ADDISON COUNTY — The Vermont Interscholastic Football League’s alignment committee has proposed a new two-year alignment that would retain the three-division structure, drop Otter Valley Union High School from Division II to Division III, and leave the cooperative Mount Abraham/Vergennes program in D-III.
The state’s high school athletic directors will meet on Dec. 6 to weigh in on the proposal, which would also drop St. Johnsbury and Spaulding from D-I to D-II and move Springfield from D-II to D-III while creating eight-team playoffs for three divisions. In the past, only four teams have participated in the D-II and D-III postseason.
According to the Burlington Free Press, St. Johnsbury is planning to appeal to remain in D-I, and Montpelier might choose to play only junior varsity football for two years.
There had been some discussion about moving Mount Abraham up to D-II because with the eligibility of Vergennes players the program technically has a larger pool of players from which to draw athletes to its football program, but if the eligibility committee’s plan is ratified the Eagles will remain in D-III for at least two more years. The Eagles have been the No. 4 seed in D-III each of the two past seasons.
The changes would mean the possibility of OV and Mount Abe, former eight-man rivals, once again scheduling one another. However, with a 12-team league it is not certain the two teams would meet.
If the alignment committee’s plan is adopted, the teams in the three divisions would be:
D-I (12 teams):?Essex,?Champlain Valley,?BFA-St. Albans,?Rutland,?Mount Mansfield,?Colchester,?Middlebury,?Mount Anthony,?Hartford,?Burlington,?Brattleboro and?South Burlington.
D-II (10 teams):?St. Johnsbury, Spaulding,?North Country,?U-32,?Lyndon,?Milton,?Bellows Falls,?Burr & Burton,?Fair Haven and?Rice.
D-III (12 teams): OV, Springfield, BFA-Fairfax, Windsor, Mount Abe, Mill River, Woodstock, Poultney, Montpelier, Oxbow, Winooski and Mount St. Joseph.