The Big North Conference voted Thursday that two of the three teams in volleyball were OK, also finalizing division lineups for the 2026-27 and 2027-28 school years.
Division placement was a point of contention for West Milford and Lakeland, with both schools reaching out to the New Jersey High School Athletic Association, the state's governing body for sports, about changing conferences due to Big North Division placement. Both schools cited declining enrollment as their main concern and were unhappy about having to play Group 4 schools as Group 2 schools.
After the NJISAA rejected the schools' requests, the Big North moved to appease both schools, promising to speed up the timeline for divisional approval in coming years.
“We're taking this very seriously,” Big North Executive Director Sharon Hughes said after the hour-long meeting. “We knew there were schools that wanted to leave the conference, and we thought our process was inclusive. We had representatives from each division working with the scheduling department to come up with proposed adjustments.”
The Big North (not to be confused with the Super Football Conference) is an association of 44 schools in Bergen and Passaic counties divided into seven divisions, including football, basketball, baseball and wrestling. The football division is governed by a separate organization, the SFC.
The conference has considered restructuring by sport but believes maintaining competitive balance will be a challenge.
New department structure
The approved placement of the seven divisions beginning with the 2026-27 school year is as follows: (Teams in bold have been moved from their current divisions to the new divisions.) Hughes said the vote was nearly unanimous.
United: Holy Angels, Bergen Catholic, DePaul, Don Bosco, IHA, Paramus Catholic, St. Joseph
freedom: Bergen Tech, Clifton, Eastside, Kennedy, Passaic, Passaic Tech
Freedom: Fair Lawn, Hackensack, Northern Highlands, Ramapo, Ridgewood
Independence: Indian Hills, Lakeland, Passaic Valley, Wayne Hills, Wayne Valley, West Milford
Nationwide: Demarest, Old Tappan, ParamusPascack Valley, Tenafly, Teaneck
Patriot: Mahwah, Pascack Hills, Ramsey, Riverdell, Westwood
American: BergenfieldCliffside Park, Dumont, Englewood, Fort Lee, Ridgefield Park
Volleyball remains the same
In response to volleyball's growing popularity, the NJSIAA approved a plan to switch the state tournament to best-of-five tournaments starting in 2025, giving schools the option to play either a best-of-three or best-of-five regular season bracket.
The Big North has opted to keep the status quo for all games involving conference schools, maintaining a best-of-three format, and games between conference schools and other schools can be played at either level.
The main concern with moving to best-of-five matches is the potential increase in match length and the addition of a freshman and JV match at the end.
