Greater Middlesex Conference entirely revamps basketball divisions in major shakeup

In perhaps the biggest revamping of divisions in any sport since the formation of the Greater Middlesex Conference in 1985, the league is moving to six divisions, and altering the rules for seeding of the county tournament.

For both girls’ and boys’ basketball, starting next season there will be six divisions, with an American and National division in the Red, White and Blue Divisions, eliminating the Gold and Silver entirely. The new alignment is for the 2025-26 season only, as divisions will be altered annually instead of every two years.

While there’s no official “top” division in the GMC, the assignments generally follow the league’s hierarchy over the last several years, which has come less to rely on school size, but also strives to achieve competitive balance.

From the unofficial top down, there will be the Red American Division, then the Red National, the White American and White National, then the Blue American and Blue National in both boys’ and girls’ hoops.

Mike DelAversano, Spotswood Athletic Director and GMC Basketball Co-Chair along with Carl Buffalino of South River, says the moves were made to give teams more GMC games and help seeding by creating more crossover opportunities.

The league also is keeping its “one tournament” format, which seems to still be popular with league coaches, even as other sports have added “invitational” tournaments for lower-seeded teams. However, there will be no more “guaranteed” seeds.

Previously, the winners of each division were guaranteed high seeds; one of the top eight seeds when there were four divisions, one of the top 12 when there were five divisions. But the feeling was that artificially placed some teams higher than they should have been.

The belief is that with smaller divisions and more crossovers, there will be more ways to compare teams when they are seeded, as they will be more likely to play teams of different quality throughout the season than just who’s in their division.

Here’s a look at the new alignment, along with each team’s division last year.

GMC BOYS’ BASKETBALL ALIGNMENTS 2025-26:

Red American
Colonia (Red)
Old Bridge (Red)
Piscataway (Red)
St. Joseph-Metuchen (Red)
St. Thomas Aquinas (Red)

Red National
East Brunswick (White)
Monroe (Red)
Sayreville (White)
South Plainfield (White)
Woodbridge (White)

White American
Edison (Blue)
JP Stevens (Blue)
North Brunswick (White)
North Plainfield (Blue)
Perth Amboy (White)
South Brunswick (White)
Timothy Christian (Blue)

White National
Carteret (Blue)
JFK (Gold)
Metuchen (Gold)
Middlesex (Gold)
Spotswood (Gold)

Blue American
Dunellen (Silver)
Highland Park (Silver)
New Brunswick (Blue)
Piscataway Magnet (Silver)
South Amboy (Silver)
South River (Gold)

Blue National
Calvary Christian (Gold)
East Brunswick Magnet (Silver)
Perth Amboy Magnet (Silver)
Somerset Tech (Silver)
Wardlaw-Hartridge (Silver)

GMC GIRLS’ BASKETBALL ALIGNMENTS 2025-26

Red American
East Brunswick (Red)
Monroe (Red)
North Plainfield (Red)
Piscataway (Red)
St. Thomas Aquinas (Red)
South Brunswick (Red)

Red National
Colonia (Red)
Edison (White)
Middlesex (White)
Old Bridge (Red)
Spotswood (White)

White American
JP Stevens (White)
North Brunswick (White)
South Plainfield (White)
Woodbridge (White)

White National
Carteret (Blue)
Highland Park (Blue)
JFK (Blue)
Metuchen (Blue)
Sayreville (Blue)
Perth Amboy (White)
Timothy Christian (Blue)

Blue American
Calvary Christian (Gold)
Dunellen (Blue)
Mother Seton (Gold)
New Brunswick (Gold)
South River (Blue)
Wardlaw-Hartridge (Gold)

Blue National
East Brunswick Magnet (Gold)
Perth Amboy Magnet (Gold)
Piscataway Magnet (Gold)
Somerset Tech (Gold)
South Amboy (Gold)
Woodbridge Magnet (Gold)