Late in November, the Montana High School Association (MHSA) came out with accepted proposals for schools to move up and down classifications in football starting with the 2025-26 school year. Some of these developments affect New Media Broadcasters listening area schools.
The biggest shift to come from this is Box Elder, the defending 6-man champions. The Bears will have a challenge next year as the school will move from 6-man to 8-man classification. Hays-Lodgepole will be moving down from 8-man to 6-man football as a result of having to cancel its season earlier this year. Shelby will also not have a rivalry with Chinook anymore as the Coyotes will be in Class ‘B’ 11-man football starting next season.
Class ‘A’ is getting a total makeover. Instead of northeastern, southeastern, northwestern, and southwestern conferences, the MHSA approved a motion to make up Class ‘A’ Central, East, Northwest, and Southwest divisions. As a result, Havre will be in the central division, playing against rival Lewistown (Fergus County) and will continue its close clashes with Laurel as well as still having East Helena to contend with. The alignment also allows the Ponies to renew success with two old flames: Livingston (Park County) and Browning. Havre has its most wins in program history against Park with 16, while playing against Browning for the first time since 2016 and looking to build on an undefeated streak dating back to the 2004 season.
