Shore Conference Approves New Football Alignment for 2018

The Shore Conference Executive Committee approved division realignment for football on Thursday morning that moves away from its longstanding method of usring geography and school size in favor of a model that favors strength-of-program.

The old divisions of Class A North, A Central, A South, B North, B Central and B South are no more and have been replaced with seven divisions consisting of six teams each, except for one division with seven teams. Those new divisions: American, Colonial, Constitution, Freedom, Liberty, Patriot and National can be seen below.

The changes will take effect for the 2018 season with a schedule to be released in January. The divisions will be evaluated on a yearly basis and can change from year to year.

“There were some suggestions that came from our football committee that we wanted to take a look at as far as realigning, and we came up with an idea to use the strength of programs,” said Shore Conference president Joe Arminio, the Toms River Schools athletic director. “We did some research and put things together and this is what we came up with.”

Although schools are no longer grouped by geography and enrollment, teams will not be placed with teams either two groups higher or lower. For example, a Group V team would never be in a division with a Group II team and a Group I team would never be in a division with a Group IV team, etc.

“Every decision we make as a committee is in the best interest of the conference,” Arminio said. “You could probably go through every division and say it’s not best for one specific team, but our job is to do what’s best for the conference and not what’s best for the individual team.”

American Division

Manalapan

Toms River North

Freehold Township

Central

Howell

Middletown South

Colonial Division

Brick

Brick Memorial

Freehold

Middletown North

St. John Vianney

Rumson-Fair Haven

Constitution Division

Jackson Memorial

Southern

Lakewood

Marlboro

Lacey

Wall

Freedom Division

Red Bank Catholic

Long Branch

Red Bank

Ocean

Toms River South

Toms River East

Liberty Division

Point Boro

Manasquan

Monmouth

Raritan

Neptune

Colts Neck

Patriot Division

Jackson Liberty

Barnegat

Matawan

Pinelands

Shore

Mater Dei

National Division

Holmdel

Donovan Catholic

Asbury Park

Point Beach

Manchester

Keyport

Keansburg

Managing editor Bob Badders can be reached at bob.badders@townsquaremedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @Bob_Badders. Like Shore Sports Network on Facebook and subscribe to our YouTube channel for all the latest video highlights.