Northern 8 Football Conference

The Northern 8 Football Conference is an 8-man football conference that will begin competition in the fall of 2020 and will be made up of 8-man teams from high schools located in Ohio.

Members
School Nickname Location Colors Joined League
Danbury Lakers Lakeside Blue, White
   		 2020
Holgate Tigers Holgate Purple, Gold
   		 2020
Stryker Panthers Stryker Blue, White
   		 2020
Toledo Christian Eagles Toledo Blue, Gold
   		 2020

History

The Northern 8 was created in October 2019 when Stryker and Toledo Christian agreed at a meeting to form the league for OHSAA schools that are committing to play 8-man football for the future.[1] The OHSAA does not currently sponsor the 8-man game,[2] but several member schools resorted to that option recently instead of playing the traditional 11-man game or choosing not to play out the season.[3] Stryker and Toledo Christian will forfeit their football membership in the Toledo Area Athletic Conference, but will remain members of the Buckeye Border Conference and the TAAC respectively, for all other sports.

Two other schools that attended the initial meeting would later get board approval to join the league: Holgate agreed to join later on in October 2019[4] and Danbury joined in November 2019.[5] Holgate was ultimately kicked out of the Green Meadows Conference for this decision, but will join Stryker in the BBC for all other sports beginning in 2021 or 2022.[6] Danbury will also remain in the Sandusky Bay Conference's River Division for other sports.

The league is actively looking for more schools to commit to a two-year membership. They also have not set a definite number of schools to be members, but it seems likely that they would not have more than 10 in the league.[7]

References
  1. Junga, Steve (October 3, 2019). "Area schools establish Ohio's first eight-man football league". Toledo Blade. Retrieved February 6, 2020.
  2. Watkins, Jimmy (September 16, 2019). "SMCC's 8-man football decision part of changing football landscape". Sandusky Register. Retrieved February 6, 2020.
  3. Biviano, Dennis (September 19, 2019). "Smaller High Schools Resort to 8-Man Football". Spectrum News 1. Retrieved February 6, 2020.
  4. Junga, Steve (October 22, 2019). "Holgate officially joins Northern 8 Football Conference". Toledo Blade. Retrieved February 6, 2020.
  5. Kollars, Brian (November 19, 2019). "Danbury makes move to 8-man football". Sandusky Register. Retrieved February 6, 2020.
  6. Calvin, Nate (February 6, 2020). "Holgate To Become Member Of BBC After GMC Votes To Remove School From League". The Village Reporter. Retrieved February 6, 2020.
  7. Junga, Steve (October 3, 2019). "Area schools establish Ohio's first eight-man football league". Toledo Blade. Retrieved February 6, 2020.

Northern 8 Football Conference on Twitter

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