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# NHIAA tweaks high school football divisions
- URL: https://www.nh-highschoolsports.com/nhiaa-tweaks-high-school-football-divisions/
- Published: 2016-07-29T12:30:46.000Z
- Updated: 2016-07-29T12:30:46.000Z
- Author: Joe Marchilena
- Tags: Fall Sports, Division I, Division II, Division III, football, #wp, #wp-post, #Import 2026-08-18 04:44

Another year, and another update for the ever-changing New Hampshire high school football landscape.

The NHIAA has made some changes to two of its three divisions heading into the 2016 football season, with Division II expanding to 22 teams and two conferences, and a handful of programs moved between Division II and III.

There will be a new varsity program, as Hillsboro-Deering/Hopkinton moves up after playing a junior varsity schedule for the last two years.

The Redhawks will be one of three new teams in a new-look D2, as Bow makes the move up from Division III and Gilford-Belmont, which will be in the first year of a co-op, also made the jump. The division was also changed from four conferences (North, South, East, West) to just two (North and South).

The conference change also means a change to the D2 playoffs. According the NHIAA by-laws, the top team in each conference will be the Nos. 1 and 2 seeds, based on football rating. The next six teams with the best football rating, regardless of conference, will also make the playoffs, and those teams will be seeded Nos. 3-8.

Moving down to D3 were Kearsarge and Monadnock, which will both play in the North Conference, while Franklin moves from the North to the South conference to keep each one at eight teams. The playoff format for D3 will stay the same, with the top two seeds from each conference playing the bottom two from the other conference.

Division I remains unchanged, with this season's schedule cluster being East/West and North/South.

Here's a look at each division and conference.

### Division I

- **East:** Dover, Exeter, Portsmouth, Spaulding, Winnacunnet.
- **West:** Alvirne, Bishop Guertin, Keene, Nashua North, Nashua South.
- **North:** Bedford, Concord, Goffstown, Manchester Central, Manchester Memorial.
- **South:** Londonderry, Merrimack, Pinkerton, Salem, Timberlane.

### Division II

- **North:** Bow, Gilford-Belmont, Hanover, John Stark, Kennett, Kingswood, Laconia, Lebanon, Merrimack Valley, Pembroke, Plymouth.
- **South:** ConVal, HD-Hopkinton, Hollis Brookline, Manchester West, Milford, Pelham, Sanborn, Souhegan, St. Thomas, Trinity, Windham.

### Division III

- **North:** Fall Mountain, Inter-Lakes/Moultonborough, Kearsarge, Mascoma Valley, Monadnock, Newfound, Newport, Stevens.
- **South:** Bishop Brady, Campbell, Epping-Newmarket, Farmington-Nute, Franklin, Raymond, Somersworth, Winnisquam.