Big football announcement

While B-B-E will still be in the Central Minnesota Conference this coming fall, starting in the fall of 2015 they will play teams out of a group labeled a "district" by the MSHSL. The CMC will remain in existence for all other sports except football.

Here's the list of schools B-B-E will be included in for football. Note: this does not mean they will play all schools in here. It's likely they will generally face schools with K-12 enrollment under 1,000.

The Mid-State District:
Atwater-Cosmos-Grove City, BOLD, B-B-E, Benson, Browerville, Eden Valley-Watkins, Holdingford, Howard Lake-Waverly-Winsted, Kerkhoven-Murdock-Sunburg, Kimball Area, Maple Lake, Melrose Area, Minnewaska Area, Montevideo, Morris Area/Chokio-Alberta, Paynesville Area, Pierz Healy, Prairie Valley (Eagle Valley/Parkers Prairie coop), Rockford Area, Royalton, Sauk Centre, Upsala/Swanville Area, West Central Area, Yellow Medicine East.

Here's the map of the district, plus a listing of the schools with their respective enrollment figures for 9th-12th grade. B-B-E is one of the smallest schools in this list of 24 schools. In fact, only 2 of the 24 schools are smaller than B-B-E (Browerville and K-M-S). CLICK:
http://www.mshsl.org/mshsl/DistrictFootball.asp?bydist=17

Ironically, B-B-E is in the dead center of the Mid-State District. It's almost a certainty that the Jaguars will no longer play teams such as Rockford, HL-W-W or Pierz during the regular season.

My bet is that the longest regular season trip for football will be to Parkers Prairie (63 miles) to face the Prairie Valley Nighthawks. A few other schools that the Jaguars could play include the other smaller schools: ACGC, Browerville, K-M-S, Kimball Area, Royalton, USA and WCA. I highly doubt that list of schools will end up being who B-B-E faces, as you would not group Kimball Area with Prairie Valley (100+ miles one way between the schools). It could be interesting to see how the new groupings shape up.

Here's teams I'd definitely like to see on the schedule if B-B-E is grouped with the smallest schools on the list: WCA, K-M-S, Browerville, A-C-GC, Kimball Area, USA and Royalton. Those schools don't make a neat football conference, though, because of the distances between them.

I'd love to see the Jaguars grouped with the northern-tier of schools and not necessarily worry about enrollment figures. How about facing Minnewaska Area in football? I'd be all over that. Throw in West Central Area, USA, Royalton, Paynesville Area, A-C-GC, EV-W and Kimball Area. Add them up with B-B-E and you have 9 schools. Pare away 1 or 2 of those (perhaps Kimball on the far southeast) and you'd have a nice-looking conference.