The alignment of divisions for the Wolverine Conference are now set and some of the formats in which the various sports will be played have been decided as well.

The league will be divided into two divisions with Dowagiac, Edwardsburg, Berrien Springs, Coloma, South Haven and Three Rivers making up the West Division.

The East Division will consist of Allegan, Comstock, Otsego, Paw Paw, Plainwell and Vicksburg.

Play is scheduled to begin this fall.

The Wolverine Conference expanded to 12 teams after the departure of Gull Lake for the Southwestern Michigan Athletic Conference. The Blue Devils began play in the Big 16 in all sports except football last fall.

The Eddies, Shamrocks and Comets were added to the league following a lengthy expansion process.

“This actually works out better for us when it comes to travel and it reestablishes teams that we used to play,” Dowagiac Athletic Director Brent Nate said. “We will still have crossover games with the other division. It will be similar to what we did when we were in the Big 16.”

Dowagiac, Edwardsburg, Berrien Springs and Coloma were all members of the former Blossomland, turned Lakeland Conference. The Chieftains were eventually asked to seek another conference in the late 1990s and were accepted into the Big 16 in 2001.

Dowagiac then voted to join the Wolverine Conference in the fall of 2004.

According to Nate, who attended a meeting of athletic directors on Wednesday to discuss and finalize formats for baseball, softball and basketball, football will play three weeks of cross-divisional opponents the first three weeks of the season.

Division contests will make up the next five weeks of the season before teams play week nine games against their “rivals.”

The league is calling it “Rivalry Week.”

Dowagiac’s rival used to be Paw Paw, which came into the league with the Chieftains. But Dowagiac will now play Otsego week nine, while the Redskins will take on newcomer Edwardsburg.

Berrien Springs will face Plainwell and Coloma will take on Comstock for “Rivarly Week.”

Like Nate, Edwardsburg Athletic Director Kevin Dean is pleased with the set up.

“We are happy with the alignment of divisions,” he said. “We will be able to maintain competition with Berrien Springs and Coloma in all sports and also be able to play Dowagiac in all sports.

“The formats will be great for us because we will be able to build solid schedules for all sports with Wolverine schedules (both divisional and non-divisional) and continue to play a lot of the other non-conference opponents and tournaments. We will not have to worry about finding very many contests.