The MSHSL Board of Directors Monday unanimously adopted a football plan that places all schools into Districts.  The member of each district will do their own scheduling and divide into sub-districts.  There are 18 districts across the state ranging in size from 12 teams to 28 teams.  The Faribault Falcons are in the Big Southeast District, which is comprised of 12 teams.  Basically it's the Big 9 (remember Red Wing and Northfield join the conference this season) minus Albert Lea and plus New Prague.  These Districts will have no impact on Section Tournament play and this plan is only for football.  A number of school districts told the MSHSL they were having problems adopting a full 8 game football schedule and in some cases had to travel a long way to play games.  You might recall the Faribault Bethlehem Academy Cardinals took a long trip to Wisconsin to start last season.  BA is in the 16 team Mid Southeast District along with Blooming Prairie, Fillmore Central, Goodhue, Hayfield, Janesville-Waldorf-Pemberton, Kenyon-Wanamingo, Kingsland, Lewiston-Altura, Mankato Loyola, Medford, Rushford-Peterson, Southland, St. Clair, United South Central and Wabasha-Kellogg.  Albert Lea was moved to the 28 team South Central District which includes Tri-City United, Waterville-Elysian-Morristown, Waseca, N-R-H-E-G, Maple River and Leseuer-Henderson. The 16 team Southeast District includes Byron, Kasson-Mantorville, Pine Island, Cannon Falls, Lake City, Lacrescent, Caledonia, Triton, Chatfield, Rochester Lourdes, Zumbrota-Mazeppa, Stewartville, St. Charles, Plainview-Elgin-Millville, Winona Cotter and Dover-Eyota.  Among the 21 teams in the District 9 South are Alden-Conger, Cleveland, Grand Meadow, Glenville-Emmons, Randolph, Hills-Beaver Creek, Westbrook Walnut Grove, Lyle-Pacelli, Mabel Canton, West Lutheran, Fulda, GHEC/Truman, Edgerton/Ellsworth, Houston, Spring Grove, Lanesboro, Leroy-Ostrander, Madelila, Mountain Lake, Nicollet and Southwest Star Concept.  The metropolitan area is basically divided into four districts, two 16 team districts, a 26 and a 28 team district.  South Suburban teams are scattered a bit. The Lakeville schools are in a 26 team district with the Apple Valley schools, Burnsville, Eagan, Farmington and Rosemount.  The Bloomington schools are in the 16 team Suburban District and Prior Lake and Shakopee are in the 16 team West Metro with Eden Prairie, Edina and Totino-Grace and the 28 team Twin City District is comprised of the St. Paul schools plus Minneapolis schools, Breck school, Minnehaha and Providence Academies.  It will be interesting to see what the Districts do for sub-districts.  These Districts are for the 2015-16 and 2016-17 school years.  For example if you wanted to have two sub-districts in the Big Southeast you could have two six team sub-districts determined by enrollment  and grab two teams from the other sub-district for each school and rotate them. I have to admit when this plan first surfaced I was not a big fan of the idea because of the elimination of conferences, but the 10-member District Football Placement Committee did an outstanding job.  Each school could list three schools they wanted to keep on their schedule.  A complete schedule for both seasons is due by November 1 of this year.

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