VALLEY CITY, ND (NewsDakota.com) The next two-year plan for football realignment has been released, and for Valley City, and nine-man football, there will be big changes.
The Hi-Liners will move down a level to the A division of 11-man football. North Dakota has three divisions of 11-man football, with the top division known as AAA. Valley City has played at the AA level since four divisions were created in the late 90s.
The AA level has changed considerably in that time. The top level has shrunk in member schools, seeing larger schools move into the AA level, and schools that were once AA schools have moved as far down as the nine-man division.
Valley City will now play in a region with Hillsboro/Central Valley, Northern Cass, Lisbon, Oakes, Ellendale/Edgeley-Kulm, Sargent County, and May-Port-C-G/Finley-Sharon.
Lisbon has a history of playing Valley City in past years, and May-Port-C-G was, at one time, a AA school. The rest of the opponents will be new to Valley City.
Jamestown will remain in AA football, and play in the west region, the same as this past season. However, they will have a new regional opponent. Devils Lake will move to the west region, taking the place of Valley City.
The Bluejays will not be unfamiliar with the Firebirds. The two teams met in non-conference action this past season.
Oakes will have Valley City as a new regional opponent. The Tornadoes will also see a new opponent in Sargent County, moving up from nine-man. The new schools take the place of Kindred and Central Cass, which will move to the east region of AA football.
Carrington will remain in Region 2, the northeast region, of A 11-man football. They will see the loss of Bottineau as a regional opponent, who will move to the northwest region. Thompson will move to the northeast region to complete Carrington’s regional schedule.
Nine-man football will see dramatic changes. There will now be four regions of nine-man football, replace the eight regions that made up the format this year. LaMoure/Litchville-Marion will keep Wyndmere-Lidgerwood, Tri-State, and Hankinson as regional opponents, and lose Sargent County to the move up to A for the Bulldogs.
L/L-M’s region will then merge with Richland, Maple River, Griggs-Midkota, Hatton-Northwood, and Enderlin from Region 2 of this past year, and add South Border (Wishek-Ashley) from Region 8 to form a new Region 1.
Nine-man schools will now play nine regular season games, rather than eight. The playoffs will take the top four from each region, knocking the playoff qualifiers down to 16 from 24.