Orange and Cedar Ridge may be shifting its conference roots away from the Triangle and closer to Alamance County.
Under the North Carolina High School Athletic Association’s realignment draft released on Thursday morning, Cedar Ridge and Orange would join a new 7-team conference in the fall of 2021. It largely breaks up the current Big 8 Conference, which the two Hillsborough high schools have been a part of since the 2013-2014 academic year.
The only other member of the Big 8 that’s currently slated for the new conference (listed as Conference 25, a more traditional name will follow) is Northwood. As of right now, they’re slated to be joined by Eastern Alamance, Carrboro, Walter Williams and Western Alamance.
The changes go into effect at the start of the 2021-2022 academic year.
The NCHSAA released its final realignment plan on December 4, which largely spelled the beginning of the end of the Big 8 Conference since it was established in 2013. Chapel Hill, East Chapel Hill, and Northern Durham will return to the 4A classification. Chapel Hill hasn’t been a 4A team since 2009.
The theme of this year’s conference realignment was split conferences. Of the 61 new conferences across North Carolina, 33 are split leagues that combine teams from two difference classifications.
Conference 25 was one of the exceptions. All seven members will be 3A teams.
The new conferences are not final. Next month, schools can appeal for changes.
If there are no alterations, this will mark the end of the Orange-Southern Durham in-conference rivalry. It was the marquee matchup in local football circles from 2013-2018. In the seven years of the conference’s existence, Orange and Southern Durham won the Big 8 Football Championship six times (Northern Durham captured it in 2018).
Southern Durham is slated to move to Conference 18, a 3A/2A league that includes Person, Durham School of the Arts, Granville Central, South Granville, J.F. Webb and Bartlett Yancey.
Vance County, which joined the Big 8 in 2019, will shift to Conference 17, comprised of Franklinton, Northern Nash, Rocky Mount, Southern Nash, Bunn, Louisburg and Nash Central.
With the pandemic impacting schools economically, the NCHSAA attempted to make conference’s road trips shorter. That’s why the inclusion of Eastern Alamance into Conference 25 was only natural, since it’s only 21 miles from Hillsborough. For years, the Orange football team has faced Eastern Alamance in football during August scrimmages, but not in the regular season.
As far as game action, Orange hasn’t played Eastern Alamance since the 2012 3A State Playoffs. The two school met regularly in football during the 80s and early 90s (current Louisville coach Scott Satterfield tore his ACL playing quarterback for Orange against Eastern Alamance during the 1989 season opener in Mebane). Eastern Alamance officials have always cited playing other county rivals as the reason why a regular series against Orange was eschewed.
Eastern Alamance captured the 2019 3A State Softball Championship, beating Cedar Ridge in the 3rd round.
If Conference 25 stays intact, Orange would have the highest Average Daily Membership in the new league. Currently, Orange’s ADM is 1,306.
During its entire stint in the Big 8 Conference, Cedar Ridge had the lowest Average Daily Membership in the league. That would no longer be the case in Conference 25. Cedar Ridge’s current ADM is 1076. Carrboro, which has been a 2A team since it started in 2007, has an ADM of 876.
Northwood’s ADM, which was 1,433 in the 2019-2020 academic year, is now listed as 899.
Williams, which won the 3A State Championship in men’s soccer in 2019, has an ADM of 1,177. Western Alamance’s ADM is 1,155, while Eastern Alamance is 1,234.
Cedar Ridge and Carrboro were league rivals when they competed in the 2A/1A Carolina 12 Conference, as well as the Mid-State Conference when Carrboro formally opened in 2007-2008.
The Red Wolves have been a 3A team since 2013-14.
This will be the first time that Orange has not a league rival from Durham since they were in the Carolina Conference in 2013. It will be the first time Orange and Chapel Hill haven’t been in the same league since 2008-2009.