Tag: classifications

by Mike Pavlichko

More than a dozen Big Central squads do the NJSIAA shuffle as state unveils Group and Supersection classifications for next two seasons

There are a total of 14 Big Central Conference football teams who find themselves in new supersections Wednesday morning, with nine of them moving up or down into a new group based on school size.

One of the more prominent moves was Phillipsburg, due to the NJSIAA’s new competitive balance formula, which moves teams to larger sections based on playoff success according to a points matrix, if those schools are designated as being able to draw from areas outside their traditional geographic boundaries. Such schools must be open enrollment, choice schools, and the like, or charters, all of which are considered public schools (compared to non-publics) because they receive public money.

The Stateliners, who won their second straight sectional title last season, winning North Jersey, Section 2, Group 4, moved up from the North Group 4 supersection to the North Group 5 supersection. That’s where they played in the 202 and 2023 seasons, but not due to the rule, which had not been established yet. It was due to their school size, and P’burg has gone back and forth in that regard, so it’s not something that program is unaccustomed to.

Westfield – which also has been in Group 5 in the past, but was in Group 4 the past two years – also is back up to Group 5, staying in the North.

Other notable group changes include North Brunswick dropping to Group 4, while also moving into the North from the South; Carteret and Summit – with the Hilltoppers having gone to the North 2, Group 3 final last year – moving up to North 4; New Providence moving up from North 1 to 2, and Jonathan Dayton in Springfield doing the opposite; and Delaware Valley moving from South 2 to South 1.

Other teams simply got moved to different geographic sections due to the Super Football Conference “Ivy Division” teams. Those are teams that are requested by the league to be in a developmental division, ineligible for the playoffs (and ineligible to play any playoff-eligible teams). In the past, the NJSIAA had counted them in balancing out geographic supersections within a group (North vs. South), but since they were not eligible, one supersection would have more teams than the other.

That resulted in schools like Perth Amboy and Franklin moving from South to North in Group 5, for example, and explains many of the “lateral” moves geographically within a Group.

Here are the full changes involving Big Central Schools:

  • Franklin: moves laterally from South 5 to North 5
  • Perth Amboy: moves laterally from South 5 to North 5
  • Phillipsburg: moves up from North 4 to North 5, due to the Competitive Balance Formula
  • Westfield: moves up from North 4 to North 5; though enrollment fell, removing “Ivy” schools likely changed the cutoff from Group 4 to Group 5
  • Carteret: moves up from North 3 to North 4; enrollment fell slightly, but likely pushed up by Shabazz moving up from North 2 to North 3 due to the Competitive Balance formula, as well as three Ivy removals in North 3. The Ramblers would have been the largest school in North 2, and instead are the smallest in North 3.
  • North Brunswick: moves down from South 5 to South 4; enrollment dropped by 153
  • Summit: moves up from North 3 to North 4; also one of the largest North 3 schools last year (same as Carteret, 874), enrollment dipped slightly, but likely moved for the same reasons as Carteret
  • Somerville: moves laterally from South 3 to North 3; likely due to Ivy removal, this also removes the lone remaining team in South 3, leaving that and South 4 as the only state supersections without any Big Central Conference representation
  • Hillside: moves laterally from South 2 to North 2; likely due to Ivy teams being removed
  • New Providence: moves up from North 1 to North 2; enrollment increased from 472 to 502
  • Voorhees: moves laterally from South 2 to North 2; likely due to Ivy teams being removed
  • Dayton: moves down from North 2 to North 1; enrollment dropped from 496 to 458
  • Middlesex: moves laterally from South 1 to North 1; likely due to Group 2 teams moving up due to Competitive Balance Formula
  • Delaware Valley: moves down from South 2 to North 1; enrollment dropped from 514 to 464

Here are the Groups and Supersections with Big Central Conference teams:

  • North Group 5: Bridgewater-Raritan, Elizabeth, Franklin, JP Stevens, Linden, Perth Amboy, Phillipsburg, Piscataway, Plainfield, Union, Westfield
  • South Group 5: East Brunswick, Edison, Hillsborough, Hunterdon Central, Monroe, New Brunswick, Old Bridge, Sayreville, South Brunswick
  • North Group 4: Carteret, Colonia, JFK, Montgomery, North Brunswick, North Hunterdon, Rahway, Ridge, Scotch Plains-Fanwood, Summit, Watchung Hills, Woodbridge
  • South Group 4: none
  • North Group 3: Cranford, North Plainfield, Somerville, South Plainfield
  • South Group 3: none
  • North Group 2: Bernards, Hillside, New Providence, Voorhees
  • South Group 2: Johnson, Governor Livingston, Metuchen, Roselle, South River
  • North Group 1: Belvidere, Brearley, Dayton, Dunellen, Middlesex, Roselle Park
  • South Group 1: Bound Brook, Delaware Valley, Highland Park, Manville, South Hunterdon
  • Non-Public A: St. Joseph-Metuchen
  • Non-Public B: St. Thomas Aquinas

See and download the NJSIAA’s Football Classifications for the 2026 and 2027 football seasons:

2026-2028 NJSIAA Football ClassificationsDownload
by Mike Pavlichko

As expected, no real changes to NJSIAA football classifications in 2025, but non-public multipliers see changes

The NJSIAA typically does classifications for each sport every two years, based on enrollment, but occasionally is forced to make changes in the middle of the two-year cycle.

For 2025, there aren’t many changes.

The only real “change,” in fact, was the merger of Jackson Memorial and Jackson Liberty High Schools into Jackson Township High School, with the new school being moved up to Group 5 in the South supersection. Previously, Memorial had been in South Group 4 with Liberty in South Group 3. Now, the district – due to cost-cutting and decreased overall enrollment – has merged the schools, leaving them with one football tam.

Enrollment for Memorial was listed at 1,068 last season, while Liberty was at 844. The combined attendance of the new Group 5 school is 1,828 in 2025-26, a drop of 84 students from the two schools combined last school year, 2024-25.

Two other changes were minor, at least in relation to the rest of their sections. Newark East Side will not be fielding a team this year, and has been removed from the North Group 5 supersection. Nor will Newark Academy in Livingston, which has been removed from Non-Public Group B.

Click below to download the NJSIAA Football Classifications for 2025, as published on the association’s website:

2025 NJSIAA Football ClassificationsDownload

As far as multipliers go, there were some significant changes across all four “category” the NJSIAA now uses in its system. Just like last year, a win over any of those teams still gets the full value of a win using OSI. However, those that lost to a Category A team get 80 percent – rather than 50 percent – of the team’s value. Losses to a Category B team are worth 75 percent, while Categories C and D are worth 70 percent.

If a Category A, B or C school is defeated anytime in Weeks 0 through 8 by a non-multiplier school (public or non-public), they are moved down to Category D automatically, affecting all games played previously and the remainder of the season. Any Category D team – whether they started there or not – that loses to a non-multiplier will lose its multiplier status.

Essentially, schools starting the year as a Category A, B or C must lose two games to non-multipliers to lose all multiplier status. Those starting in Category D will lose that status after just one defeat.

Locally-speaking, St. Thomas Aquinas was moved from Category B last season to Category C for 2025. St. Joseph-Metuchen did not move, remaining in Category D.

But there were other changes. While Bergen Catholic and St. Joseph-Montvale remain in Category A from last year, Delbarton was demoted to B, while Red Bank Catholic was sent to C. DePaul and Don Bosco Prep move up from B to take their place.

In Category C, Seton Hall Prep joins STA in moving down from B, while St. John Vianney moves up from D. Notre Dame (Category D last season) and Donovan Catholic (Category B) were completely stripped of multiplier status. The Fighting Irish went 6-5 last year with three non-multiplier losses, plus a non-NJSIAA defeat to Pennington. The Griffins went just 2-7 last season, with four non-multiplier losses.

Here are the multipliers and their categories for the 2025 football season:

  • Category A: Bergen Catholic, DePaul, Don Bosco Prep, St. Joseph-Montvale
  • Category B: Delbarton, Pope John, St. Augustine
  • Category C: Holy Spirit, Paramus Catholic, Red Bank Catholic, Seton Hall Prep, St. John Vianney, St. Peter’s Prep, St. Thomas Aquinas
  • Category D: Paul VI, St. Joseph-Metuchen

by Mike Pavlichko

Some BCC teams move up, many move down in NJSIAA football classifications for 2024

The NJSIAA has released its 2024 and 2025 classifications for high school football, and a dozen of the 59 teams in the Big Central Conference will be in new supersections this year.

Traditional sections of approximately 16 teams each were done away with several years ago; sections are now determined by playoff seeding using a snaked formula.

Of the 14 that will find a new home this year, two are moving from South to North, with Carteret and South Plainfield remaining in Group Three. Otherwise, two schools moved up, while eight are moving down. And the moves are significant.

Keep in mind, that moves aren’t always because schools saw big growth or huge enrollment drops. The NJSIAA has “balanced” groups since the early 2000s, with ideally the same number of teams in each supersection. But one school could move up or down because another school passed them in enrollment.

Starting with the larger schools, both Linden and Sayreville are moving from North Group 4 to Group 5. The Bombers have typically been back and forth between Groups 4 and 5. For example, the Bombers were the South 5 champion in 2018, the first year of “regional bowl games,” and beat North Brunswick for the sectional title en route to winning the South 5 “bowl” against Williamstown on a fumble recovery in the end zone.

Three other prominent Group 5 schools moved down to Group 4, as Phillipsburg, Watchung Hills and Westfield remain in the North. The Stateliners have been to the sectional finals each of the last two seasons – both times as the top seed, but lost last year to Union City in North 2 Group 5, and West Orange the year prior.

Among the mid-range schools, Governor Livingston, Voorhees and Hillside both moved from Group 3 to Group 2, but the Vikings stay in North, while the Vikings and Comets go to South 2.

And of the smaller schools, New Providence and Bound Brook both dropped from Group 2 to Group 1. The Pioneers moved from South 2 to North 1, while Bound Brook remained in the South Group 1 supersection.

Dayton moved laterally within Group 2 from South to North. And in Group 1, Dunellen moved from South to North.

One other point to remember: Since Group Points are no longer part of the power point formula, no team will wind up getting hurt by an opponent moving to a smaller group size. A win over a Group 2 school is worth the same as a win over a Group 3 or 4 opponent.

The full NJSIAA classifications as released on August 26th can be found below:

NJSIAA Football Classifications 2024 and 2025Download

by Mike Pavlichko

NJSIAA reclassifications move five Big Central teams; others will have new competition, too

According to the NJSIAA football classifications released to the public on its website, five Big Central Conference football teams will compete for a playoff spot in new sections this coming season, with three of them moving up to a larger group size.

Rahway will move up to the North Group 4 playoff supersection, which will feature 31 teams in all. Last year, the Indians played in South 3 with the likes of Carteret, Somerville and South Plainfield. Now, they’re in a supersection with nine other Big Central teams, all with larger populations, including Colonia, JFK, Linden, Montgomery, North Hunterdon, Ridge, Sayreville, Scotch Plains-Fanwood and Woodbridge.

Only one of those schools – Scotch Plains – is in their Big Central division, which also includes Cranford, Summit and St. Thomas Aquinas. Linden, however, is on Rahway’s schedule as an early season divisional crossover.

Hillside also moved up, with the Comets jumping from South Group 2 to North Group 3. They’re in with fellow Big Central schools Cranford, Governor Livingston, North Plainfield and Summit. None of those teams are in their division, however, nor on their schedule as a crossover. The Comets are in a BCC division with New Providence, Roselle, Metuchen and Johnson. With a weaker schedule than the teams they’ll be competing with for playoff spots, such a move at this late date would likely hurt their playoff positioning later in the year.

READ MORE: Who’s the “strongest” Big Central team heading into ’22? We take a deep dive into the numbers

Dayton makes a move up from North Group 1 to North Group 2, and will join fellow Big Central members on Johnson, Bound Brook, Delaware Valley Roselle, Metuchen, New Providence, South River and Spotswood. The Bulldogs and Chargers are also in Dayton’s as-yet-unnamed Big Central division.

Bernards and Dunellen made lateral moves.

https://www.bellamyandsonpaving.net/

The Mountaineers shift over from South Group 2 – where they were previously the second Northern-most school (Newark Central being the furtherst North) – to North Group 2, where they are geographically the Southern-most team. Not only that, they are the only Big Central team in North 2, which is heavy on Bergen County teams and has others from northwest Jersey like Sussex Tech and Newton.

The Destroyers bounce over from North Group 1 to South Group 1, leaving BCC schools like Brearley, Belvidere and Roselle Park, and rejoin former GMC mates like Highland Park and Middlesex, as well as Big Central foes South Hunterdon and Manville. Those two and Middlesex all are in Dunellen’s league division with the Owls also on their schedule.

READ MORE: Strength of Schedule and OSI for 2022 H.S. Football; did the Big Central get it right?

In the non-public realm, St. Joseph-Metuchen will remain in Non-Public Group A, while St. Thomas Aquinas is in Non-Public Group B again. For the Non-Public Equivalency, the Falcons are a Group 3, while the Trojans are a Group 1, the same as last year. Neither team is a multiplier again this year for power point purposes.

For a complete look at the NJSIAA football classifications for the 2022 and 2023 seasons, click here for a downloadable PDF.

Here’s a list of all the Big Central teams and their NJSIAA classification:

  • North 5: Bridgewater-Raritan, Elizabeth, JP Stevens, Phillipsburg, Piscataway, Plainfield, Union, Watchung Hills, Westfield
  • South 5: East Brunswick, Edison, Franklin, Hillsborough, Hunterdon Central, Monroe, New Brunswick, North Brunswick, Old Bridge, Perth Amboy, South Brunswick
  • North 4: Colonia, JFK, Linden, Montgomery, North Hunterdon, Rahway, Ridge, Sayreville, Scotch Plains-Fanwood, Woodbridge
  • South 4: none
  • North 3: Cranford, Governor Livingston, Hillside, North Plainfield, Summit, Voorhees
  • South 3: Carteret, Somerville, South Plainfield
  • North 2: Bernards
  • South 2: Roselle, Johnson, Bound Brook, Delaware Valley, Dayton, Metuchen, New Providence, South River, Spotswood
  • North 1: Belvidere, Brearley, Roselle Park
  • South 1: Dunellen, Highland Park, Manville, Middlesex, South Hunterdon
  • Non-Public A: St. Joseph-Metuchen
  • Non-Public B: St. Thomas Aquinas

Locally speaking, outside the Big Central Conference, Immaculata and Pingry both will are classified in Non-Public B again, and are a Group 1 public equivalency. Neither will be a multiplier for power point purposes.

by Mike Pavlichko

NJSIAA announces final football classifications for 2021/22 cycle

The NJSIAA has officially announced its final football classifications for the two-year cycle covering its 2021 and 2022 seasons, posting them on its website at this afternoon.

The classifications are based on enrollment in grades 9 through 11, and used to group teams into sections for playoff qualification. Group size also is a factor in the traditional power point formula, which is still used to determine playoff qualification as 40 percent of the NJ United Power Ranking (UPR) formula, with the other 60 percent being the Opponent Strength Index, or OSI.

The big news is that a few Big Central teams will not make the anticipated moves that were in a draft NJSIAA classification document circulating back in August.

For example, Bernards would have moved from the South 2 supersection to North 2, but instead will remain in South 2.

North Plainfield was to move from North 3 to South 3 along with Carteret, South Plainfield and Rahway. But the Canucks will remain, while the rest go.

And Dunellen and Roselle Park will remain in North 1, instead of moving to South 1.

In all, only ten of the 60 teams in the Big Central Conference will make a move in the new cycle:

  • Ridge moves down from North 5 to North 4
  • Sayreville moves down and over from South 5 to North 4
  • Perth Amboy moves over from North 5 to South 5
  • North Hunterdon and Cranford move down from North 4 to North 3
  • Bound Brook and New Providence move up from North 1 to North 2
  • Carteret, South Plainfield and Rahway move over from North 3 to South 3

Click below to view or download the NJSIAA’s official 2021-22 Football Classifications:

NJSIAA Football Classifications 2021-22Download
by Mike Pavlichko

More than a dozen Big Central football teams do the shuffle in new NJSIAA public school classifications

Though the NJSIAA has not publicly posted on its website the new football classifications that will begin being used in 2021, a draft proposal that several athletic directors say is official shows 14 Big Central Conference public school teams moving to new supersections this season.

Of those, only four teams are moving down to a lower group, while just two are moving up.

The NJSIAA reclassifies schools every annually, though it has not done so since 2018. That was in part due to wanting consistency with a new playoff formula, and – last year – due to COVID-19 and the lack of NJSIAA playoffs.

Classifications are based on the sum of students in grades 9, 10 and 11.

Movin’ On Up…

Making the jump from North 1 to South 2 are Bound Brook and New Providence, both of whom saw enrollment increase by about 20 students. They had been the two largest schools in that section.

Now, the Crusaders and Pioneers will join a supersection that includes fellow Big Central members A.L. Johnson, Spotswood, Delaware Valley, Metuchen, Roselle, South River and Hillside.

Bound Brook and New Providence are division-mates in Big Central Division 1A along with Middlesex, Roselle Park and Brearley.

Brearley and Dayton are the lone remaining Big Central teams in the North 1 supersection, thanks in part to other changes. (See “Lateral Moves” below.)

Going Down, Down…

The four teams dropping down a group are Ridge, Sayreville, North Hunterdon and Cranford.

Ridge – which saw its enrollment drop by about 100 students – will move from North 5 to North 4, the first time it has been a Group 4 school since the NJSIAA expanded from four to five groups for the start of the 2012 season. The Red Devils won the North 2, Group 5 title in 2013.

Sayreville only saw enrollment drop by a couple dozen or so, but is back in Group 4 – and also moving up to the North – after three seasons in Group 5. When the NJSIAA added the extra group, the Bombers stayed back in Group 4 while rivals like Piscataway moved up to Group 5. They won the North 5 title three seasons ago, beating North Brunswick for the sectional title, then Williamstown in the inaugural South 5 “Regional Championship.” (Those games become group semifinals when the NJSIAA introduces Group Championships next season, in 2022.)

Sayreville and Ridge will be together in North 4, along with Montgomery, Woodbridge, Scotch Plains-Fanwood, Colonia, and JFK out of the Big Central.

North Hunterdon and Cranford will follow each other from North 4 to North 3.

North Hunterdon saw a precipitous drop in enrollment, from 1,188 to 866, a fall of more than 300 students. Cranford, smaller than all but six schools in its old supersection, saw enrollment drop by 104 students.

The two will join Voorhees and Governor Livingston out of the BCC in that supersection. They will be one of the largest schools in that group.

Lateral Moves…

Another eight schools will move either north or south this year, but will stay in the same group size.

How is that possible?

In the 1990s, the NJSIAA moved away from having unbalanced sections. That is, if there were five or six more teams in North 2, Group 5 than in North 1, Group 5, that’s just the way it worked out. But as the playoffs expanded, the NJSIAA evened out all sections so that teams would be competing for postseason berths against a similar number of teams.

Geographical sections are determined by Northing numbers, a measurement of how far North or South a school is. So, if North gets overloaded, for example, with schools that saw enrollment, grow, some schools might get pushed to the South, or vice versa.

If it sounds confusing, it is.

Be that as it may, seven of the eight Big Central schools making lateral moves for 2021 are going to the South.

Perth Amboy is moving from North 5 to South 5, joining fellow BCC members South Brunswick, Old Bridge, East Brunswick, Hunterdon Central, Monroe, Hillsborough, Franklin, Edison, and North Brunswick. Fully one-third of the 30 teams in the supersection are from the Big Central.

Carteret, South Plainfield, North Plainfield and Rahway are all moving from North 3 to South 3. Previously, Somerville was the only team in that supersection, so now the Pioneers will have some company. In fact, the Ramblers, Tigers and Indians are division-mates as well, which could add some juice to those matchups.

Bernards will move from South 2 to North 2, and the Mountaineers will be all alone in the supersection. Head coach Jon Simoneau is thrilled with the move, believing he’ll be competing for a playoff spot with schools that play similar schedules.

In South 2, many teams play more difficult schedules or larger schools, putting his team at a disadvantage when it comes to qualifying for the playoffs. The numbers bear him out; in 2019, the Mountaineers were 7-1 and struggled to get a third seed in their section.

Finally, in Group 1, Dunellen and Roselle Park move from North to South. They’ll join Middlesex, Highland Park, Manville and South Hunterdon in the supersection. And their departure will leave Brearley and Dayton Regional as the only two Big Central teams in North 1.