When was the last time you sat down with the schools in your conference to discuss ways to improve it? Odds are you have never not done that. You as a HS Administrator have a lot of challenges and the time for efforts likes this get set aside.

Many conferences have divisional play, but this plan allows for you to take advantage of them. This plan can work for many sports including football. Any size conference can make this work, even down to 6 members. If you are presently a conference of 10 schools with no divisions, this will add to your season. Finishing 10^th in the conference is not something most of us would like, but someone always ends up there.

Split conference into geographical areas that will help with travel expenses of transporting your teams. Schools in each division will play each other twice during the season (home and home) not in football, see below , plus play each school in the other division once. At the end of the conference season you will have a Championship Week. This will allow for a conference champion to be named in a match-up for the division leaders. The other schools will than match-up according to record, 2^nd vs. 2^nd, 3^rd vs. 3^rd, etc. This will allow for some equal match-ups. The excitement of a championship game will be a giant income maker for members.

Football allows you with two divisions to flex your schedules, play everyone in your division once and as many cross-over games that confernce members agree on. You can still play the Championship Week if you would like, it does allow you to play for the conference championship on the field.

Other advantages of divisional play should be the naming of 2 - division champions, allowing another school a chance for a title. The naming of all-division teams and then an all-conference teams will allow more athletes a chance at being honored.

Many conferences are starting divisions based on enrollment (small/big), although it might help in some sports other issues may pop up in the future. Why?...because enrollments are always changing. It would seem the small schools should be in one conference and the big schools in there own conference. Enrollment issues are especially a concern in Ohio for qualifying for state football play-offs.

Secondary Conference

Do you have trouble scheduling non-league games? Do you play a lot of schools in your area (even in your county) because of the local rivalries? This type of conference might consist of 4 to 8 schools in a certain sport, especially in basketball. This allows you to give more of your regular season games some added value for your athletes, coaches and fans. Operate it like a regular conference, it works we will guarantee it.

Feel free to contact us anytime with questions about your athletic program.