Fayette, Harrisburg and Tipton are among the founding members of the Central State Eight Conference. Fayette and Harrisburg have departed from the Lewis and Clark Conference, leaving Salisbury, Scotland County and Westran as that league’s only schools continuing to sponsor 11-man football. Tipton leaves the Kaysinger Conference, where they had been the eastern-most member. Also joining this new league are Eugene, Linn, New Bloomfield, Russellville and South Callaway.
Brookfield and Marceline are making their longtime rivalry a conference contest for the first time in over a half-century. Both schools are joining the Grand River East Conference, with Marceline also departing from the Lewis and Clark while Brookfield leaves the Clarence Cannon. Their annual Bell Game football clash is set for October 25th in Marceline, the final week before district play begins.
Sedalia Smith-Cotton will now have a seventh conference foe in the Central Missouri Activities Conference, as Camdenton arrives following the collapse of the Ozark Conference.
Area college teams are also in the midst of conference realignment. The Heart of America Athletic Conference welcomes William Woods as a football affiliate this season, one year before the Owls move all their athletic programs from the America Midwest Conference. Also joining the HAAC as an affiliate in football is St Ambrose University of Iowa. In NCAA Division Two, the Blue Tigers of Lincoln University become the latest Missouri school to leave the MIAA for the Great Lakes Valley Conference. The GLVC will soon have nine of its 15 members located in Missouri. In Lincoln’s place, the MIAA will add Arkansas-Fort Smith.
Most NCAA Division One realignments take effect Monday, with Texas and Oklahoma reuniting with Mizzou in the Southeastern Conference. The three previously competed in the Big 12, before Mizzou’s defection to the SEC in 2012. Oklahoma and Mizzou will continue to have their wrestling teams compete in the Big 12. The Big 12 will expand to 16 teams when Arizona, Arizona State, Colorado, and Utah leave the Pac-12 Conference on August 2nd.