NEW dream Wyoming high school football schedule for 2014

Since I wrote this post back in May, we’ve learned some new facts about Wyoming’s high school football landscape for 2014 and 2015.

We learned Moorcroft and Tongue River were moving to 1A 11-man. We learned Wyoming Indian and Saratoga were leaving six-man for 11-man. We learned Upton and Sundance are going to keep their co-op. We learned Lingle and Cokeville, despite having six-man enrollments, were going to play 11-man football. And we learned conference alignments.

So I knew I had to build a new dream schedule to fit the new conference alignments to update the one I made in May.

The schedule, though, couldn’t be just a nonconference schedule. The schedule had to be a full-on, eight-week, complete schedule, with home and road dates. Building the schedule any other way would leave it full of holes and bye weeks I couldn’t otherwise fix.

I built schedules as much as I could like the WHSAA, meaning I considered geography and competitive equity as much as I could in my decisions. I also did everything in my power to avoid schedules that would give teams either three consecutive home games or three consecutive road games. But I didn’t deal with some things the WHSAA does (see the end of this post for more on that).

Below, you’ll also see something called a JOB week. JOB stands for junior-varsity, out-of-state or bye week. Maybe it’s also my subconscious telling schools they got “jobbed” by me that week for leaving it open… Either way, that week is open for one of those three options: a junior-varsity vs. varsity game, an out-of-state game or a bye. I’ve tried to give most JOB weeks at the 11-man level to schools near state borders to facilitate out-of-state games.

I also didn’t build a 4A schedule. With no changes coming to the big-school division, there is no reason to tear up the schedule that was new this year.

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Class 3A: I maintained the current conference schedules as much as possible, although I had to change a couple host sites in the West. Otherwise, with the conferences remaining static, the changes came in the nonconference schedule.

3A East
Buffalo: at Cody; vs. Powell; vs. Worland; at Douglas; at Riverton; vs. Lander; at Torrington; vs. Rawlins.
Douglas: at Powell; vs. Worland; at Cody; vs. Buffalo; at Lander; at Rawlins; vs. Riverton; vs. Torrington.
Lander: at Star Valley; vs. Cody; vs. Green River; at Torrington; vs. Douglas; at Buffalo; vs. Rawlins; at Riverton.
Rawlins: at Wheatland; vs. Green River; vs. Jackson; at Riverton; vs. Torrington; vs. Douglas; at Lander; at Buffalo.
Riverton: at Green River; vs. Star Valley; at Powell; vs. Rawlins; vs. Buffalo; at Torrington; at Douglas; vs. Lander.
Torrington: at JOB; at JOB; vs. Wheatland; vs. Lander; at Rawlins; vs. Riverton; vs. Buffalo; at Douglas.

3A West
Cody: vs. Buffalo; at Lander; vs. Douglas; at Green River; vs. Jackson; at Star Valley; vs. Powell; at Worland.
Green River: vs. Riverton; at Rawlins; at Lander; vs. Cody; at Worland; vs. Jackson; vs. Star Valley; at Powell.
Jackson: vs. JOB; at Pinedale; at Rawlins; vs. Powell; at Cody; at Green River; vs. Worland; vs. Star Valley.
Powell: vs. Douglas; at Buffalo; vs. Riverton; at Jackson; at Star Valley; vs. Worland; at Cody; vs. Green River.
Star Valley: vs. Lander; at Riverton; vs. JOB; at Worland; vs. Powell; vs. Cody; at Green River; at Jackson.
Worland: vs. Thermopolis; at Douglas; at Buffalo; vs. Star Valley; vs. Green River; at Powell; at Jackson; vs. Cody.

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Class 2A: The big scheduling challenge with an odd number of teams came here. Basically, I had three teams every week with byes — one from each 2A conference and one from the 1A 11-man East. I tried to develop a schedule that would allow two of those three teams to play each other, leaving only one team with a JOB week. So what you see in the 2A schedules are Week 1 nonconference games, with the second nonconference game coming at a different week for every team in the conference.

The 2A East, which had 2A West and 1A 11-man East schools to choose from, didn’t end up with any JOB weeks.

I didn’t pay a whole lot of attention to looking at who hosted who in 2013; some teams may make the same road trips in 2014 that they did/will this year. However, no schools are making trips for a third consecutive year, near as I can tell…

2A East
Big Horn: at Tongue River; vs. Burns; vs. Glenrock; at Newcastle; at Thermopolis; vs. Wheatland; at Wright; vs. Moorcroft.
Burns: vs. Southeast; at Big Horn; vs. Newcastle; at Glenrock; at Wheatland; vs. Thermopolis; at Lusk; vs. Wright.
Glenrock: at Lyman; vs. Newcastle; at Big Horn; vs. Burns; at Wright; vs. Kemmerer; at Thermopolis; vs. Wheatland.
Newcastle: vs. Lusk; at Glenrock; at Burns; vs. Big Horn; at Lovell; vs. Wright; at Wheatland; vs. Thermopolis.
Thermopolis: at Worland; vs. Wheatland; at Wright; vs. Lyman; vs. Big Horn; at Burns; vs. Glenrock; at Newcastle.
Wheatland: vs. Rawlins; at Thermopolis; at Torrington; vs. Wright; vs. Burns; at Big Horn; vs. Newcastle; at Glenrock.
Wright: at Moorcroft; vs. Upton-Sundance; vs. Thermopolis; at Wheatland; vs. Glenrock; at Newcastle; vs. Big Horn; at Burns.

2A West
Big Piney: vs. Wyoming Indian; at Mountain View; vs. Kemmerer; at Lovell; at Lyman; vs. Greybull; vs. Pinedale; at JOB.
Greybull: at Riverside; vs. Lyman; vs. Tongue River; at Pinedale; vs. Mountain View; at Big Piney; vs. Lovell; at Kemmerer.
Kemmerer: vs. Wind River; at Lovell; at Big Piney; vs. Mountain View; vs. Pinedale; at Glenrock; at Lyman; vs. Greybull.
Lovell: at Rocky Mountain; vs. Kemmerer; at Mountain View; vs. Big Piney; vs. Newcastle; at Pinedale; at Greybull; vs. Lyman.
Lyman: vs. Glenrock; at Greybull; vs. Pinedale; at Thermopolis; vs. Big Piney; at Mountain View; vs. Kemmerer; at Lovell.
Mountain View: at Cokeville; vs. Big Piney; vs. Lovell; at Kemmerer; at Greybull; vs. Lyman; vs. JOB; at Pinedale.
Pinedale: at Shoshoni; vs. Jackson; at Lyman; vs. Greybull; at Kemmerer; vs. Lovell; at Big Piney; vs. Mountain View.

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Class 1A 11-man: With unbalanced conferences — seven teams in the East, eight in the West — the goal was to do what I could to help out the teams in the East with their nonconference schedules. Some help will be needed from Nebraska, as most of the JOB weeks come for southeast corner schools, and Lingle ended up with a pair of JOB weeks. I considered a Week 6 swap that would have had Lingle playing Glenrock and Kemmerer playing a JOB week, but I couldn’t make the home/road balance work.

Just like I did in 2A, I didn’t consider who hosted who in 2013. But I did consider who hosted in 2012 and 2013 and tried to avoid instances of teams making the same road trip for the third consecutive year. I’m pretty sure I avoided all of those.

1A 11-man East
Lingle: at JOB; vs. Pine Bluffs; vs. Moorcroft; at Lusk; at Upton-Sundance; vs. JOB; at Southeast; vs. Tongue River.
Lusk: at Newcastle; at Moorcroft; vs. Pine Bluffs; vs. Lingle; at Tongue River; at Southeast; vs. Burns; vs. Upton-Sundance.
Moorcroft: vs. Wright; vs. Lusk; at Lingle; at Pine Bluffs; vs. Southeast; vs. Tongue River; at Upton-Sundance; at Big Horn.
Pine Bluffs: vs. Saratoga; at Lingle; at Lusk; vs. Moorcroft; at JOB; vs. Upton-Sundance; at Tongue River; vs. Southeast.
Southeast: at Burns; vs. Tongue River; at Upton-Sundance; vs. JOB; at Moorcroft; vs. Lusk; vs. Lingle; at Pine Bluffs.
Tongue River: vs. Big Horn; at Southeast; at Greybull; vs. Upton-Sundance; vs. Lusk; at Moorcroft; vs. Pine Bluffs; at Lingle.
Upton-Sundance: vs. Burlington; at Wright; vs. Southeast; at Tongue River; vs. Lingle; at Pine Bluffs; vs. Moorcroft; at Lusk.

1A 11-man West
Burlington: at Upton-Sundance; vs. Cokeville; at Riverside; vs. Shoshoni; vs. Wind River; at Saratoga; at Wyoming Indian; vs. Rocky Mountain.
Cokeville: vs. Mountain View; at Burlington; vs. Rocky Mountain; at Saratoga; vs. Wyoming Indian; at Shoshoni; vs. Wind River; at Riverside.
Riverside: vs. Greybull; at Rocky Mountain; vs. Burlington; at Wyoming Indian; vs. Saratoga; at Wind River; at Shoshoni; vs. Cokeville.
Rocky Mountain: vs. Lovell; vs. Riverside; at Cokeville; at Wind River; vs. Shoshoni; vs. Wyoming Indian; at Saratoga; at Burlington.
Saratoga: at Pine Bluffs; vs. Shoshoni; at Wind River; vs. Cokeville; at Riverside; vs. Burlington; vs. Rocky Mountain; at Wyoming Indian.
Shoshoni: vs. Pinedale; at Saratoga; vs. Wyoming Indian; at Burlington; at Rocky Mountain; vs. Cokeville; vs. Riverside; at Wind River.
Wind River: at Kemmerer; at Wyoming Indian; vs. Saratoga; vs. Rocky Mountain; at Burlington; vs. Riverside; at Cokeville; vs. Shoshoni.
Wyoming Indian: at Big Piney; vs. Wind River; at Shoshoni; vs. Riverside; at Cokeville; at Rocky Mountain; vs. Burlington; vs. Saratoga.

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Class 1A six-man: With 13 programs, one school has a JOB week every week. With a seven-six split, I tried to schedule the one open East team against one of the open West teams each week. The one week all the West schools played each other, the leftover East team (in this case, Midwest) got the JOB week.

This schedule also was not built to avoid two-year repeat trips, but it was built to avoid three-year repeats. Potential for several of those existed in six-man, and the schedule was built with those games as primary concerns.

1A six-man East
Guernsey-Sunrise: at JOB; vs. Hulett; at Kaycee; vs. Meeteetse; vs. Rock River; at NSI; vs. Midwest; at Hanna.
Hanna: at Snake River; vs. Kaycee; at Hulett; at Rock River; vs. Farson; at Midwest; vs. NSI; vs. Guernsey-Sunrise.
Hulett: at Ten Sleep; at Guernsey-Sunrise; vs. Hanna; vs. NSI; at Midwest; vs. Dubois; vs. Rock River; at Kaycee.
Kaycee: at Meeteetse; at Hanna; vs. Guernsey-Sunrise; vs. Midwest; at NSI; at Rock River; vs. St. Stephens; vs. Hulett.
Midwest: at Dubois; vs. Rock River; vs. JOB; at Kaycee; vs. Hulett; vs. Hanna; at Guernsey-Sunrise; at NSI.
NSI: at St. Stephens; vs. Snake River; at Rock River; at Hulett; vs. Kaycee; vs. Guernsey-Sunrise; at Hanna; vs. Midwest.
Rock River: at Farson; at Midwest; vs. NSI; vs. Hanna; at Guernsey-Sunrise; vs. Kaycee; at Hulett; vs. Ten Sleep.

1A six-man West
Dubois: vs. Midwest; at Meeteetse; vs. Farson; at Ten Sleep; vs. JOB; at Hulett; vs. Snake River; at St. Stephens.
Farson: vs. Rock River; at St. Stephens; at Dubois; vs. JOB; at Hanna; at Snake River; vs. Ten Sleep; vs. Meeteetse.
Meeteetse: vs. Kaycee; vs. Dubois; at St. Stephens; at Guernsey-Sunrise; vs. Snake River; at Ten Sleep; vs. JOB; at Farson.
St. Stephens: vs. NSI; at Farson; vs. Meeteetse; at Snake River; vs. Ten Sleep; at JOB; at Kaycee; vs. Dubois.
Snake River: vs. Hanna; at NSI; vs. Ten Sleep; vs. St. Stephens; at Meeteetse; vs. Farson; at Dubois; at JOB.
Ten Sleep: vs. Hulett; vs. JOB; at Snake River; vs. Dubois; at St. Stephens; vs. Meeteetse; at Farson; at Rock River.

So…. what do you think? Would this work? What do you want to see with your school’s schedule when the WHSAA releases the new one in November?

FWIW, going through this process makes you understand much more clearly what the WHSAA has to go through. I didn’t have to deal with out-of-state schedules — the WHSAA can’t just say JOB week, they actually have to go find someone for that school to play that week, which is easier said than done — and I also didn’t have to field any requests from schools like the WHSAA does. What the WHSAA has to do to piece together a schedule is much more difficult than I’ve shown here. I’m always excited to see what the schedule looks like, and this November — with all the changes to the classifications — will be especially interesting.

–patrick