realignment – Central Jersey Sports Radio

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)

A major realignment is coming to the Greater Middlesex Conference boys’ basketball league next year, after a two-year pilot program in the GMC Red Division was not renewed.

The league will add an extra division in 2024-25 for boys’ basketball, with the Silver Division joining the Gold, Blue, White and Red. It’s a template that addresses competitive imbalance, and already exists in baseball and boys’ soccer, according to GMC President Mike Pede.

The girls’ side will remain with the traditional four divisions, and both alignments are only for one year, Pede said.

Pede says the main goal is to give everyone competitive schedules, but also to make sure teams have games. That became an issue with a pilot program started in 2022-23 where teams in the GMC Red only had to play each other once, though some did twice. Second meetings didn’t count toward the standings or division champs. Some public schools wanted more competitive games than those against St. Thomas Aquinas and St. Joseph-Metuchen, but those schools had problems finding opponents.

That two-year pilot was not brought back by the GMC, which ultimately decided to spread teams apart using five divisions.

Click here to listen to Central Jersey Sports Radio’s Mike Pavlichko talk with GMC President Mike Pede about the new boys’ basketball divisional alignments for 2024-25.

Under the new alignment on the boys’ side, East Brunswick and South Brunswick move from the Red Division to the White, while the rest of the Red remains in tact, with six teams. The White will have seven teams, with Edison, North Plainfield and New Brunswick departing for the Blue. JP Stevens also drops down two divisions to the Blue.

The Gold Division is essentially this past season’s GMC Blue. While Carteret and Timothy Christian will remain in the Blue, JFK, Spotswood, Metuchen, South River and Middlesex join the Gold, along with Calvary Christian, which was in the Gold this past season.

The Silver will include all the Gold Division teams from 2023-24, plus Wardlaw-Hartridge, which drops down two spots to the Gold.

Here are the GMC Boys’ Basketball Divisions for 2024-25:

GMC Red: Colonia, Monroe, Old Bridge, Piscataway, St. Joseph-Metuchen, St. Thomas Aquinas
GMC White: East Brunswick, North Brunswick, Perth Amboy, Sayreville, South Brunswick, South Plainfield, Woodbridge
GMC Blue: Carteret, Edison, JP Stevens, New Brunswick, North Plainfield, Timothy Christian
GMC Gold: Calvary Christian, JFK, Metuchen, Middlesex, South River, Spotswood
GMC Silver: Dunellen, East Brunswick Magnet, Highland Park, Perth Amboy Magnet, Piscataway Magnet, Somerset Tech, South Amboy, Wardlaw-Hartridge

With the girls’ side staying at four divisions, there was a lot less movement. North Plainfield moves up from the White to the Red, while North Brunswick moves down into the White from the Red and Spotswood moves up to the White from the Blue.

Sayreville and JFK move into the Blue from the White, while Dunellen and Timothy Christian move up from the Gold to the Blue. New Brunswick and Somerset Tech come down from the Blue to take their place.

Here are the GMC Girls’ Basketball Divisions for 2024-25:

GMC Red: Colonia, East Brunswick, Monroe, North Plainfield, Old Bridge, Piscataway, St. Thomas Aquinas, South Brunswick
GMC White: Edison, JP Stevens, Middlesex, North Brunswick, Perth Amboy, South Plainfield, Spotswood, Woodbridge
GMC Blue: Carteret, Dunellen, Highland Park, JFK, Metuchen, Sayreville, South River, Timothy Christian
GMC Gold: Calvary Christian, East Brunswick Magnet, Mother Seton, New Brunswick, Perth Amboy Magnet, Piscataway Magnet, Somerset Tech, South Amboy, Woodbridge Academy Magnet, Wardlaw-Hartridge