MONROE — Area teams opened camp this week to begin preparing for the 2019 prep football season. While the coaches and players will be focused on the current nine-game regular season schedule, spectators’ eyes will also look off into the future — next season a massive conference realignment throughout the state will affect every local team.

“It is going to be different,” said Jeff Newcomer, Monroe athletic director.

The idea behind the realignment is simple: Cut down on the enrollment differences within each conference to give teams a fairer shot at making the postseason. Football is the only WIAA sport that requires qualifying for the postseason, and in order to automatically qualify for the playoffs, teams must finish .500 or better in their conference schedule. Tiebreakers, like finishing .500 or better overall and combined records for each team defeated can also play a part most seasons in the final playoff field, but to a lesser extent.

The push for the WIAA, which got the go-ahead for the massive realignment plan from the Wisconsin Football Coaches Association, evolved from various fronts. One was because some conferences had just five or six teams, while others sat at 10 or more, meaning some league games meant more to others, while nonconference schedules could be hard to fill out and further travel times might be required. The new realignment pins conferences at either seven or eight teams throughout the state. Another reason was that some teams in certain conferences could no longer maintain a competitive team within its league when playing against other schools with nearly twice the enrollment. 

Two decades ago, Monroe’s enrollment sat near 1,000 students in the high school. Last year it was down to 690 and will be at 723 this fall. For much of the rest of the Badger South, Monroe’s conference since 2001, enrollments have stayed steady in the 900-1,000 range, while some schools, like Oregon and Milton, have risen to over 1,100.

The Badger South has seen a number of changes since the Badger split to a North and South Division in 2001. Verona, a Division 3 school less than two decades ago, grew too large and left for the Big 8 in 2008. Verona is now a Division 1 team. McFarland, meanwhile, lost numbers and dropped from the Badger South in 2008, moving the Rock Valley. Fort Atkinson and Milton replaced Verona and McFarland.

In 2017, another realignment in the conference welcomed Watertown to the South and Beaver Dam in the North. Watertown has an enrollment of more than 1,300 students, nearly twice the size of Monroe.

“That added another Division 2 opponent that was guaranteed,” Monroe head coach Toby Golembiewski said. “When I first got here, we played three nonconference games — two division 3s and a smaller division 2 in Baraboo. Then when we picked up DeForest for two years, we really only had one Division 3 team in our nonconference because then we always have to play Watertown.”

With the new conference realignment next season, the Cheesemakers will move to the Rock Valley Conference along with Madison Edgewood, joining McFarland. Rivalries with Oregon, Monona Grove and Stoughton — all teams leftover from the original Badger Conference 20 years ago — will seemingly be over. 

“In some instances, if you look at the records over the last 20 years, it’s probably good to not be playing some of those teams anymore as a smaller Division 3 playing up against some very competitive Division 2 schools,” Golembiewski said.

The Cheesemakers head coach said he didn’t think the loss of old rivals would affect his players.

“You can tell them about Pat Martin and the program history, but the kids only know about what they are doing right now. None of them have probably thought about what it’s going to be like in 2020, and none of them probably remember what it was like before they were on varsity,” Golembiewski said. “I don’t think (the realignment) will bother them that much. They would show up on Friday and play anybody if they had the chance to play.”

Badger North teams Mount Horeb, Reedsburg, Baraboo and Portage are all Division 3 schools that the Cheesemakers could eventually play in the postseason. The remaining Badger South schools are all likely Division 2 teams in the foreseeable future, with Fort Atkinson being the only team on the bubble. The Blackhawks were a D3 team last year and are slated as a likely D2 team this year should they reach the playoffs.

“There could be the chance that they get into our nonconference schedule,” Golembiewski said of some of the smaller Badger schools.

Janesville Parker and Janesville Craig will enter the Badger Conference, and the North/South tilt will cease in favor of a Large/Small split. The WIAA will look into small shifts in the conference alignments every two years under the current plan, adjusting for enrollment, competitive balance and other issues schools may have in their forecasted conference.

Newcomer said that filling out Monroe’s nonconference schedule for 2020 caused a little bit of headache because he was unsure if the Badger Conference teams would do crossover games for the two open weeks. They aren’t, and Newcomer said the first two years of the realignment will have home-and-home games against current Badger North and D3 teams Sauk Prairie and Mount Horeb. 

“Fort and Milton would maybe be a fit for future nonconference games, and Delavan-Darien has expressed interest in joining the Rock Valley, too,” Newcomer said.

A 1999 Monroe graduate, Newcomer played prior to the Badger’s split to North and South. Monroe lost its former football rival Waunakee when the split happened, and the aura of a true rivalry left.

“There’s not one school anymore, and every sport kind of has its own rival these days. I think in football, we are just ready to go out and play anyone,” Newcomer said.

The Cheesemakers won three conference titles across the sports season last year, which Newcomer said shows that the Badger Conference hasn’t completely outgrown Monroe. However, Newcomer said that there have been new committees of athletic directors and stakeholders who will analyze the potential realignment across the state for all sports, which means the possibility of a permanent move to the Rock Valley for the Cheesemakers.

“That just started, and I don’t know where it is going to go,” Newcomer said of the committees.

A look into the future

Rock Valley

Edgerton and Edgewood are the only Division 4 teams slated to be in the newly realigned RVC, the other six schools will all be D3. Each team will have two open slots at the beginning of the season for nonconference opponents, which could be former rivals from old conferences.

McFarland went unbeaten in the 2018 regular season. Edgerton (8-1), East Troy (7-2) and Jefferson (6-3) also posted winning records in the regular season and reached the playoffs. Monroe was just 2-7 a season ago, but beat both Division 3 conference opponents — Fort Atkinson and Madison Edgewood.

The travel time for the Cheesemakers will see minimal change in realignment. The current slate of Badger South teams has a combined one-way travel of about 353 miles, compared to the new approximate one-way Rock Valley mark of 357.

Six Rivers:

Black Hawk won the Division 7 state title in 2018, finishing the year unbeaten. Like many other small schools, the Warriors will co-op in 2019 with Warren in Illinois, also known as the Warriors. Shullsburg combines with Benton-Scales Mound this year as well. 

In 2018, Pec-Argyle, B-SM, Highland and Potosi-Cassville all had above-.500 records and made the postseason. Highland and Belmont vacated the Six Rivers this season, with Highland moving to the Ridge and Valley and Belmont changing the program to 8-man football for the fall.

Boscobel (233) left the SWAL for the Six Rivers in 2019, but will play in the Ridge and Valley in 2020. Southwestern’s move to the Six Rivers started in 2019 and will stay in realignment, while Iowa-Grant will spend 2019 in the SWAL before moving to the Six Rivers permanently in 2020.

SWAL:

The SWAL will instantly become one of the state’s toughest pound-for-pound conferences post-realignment. Only Parkview-Albany had a losing record in 2018, playing in the Trailways Large. Belleville will move into the league from the Capitol South.

Lancaster will make the move from the Southwest Wisconsin Conference this year, rekindling old rivalries before the SWC and SWAL split years ago. Also this season, with Boscobel and Southwestern leaving the SWAL, the league will add La Crosse Aquinas (299), which was 2-7 in 2018 in the Mississippi Valley Conference, and Onalaska’s Luther (240), which was 1-8 in the Coulee a year ago. Luther will jump to the Scenic Bluffs after realignment, while Aquinas moves into the Coulee.

While adding Lancaster, Belleville and Parkview-Albany to the travel schedule adds miles to the travel budget, losing trips to Muscoda (Riverdale) and Boscobel is evened out. Darlington’s schedule this year includes a trip to Aquinas at over 240 miles roundtrip, plus a nonconference game against Lake Country Lutheran in Hartland (250 miles roundtrip). Luckily for the Redbirds, Westby and Luther will visit Martens Field this fall.

SWC:

Only Brodhead-Juda (3-6 in the Rock Valley), River Valley (1-8) and Dodgeville (1-8) failed to make the postseason in 2018. New Glarus-Monticello finished third in the Capitol South and then knocked off 1-loss Prairie du Chien in the opening round of the playoffs. 

In 2019, the SWC has Arcadia (5-5), Viroqua (5-4) and Westby (10-2) joining the league from the Coulee, replacing Lancaster and bumping the SWC up to eight teams with seven conference games. All three schools will play just one year in the league before the realignment plan alters the travel budget and shifts the trio back into the Coulee in 2020.

Outside of rivalry changes, perhaps the biggest alteration for each school will be travel distance. Brodhead-Juda’s average away game will go from about 36 miles from home to nearly 72 miles away — twice the distance (144 round trip). New Glarus-Monticello goes from about 37 miles one-way now to just over 51 miles after realignment. 

While Brodhead-Juda is currently in a conference with 10 teams and no nonconference games scheduled, in 2020 there will be two open dates to continue any former RVC rivalries against teams not far away, like Beloit Turner (19 miles), Evansville (16), Edgerton (29) or Clinton (30). 

The Capitol South Conference, meanwhile, is made up of just five teams. New Glarus-Monticello has to find five nonconference games in the current format. Nonconference opponents this year include Dodgeville and Lodi at home and away games at Lake Mills (52 miles), Columbus (57), and Montello-Princeton-Green Lake (95). A potential nonconference game against Wisconsin 69 rival Belleville (7 miles) is a future possibility.