
As we look at each classification and the new league alignment, we won’t get into schedules for individual teams. That might be a story for another day as some will gain in strength of schedule and others will suffer based on where they were placed. But to be honest, that’s the case every year as some conferences/areas are traditionally stronger than others in each class.
SIX MAN
It appears the conferences were laid out specifically on geography and I like what we have here. In fact, this could be a model for the division moving forward. The newly created East conference with Hi Plains, Stratton/Liberty, Kit Carson, Cheyenne Wells and Eads for example matches up very well. The same could be said for keeping Manzanola in the Southeast instead of moving them to the Southwest as I suggested earlier this week.
EIGHT MAN
Hoehne was bumped out from the division as their involvement created several scheduling issues. The Farmers were the last team to determine on the season they would play and their entry left the class with 35 schools. And the odd number created a scheduling mess as each week one team would be left without a game. And contrary to 11-man football where a team can move up or down a class to get a game, that’s not the case in the eight man ranks. So the Farmers were moved back to the Spring to leave the division with a balanced schedule of 17 games each week.
With the layout, the non-conference schedules work out well and league play takes care of itself. Some had suggested moving Glipin County to the Central for some travel but they left the Tigers in the Northwest as originally planned.
CLASS 1A
With 32 teams across the division, the schedule works out to 16 games per week which provides the chance at an equal number of games. A couple of seven team conferences were created out of necessity as the other option
Some moves here were surprising. Not sure why Highland and Banning Lewis were moved. Could have kept Highland in the Foothills conference to join regular league goes Strasburg, Pinnacle and Bennett (at times). Banning Lewis could have then been kept in the Tri Peaks/Santa Fe with reduced against the likes of area teams Colorado Springs Chrstian, Rye, Peyton and Trinidad. Now they must venture north to the Metro area on several occasions. Just think it’s a better fit and keeps the Foothills a stronger league as in the past.
Otherwise, there’s not much that could have been done on the 1A level. The Western Slope and Southern Peaks remain the same in the past and schedules lay out nicely.
CLASS 2A
26 teams have opted to play in Season A so there was no avoiding conference with an odd number of teams. So we were left with a pair of seven team conferences. But even with that situation, there were some curious moves on shifting teams around.
Easily the most difficult decision this class involved where to place Delta and Moffat County. When Rifle, Aspen, Coal Ridge and Basalt decided to play in the Spring, the Western Slope was tossed into a tough spot. Middle Park and Englewood make sense on moving to the West to join them but Elizabeth and Woodland Park are surprising choices. Both programs will travel past several campuses on their way to games out west. Maybe D’Evelyn, Alameda or Arvada were better choices to head that way.
Not surprised that Lamar and La Junta were paired with the likes of Alamosa, Pagosa Springs and Bayfield. In my projections, I moved those teams in with Delta and Moffat County but keeping them in the South allows for a bit less travel and maybe fewer mountain passes.
Eaton to the Patriot East also grabbed our attention. The Reds most often battle Resurrection Christian for the league championship so I was surprised they moved one of the top teams from one league across to another strong conference. D’Evelyn was moved to the North to possibly replace Eaton as a strong contender.
CLASS 3A
28 teams divided into four seven team conferences make sense here. The layout makes scheduling extremely easy but again they are not balanced in the fact that all teams in a conference do not play all the others. But this is the best case most likely for this classification.
CLASS 4A
Good adjustments across the board in this classification and to be honest, I think we should look at some of these as permanent. For example, I never understood why Greeley West and Greeley Central were not in the same conference but at least for this year, they are. There continues to be a split among schools in Longmont as they’re separated by conference but hopefully that will change down the road.
Also good to bring the old Southwestern league teams together again to keep those rivalries intact in a shortened season. Not sure if they will keep this long-term but at least we still get to see the rivalry games at Stocker Stadium which were played as non-conference games in the recent past.
Palmer Ridge and Ponderosa were two teams that were put in with the Southwestern league teams and that will cause both teams some unexpected travel. That could cause some issues with budgets since there’s little time to plan but each year teams have to travel quite a bit to face the likes of Grand Junction, Fruita Monument and Montrose. These were the hard luck two this year. If CHSAA decides to keep the former Southwestern league together, we highly recommend that the other two league teams be rotated every two years to spread the travel around.
Also noted that the I-25 league was kept intact as a developmental conference as originally planned. That’s a good idea at this point.
CLASS 5A
Hardly any changes in this classification as expected. Prairie View and Overland were the only clubs left without their conference after schools decided on Season A or C. Overland was placed back in the Centennial where they get to lineup against long-time rivals. Geographically, Prairie View to the North makes absolute sense.
