Class 3A considers new football conference alignments for 2020-21

Class 3A could see a shift in its football conference alignments for 2020 and 2021, with Powell and Cody switching places with Rawlins and Lander.

Such a move would lower overall travel but would put Fremont County rivals Riverton and Lander in separate conferences.

The proposed conference alignment would have Rawlins and Lander join Jackson, Star Valley, Evanston and Green River in a modified West Conference, while Powell and Cody would join Worland, Buffalo, Riverton and Douglas in a modified East Conference.

The proposal was confirmed in separate emails from four current Class 3A coaches to wyoming-football.com. However, their understandings of the proposal ranged from “nothing super concrete” to “a done deal.”

One coach said the new proposal would help eliminate overnight travel for conference games for all teams. The necessity to travel through Yellowstone Park for conference games would also be reduced.

The potential move is precipitated in part by reclassification, which brings Buffalo’s return to 3A and Torrington’s move to Class 2A for both 2020 and 2021.

Below is a table of the mileage between 3A high schools, showing only the distances between schools that could be in the same conference in 2020. One-way distances here are calculated “through the park,” where teams take shorter trips going through Yellowstone when possible.

	Jac	Eva	SV	GR	Cod	Pow	Lan	Raw	Riv	Dou	Wor	Buf
Jac	x	190	67	190	179	205	162	283
Eva	190	x	124	93	367	389	207	212
SV	67	124	x	171	245	271	228	290
GR	190	93	171	x	293	315	133	127
Cod	179	367	245	293	x	26	165	261	140	266	89	177
Pow	205	389	271	315	26	x	188	283	162	288	88	157
Lan	162	207	228	133	165	188	x	126	29	198	115	205
Raw	283	212	290	127	261	283	126	x	125	170	211	227
Riv					140	162	29	125	x	172	90	180
Dou					266	288	198	170	172	x	215	163
Wor					89	88	115	211	90	215	x	91
Buf					177	157	205	227	180	163	91	x

Total conference travel distances for respective teams would change with new conferences, with equal teams seeing more and less travel but with overall travel reduced.

With the old alignment, with Buffalo replacing Torrington in the East Conference and no other changes, teams would have averaged a total of 907 miles to their conference destinations; with the new alignment, teams would average a total of 818 miles to their conference foes, a reduction about 91 miles per school.

Schools with more travel would include:
Jackson: Old alignment, 831 miles; new alignment, 892 miles.
Star Valley: Old alignment, 878 miles; new alignment, 880 miles.
Rawlins: Old alignment, 859 miles; new alignment, 1,038 miles.
Riverton: Old alignment, 596 miles; new alignment, 744 miles.
Douglas: Old alignment, 918 miles; new alignment, 1,104 miles.
Lander: Old alignment, 673 miles; new alignment, 856 mies.

Schools with less travel would include:
Evanston: Old alignment, 1,163 miles; new alignment, 826 miles.
Green River: Old alignment, 1,062 miles; new alignment, 714 miles.
Cody: Old alignment, 1,110 miles; new alignment, 698 miles.
Powell: Old alignment, 1,206 miles; new alignment, 721 miles.
Worland: Old alignment, 722 miles; new alignment, 573 miles.
Buffalo: Old alignment, 866 miles; new alignment, 768 miles.

The WHSAA will release the conference portion of the 2020 football schedule at the statewide scheduling meeting Nov. 19-20 in Casper.

–patrick