Sand Devils football will no longer compete in the 3A North, at least for the next two years.

In recent months, the Arizona Interscholastic Association (AIA) created a new region for high school football that will affect football programs in northern and eastern Arizona. 

The new conference will combine some teams from the 3A North with some teams from the 3A East. The newly created region – which will be known as the Northeast Conference – will include Page, Monument Valley, Window Rock, Ganado, Round Valley, Winslow, Blue Ridge and Show Low. 

Three 3A North teams – Tuba City, Chinle and Alchesay – will belong to different regions. Some of them may even drop down to a 2A conference or drop their football programs altogether, said Seth Polansky, AIA sports information coordinator.

The decision to rearrange the northern conferences was made by the conference leadership, with little or no input from football coaches and athletic directors from the north conferences, which has riled the feathers of many coaches and athletic directors across northern Arizona.

The new Northeast Conference will take effect in fall 2022 and will only involve football teams. All other athletic programs, such as basketball, tennis or baseball, will remain in the 3A North.

Page High School head football coach Leland “Bubba” Billie petitioned the AIA to keep Page football in the 3A North or let it move down to the 2A level. His petition was denied.

Being a member of the 3A Northeast Conference will make it considerably more difficult for the Sand Devils – and the other smaller schools of Monument Valley, Window Rock and Ganado – to make the playoffs, as they will now compete with schools that traditionally have stronger football programs, such as Blue Ridge, Show Low and Round Valley.

Playing in the same region as schools with stronger football programs will greatly diminish the chances of teams from the old 3A North from earning a spot in the playoffs, said Coach Billie.

“This really throws a wrench in our plans,” he said. “The biggest issue I have with this is that it takes away the 3A North’s guaranteed place in the playoffs. We always had a shot of winning the 3A North and going on to represent the north in the playoffs. But now a loss to one of these bigger teams will also mean losing our chances of going to the playoffs.” 

In the course of a normal season, the Sand Devils typically play against the bigger football programs of Blue Ridge, Winslow and Show Low, but in previous years a loss against one of these teams didn’t count as a region loss. Now it will.

Coach Billie said he and his team will prepare as usual.

“In the pre-season, we always practice hard and train hard, and we’ll keep doing that, of course. We’re going to get the guys going and hopefully have a great year,” he said.

Not only did the conference leadership shake up athletic regions in the north, but they also moved around start and end dates for football, basketball, baseball and other sports, which also has several northern conference coaches and athletic directors upset.

“A lot of our schools in northern Arizona have small student populations, and because of that, a lot of their athletes play multiple sports,” said Polansky. “After the changes, some of these sports now overlap. A student who plays football and basketball might miss the opening of basketball season because he’s still finishing the football season.”