By Darren Cooper – Record Sports
The North Jersey Interscholastic Conference continues to see flexibility as one of its main assets.
The small-school conference composed of 38 schools expanded its footprint Wednesday by voting to welcome in Butler High School, 34-0 with two abstentions. Two schools were not present. Butler becomes the first Morris County school to join the largely Bergen County league.
With Queen of Peace closing its doors in just a few weeks, Butler clearly fills a void, however, it’s not as easy as one team out, one team in. Butler had approached the NJIC before Queen of Peace’s announcement.
“I think everyone feels they are a great fit,” NJIC Executive Director Stan Fryczynski said. “I think I would be naïve to say that after Queen of Peace made the decision to close that suddenly the membership didn’t see Butler in a stronger light, but I think the membership felt good about their application even before.”
Butler is a Group 1 school. They are leaving the Northwest Jersey Athletic Conference (NJAC) and the North Jersey Super Football Conference (NJSFC) to play under the NJIC’s umbrella in all sports.
The NJIC’s realignment committee will study what division Butler will play in. Queen of Peace had been a member of the Liberty Division, but it should not be assumed that Butler will slot right in that place.
Fryczynski said that enrollment and geography would be a factor in determining where Butler will fit in. He said a decision would be made on that before September, so that the league could begin to put together its schedules for the 2018-2019 season.
Queen of Peace’s closure will have a major impact on the NJIC’s football schedule for 2017, but the league has made arrangements to handle the scenario.
As of now, there will be 27 football-playing schools in the NJIC for 2017. Last season the league introduced a system where teams played six divisional games to crown divisional champions who then met in semifinals and then an NJIC Championship game to crown an overall league champion. The math was simple. There were four divisions of seven teams. Teams that didn’t win their division crossed over against teams that finished in corresponding spots in the other divisions in week seven and week eight (third place teams played third place teams, etc.)
The system was hailed a great success and produced an excellent championship game with Hasbrouck Heights defeating Pompton Lakes.
With 27 teams, the math isn’t so easy, but Secaucus Athletic Director Charlie Voorhees, along with Hawthorne High Athletic Director Art Mazzacca, have made arrangements to handle the scenario.
The six remaining teams in the Liberty Division will pick up games against teams in the Colonial Division to fill the void left by Queen of Peace. In week one (Sept. 9), Lyndhurst will play Pal Park/Leonia, week two: Waldwick/Midland Park vs. Pompton Lakes; week three: New Milford will play Glen Rock; week 5: Lodi plays Harrison; week six: Hawthorne plays Rutherford and in week seven, Garfield will play Elmwood Park. There is no extra game needed for week 4 since Queen of Peace was scheduled to have a bye. Those matchups are based on enrollment and the NJIC’s strength of program formula.
These “crossover” games will not count in the divisional standings for both teams. The only flaw could be if any of those teams finish in similar spots in their respective divisions. In that case, the teams will not be asked to play again, they will merely find a team from a different division to play. The only way there could essentially be a regular-season rematch is if two of those teams win their division. If so, they would meet in the semifinals.
The top four teams in the Colonial Division will be asked to play nine regular-season games, which is different, since the original idea had been based on eight regular-season games for every team in the NJIC, but league organizers don’t think that it’s a big issue.
“There is a built-in insulation to give teams eight fair games across the board by enrollment and matchups,” said Voorhees.
Saturday Oct. 21 is the date for when the week 8 and week 9 games will be announced by the NJIC.
Both Fryczynski and Voorhees acknowledge that it is possible that another school in the NJIC may have to drop football in 2017, or resort to playing a junior varsity schedule. It has happened in the past. Voorhees said that he has a scenario already put together in case there is a situation with two divisions of six and two divisions of seven.
The hope is the numbers stay constant and in 2018 with the addition of Butler, they can go back to the original format of four divisions with seven teams apiece.
There’s no way they can be sure what might happen heading into the fall, but the NJIC has shown they have the ability and willingness to adapt to whatever may come.
