I took the list worked up by @GrizzlyDevil and tried to figure out how I would make the conferences for the west using a different set of priorities. First, I wanted to make sure that there were no conferences with more than two classifications. I managed that for football and there's only one conference with more than two for other sports as I put 1A NC School of Science and Math in Morganton in the Western Highlands (where it is now) with 2A and 3A schools as there are no other 1A schools close by and NCSSM only plays a limited number of sports (no football, baseball or softball). Other than that, I tried to have as many single classification conferences as possible and I got one 4A, three 5A, three 6A, two 7A and one 8A. Every conference has at least six schools except a 1A/2A conference around Charlotte made up entirely of "non-traditional" schools. I also tried to put those kinds of schools together in conferences wherever possible.
I also put Chatham Central in the west, but otherwise kept the dividing line where @GrizzlyDevil had it. It helps to have a slightly better balance in terms of 1A schools between east and west but allows me to keep them out of a conference with schools in much higher classifications. The drive from Chatham Central to North Stokes IS long (97 miles, the longest drive between any two conference members in this list), but it's up 421 most of the way and it will take less time than "shorter" drives along mountain roads. I think it's worth the tradeoff.
This leads me to talk about driving distance. I wasn't as concerned about that as his model, but this is going to be a problem for some schools. In this model Watauga probably has the worst deal of any school as the Pioneers would face at least three long drives to Asheville area schools for conference games. But it allowed me to construct a 6A/7A conference in the west which includes McDowell and Watauga is going to have long drives no matter what conference they are in. There's just no going up and down U.S. 321 quickly in a bus. This is true of several schools here in the west, but I don't see any way around it other than to have conferences with at least three classifications.
I used Google's Ai https://gemini.google.com/ to try and come up with answers about driving time and it took me a while to figure out how to construct the right question for "what is the longest driving distance between any two of the following list of schools", after which I put in my list of potential conference members. Sometimes I got good results from this and sometimes it was nonsense as it wanted to include schools as far away as Alberta. In those cases, I just tried to figure out which two schools were the farthest apart and use regular google maps. I've put a mileage list and travel times for the schools who will have the longest drives in the conferences where I think this might be an issue or where I looked up the results (I didn't bother for some of the large metro conferences).
Here's what I got:
Non-football schools
Western Piedmont 1A/2A Charters and Preps (non football)
Carolina International, Concord 1A (23 miles between here and Queens Grant)
Bonnie Cone Leadership, Huntersville 1A Thanks for the heads up to @SPRedRaider
Jackson Day, Charlotte 1A
Valor Prep, Concord 1A
Sugar Creek Charter 2A no football
Queen’s Grant 2A no football
Bradford Prep 2A no football
Langtree Charter 2A no football
Little SMC (no football)
Hiwassee Dam (91 miles between Hiwassee and Summit Charter, 2 hours 5 minutes by car)
Tri-Count Early College
Blue Ridge Early College
Summit Charter School
Nantahala
Highlands
Northern Triad 1A/2A (no football)
NC Leadership Academy
College Prep Leadership Academy
Triad Math-Science
Bethany Community
Millenium Charter
Cornerstone Charter 2A
Piedmont Classical 2A (67 miles between Millenium Charter and Piedmont Classical)
Football playing conferences
SMC 2A/1A
Swain 2A
Murphy 2A (95 miles from Murphy to Rosman 2 hours, 12 minutes by car)
Cherokee 2A
Hayesville 2A
Robbinsville 1A
Rosman 1A
Andrews 1A
Western Charters and Preps 2A/1A (football)
Mountain Island Charter 2A
Community School of Davidson 2A (76 miles to Thomas Jefferson Classical)
Christ The King 2A
Corvian Community 2A
Thomas Jefferson Classical Acad. 1Aonly fits here because they play football, nowhere else to put them otherwise.
Bonnie Cone Leadership, Huntersville 1A
Greater Triad 1A/2A
Winston-Salem Prep 1A
North Stokes 1A
South Davidson 1A
Chatham Central 1A (97 miles between N. Stokes and Chatham Central, 1 hour 43 minutes by car)
Bishop McGuinness 2A
South Stokes 2A
Western Highlands 3A/2A (1A)
Mountain Heritage 3A
Draughn 3A (88 miles between Draughn and Madison, 1 hour 27 minutes by car but slower by bus up the mountain on I-40)
Patton 3A
Madison 3A
Avery 2A
Mitchell 2A
NC School of Sci. & Math, Morganton 1A (no football, baseball or softball, in here with other Burke County schools for other sports as no other 1A schools nearby)
Foothills 3A/2A
Lincolnton 3A
W. Lincoln 3A (71 miles to Union Academy)
Bessemer City 3A
Pine Lake Prep 3A
Union Academy 3A
Piedmont Community (no football, only here because they're 3A)
Highland Tech 2A
Cherryville 2A
Central Piedmont 2A/3A
North Rowan 2A
South Stanly 2A
Albemarle 2A
Gray Stone Day 2A
Thomasville 3A
East Davidson 3A
West Davidson 3A (52 miles to S. Stanly)
North Stanly 3A
Northern Foothills 2A/3A
Alleghany 2A (74 miles from Alleghany to Walkertown, 1 hour, 20 minutes by car)
East Wilkes 2A
Elkin 2A
Starmount 2A
Walkertown 3A
East Surry 3A
Mount Airy 3A
Surry Central 3A
Piedmont Hills 3A/4A
Salisbury 4A
South Rowan 4A (72 miles from S. Rowan to E. Randolph, 1 hour, 15 minutes by car)
Ledford 4A
Lexington 4A
Central Davidson 4A
Eastern Randolph 3A
Providence Grove 3A
Wheatmore 3A
Trinity 3A
NW 4A/3A
Hibriten 4A
Ashe 4A
Wilkes Central 4A
W. Caldwell 3A (53 miles to Ashe)
W. Wilkes 3A
N. Wilkes 3A
SW 4A/3A
Stuart Cramer 4A
E. Gaston 4A
Burns 4A
Lake Norman Charter 4A
R-S Central 3A (79 miles to Lake Norman Charter, 1 hour, 31 minutes by car)
Shelby 3A
E. Rutherford 3A
Chase 3A
Mountain 7 4A/3A
Pisgah 4A
Tuscola 4A (59 miles from Tuscola to Polk)
East Hendo 4A
Brevard 4A
Hendo 3A
Owen 3A
Polk 3A
CVAC 4A
Lincoln Charter
Maiden
Bunker Hill
Newton Conover
Bandys
W. Iredell
Fred T. Foard
East Burke (32 miles to W. Iredell)
Midwestern 4A/5A
Anson 4A (79 miles to N. Davidson, 1 hour, 40 minutes by car)
West Stanly 4A
Central Academy 4A (no football)
Mount Pleasant 4A
North Davidson 5A
Oak Grove 5A
Montgomery Central 5A
Greater Winston 4A/5A
Carver 4A
West Stokes 4A
North Surry 4A (35 miles from N. Surry to Forbush)
Forbush 4A
North Forsyth 5A
Atkins 5A
Western Piedmont 5A
Hickory
Huss
Forestview
N. Lincoln
Crest
N. Gaston
E. Lincoln
S. Point (48 miles from South Point to Hickory)
Suburban 5A
Monroe (70 miles from Monroe to West Rowan, 1 hour, 13 minutes by car)
Robinson
NW Cabarrus
Concord
Parkwood
Carson
E. Rowan
Forest Hills
W. Rowan
WMAC 5A
Enka 5A
Erwin 5A
West Hendo 5A
North Hendo 5A
Franklin 5A (78 miles between N. Buncombe and Franklin, 1 hour, 24 minutes by car)
Smoky 5A
North Buncombe 5A
Greater Greensboro 6A
Southeast Guilford
Northern Guilford
Eastern Guilford
Western Guilford
Ragsdale
Dudley
Ben L. Smith
Asheboro (34 miles to W Guilford)
Mid-west 6A
St. Stephens
Statesville
N. Iredell (77 miles to Kings Mountain, 1 hour, 19 minutes by car)
Kings Mountain
Ashbrook
Alexander Central
Metro 6A
Sun Valley
Piedmont
Harding
Catholic
Central Cabarrus (29 miles to Sun Valley)
Berry
Olympic
Western 6A/7A
Watauga (104 miles to T.C. Roberson currently, 90 miles once U.S. 221 reopens, probably before the next school year, 2 hours 9 minutes by the latter in a car)
TC Roberson
Asheville
S. Caldwell
Freedom
AC Reynolds
McDowell (7A)
Greater Winston Salem 6A/7A
Glenn 6A
Mount Tabor 6A
East Forsyth 7A (27 miles to Davie)
Parkland 7A
R.J. Reynolds 7A
Davie 7A
None of the conferences listed below seemed to have long driving times. If anyone knows otherwise, please say so in the comments.
Charlotte Suburbs 7A
West Cabarrus
Hickory Ridge
A.L. Brown
Cox Mill
South Iredell
Mooresville
Lake Norman
U-Meck 7A
Hopewell
North Mecklenburg
Butler
Porter Ridge
Cuthbertson
Weddington
Marvin Ridge
Metrolina 7A/8A
Ballantyne Ridge 7A
Rocky River 7A
West Mecklenburg 7A
Independence 7A
Providence 8A
South Mecklenburg 8A
Ardrey Kell 8A
Triad 7A/8A
Southwest Guilford 7A
Page 7A
Grimsley 7A
Reagan 7A
West Forsyth 8A
Northwest Guilford 8A
Charlotte 8A
West Charlotte
Garinger
Palisades
East Mecklenburg
Chambers
Myers Park
Mallard Creek
Hough
I also put Chatham Central in the west, but otherwise kept the dividing line where @GrizzlyDevil had it. It helps to have a slightly better balance in terms of 1A schools between east and west but allows me to keep them out of a conference with schools in much higher classifications. The drive from Chatham Central to North Stokes IS long (97 miles, the longest drive between any two conference members in this list), but it's up 421 most of the way and it will take less time than "shorter" drives along mountain roads. I think it's worth the tradeoff.
This leads me to talk about driving distance. I wasn't as concerned about that as his model, but this is going to be a problem for some schools. In this model Watauga probably has the worst deal of any school as the Pioneers would face at least three long drives to Asheville area schools for conference games. But it allowed me to construct a 6A/7A conference in the west which includes McDowell and Watauga is going to have long drives no matter what conference they are in. There's just no going up and down U.S. 321 quickly in a bus. This is true of several schools here in the west, but I don't see any way around it other than to have conferences with at least three classifications.
I used Google's Ai https://gemini.google.com/ to try and come up with answers about driving time and it took me a while to figure out how to construct the right question for "what is the longest driving distance between any two of the following list of schools", after which I put in my list of potential conference members. Sometimes I got good results from this and sometimes it was nonsense as it wanted to include schools as far away as Alberta. In those cases, I just tried to figure out which two schools were the farthest apart and use regular google maps. I've put a mileage list and travel times for the schools who will have the longest drives in the conferences where I think this might be an issue or where I looked up the results (I didn't bother for some of the large metro conferences).
Here's what I got:
Non-football schools
Western Piedmont 1A/2A Charters and Preps (non football)
Carolina International, Concord 1A (23 miles between here and Queens Grant)
Jackson Day, Charlotte 1A
Valor Prep, Concord 1A
Sugar Creek Charter 2A no football
Queen’s Grant 2A no football
Bradford Prep 2A no football
Langtree Charter 2A no football
Little SMC (no football)
Hiwassee Dam (91 miles between Hiwassee and Summit Charter, 2 hours 5 minutes by car)
Tri-Count Early College
Blue Ridge Early College
Summit Charter School
Nantahala
Highlands
Northern Triad 1A/2A (no football)
NC Leadership Academy
College Prep Leadership Academy
Triad Math-Science
Bethany Community
Millenium Charter
Cornerstone Charter 2A
Piedmont Classical 2A (67 miles between Millenium Charter and Piedmont Classical)
Football playing conferences
SMC 2A/1A
Swain 2A
Murphy 2A (95 miles from Murphy to Rosman 2 hours, 12 minutes by car)
Cherokee 2A
Hayesville 2A
Robbinsville 1A
Rosman 1A
Andrews 1A
Western Charters and Preps 2A/1A (football)
Mountain Island Charter 2A
Community School of Davidson 2A (76 miles to Thomas Jefferson Classical)
Christ The King 2A
Corvian Community 2A
Thomas Jefferson Classical Acad. 1A
Bonnie Cone Leadership, Huntersville 1A
Greater Triad 1A/2A
Winston-Salem Prep 1A
North Stokes 1A
South Davidson 1A
Chatham Central 1A (97 miles between N. Stokes and Chatham Central, 1 hour 43 minutes by car)
Bishop McGuinness 2A
South Stokes 2A
Western Highlands 3A/2A (1A)
Mountain Heritage 3A
Draughn 3A (88 miles between Draughn and Madison, 1 hour 27 minutes by car but slower by bus up the mountain on I-40)
Patton 3A
Madison 3A
Avery 2A
Mitchell 2A
NC School of Sci. & Math, Morganton 1A (no football, baseball or softball, in here with other Burke County schools for other sports as no other 1A schools nearby)
Foothills 3A/2A
Lincolnton 3A
W. Lincoln 3A (71 miles to Union Academy)
Bessemer City 3A
Pine Lake Prep 3A
Union Academy 3A
Piedmont Community (no football, only here because they're 3A)
Highland Tech 2A
Cherryville 2A
Central Piedmont 2A/3A
North Rowan 2A
South Stanly 2A
Albemarle 2A
Gray Stone Day 2A
Thomasville 3A
East Davidson 3A
West Davidson 3A (52 miles to S. Stanly)
North Stanly 3A
Northern Foothills 2A/3A
Alleghany 2A (74 miles from Alleghany to Walkertown, 1 hour, 20 minutes by car)
East Wilkes 2A
Elkin 2A
Starmount 2A
Walkertown 3A
East Surry 3A
Mount Airy 3A
Surry Central 3A
Piedmont Hills 3A/4A
Salisbury 4A
South Rowan 4A (72 miles from S. Rowan to E. Randolph, 1 hour, 15 minutes by car)
Ledford 4A
Lexington 4A
Central Davidson 4A
Eastern Randolph 3A
Providence Grove 3A
Wheatmore 3A
Trinity 3A
NW 4A/3A
Hibriten 4A
Ashe 4A
Wilkes Central 4A
W. Caldwell 3A (53 miles to Ashe)
W. Wilkes 3A
N. Wilkes 3A
SW 4A/3A
Stuart Cramer 4A
E. Gaston 4A
Burns 4A
Lake Norman Charter 4A
R-S Central 3A (79 miles to Lake Norman Charter, 1 hour, 31 minutes by car)
Shelby 3A
E. Rutherford 3A
Chase 3A
Mountain 7 4A/3A
Pisgah 4A
Tuscola 4A (59 miles from Tuscola to Polk)
East Hendo 4A
Brevard 4A
Hendo 3A
Owen 3A
Polk 3A
CVAC 4A
Lincoln Charter
Maiden
Bunker Hill
Newton Conover
Bandys
W. Iredell
Fred T. Foard
East Burke (32 miles to W. Iredell)
Midwestern 4A/5A
Anson 4A (79 miles to N. Davidson, 1 hour, 40 minutes by car)
West Stanly 4A
Central Academy 4A (no football)
Mount Pleasant 4A
North Davidson 5A
Oak Grove 5A
Montgomery Central 5A
Greater Winston 4A/5A
Carver 4A
West Stokes 4A
North Surry 4A (35 miles from N. Surry to Forbush)
Forbush 4A
North Forsyth 5A
Atkins 5A
Western Piedmont 5A
Hickory
Huss
Forestview
N. Lincoln
Crest
N. Gaston
E. Lincoln
S. Point (48 miles from South Point to Hickory)
Suburban 5A
Monroe (70 miles from Monroe to West Rowan, 1 hour, 13 minutes by car)
Robinson
NW Cabarrus
Concord
Parkwood
Carson
E. Rowan
Forest Hills
W. Rowan
WMAC 5A
Enka 5A
Erwin 5A
West Hendo 5A
North Hendo 5A
Franklin 5A (78 miles between N. Buncombe and Franklin, 1 hour, 24 minutes by car)
Smoky 5A
North Buncombe 5A
Greater Greensboro 6A
Southeast Guilford
Northern Guilford
Eastern Guilford
Western Guilford
Ragsdale
Dudley
Ben L. Smith
Asheboro (34 miles to W Guilford)
Mid-west 6A
St. Stephens
Statesville
N. Iredell (77 miles to Kings Mountain, 1 hour, 19 minutes by car)
Kings Mountain
Ashbrook
Alexander Central
Metro 6A
Sun Valley
Piedmont
Harding
Catholic
Central Cabarrus (29 miles to Sun Valley)
Berry
Olympic
Western 6A/7A
Watauga (104 miles to T.C. Roberson currently, 90 miles once U.S. 221 reopens, probably before the next school year, 2 hours 9 minutes by the latter in a car)
TC Roberson
Asheville
S. Caldwell
Freedom
AC Reynolds
McDowell (7A)
Greater Winston Salem 6A/7A
Glenn 6A
Mount Tabor 6A
East Forsyth 7A (27 miles to Davie)
Parkland 7A
R.J. Reynolds 7A
Davie 7A
None of the conferences listed below seemed to have long driving times. If anyone knows otherwise, please say so in the comments.
Charlotte Suburbs 7A
West Cabarrus
Hickory Ridge
A.L. Brown
Cox Mill
South Iredell
Mooresville
Lake Norman
U-Meck 7A
Hopewell
North Mecklenburg
Butler
Porter Ridge
Cuthbertson
Weddington
Marvin Ridge
Metrolina 7A/8A
Ballantyne Ridge 7A
Rocky River 7A
West Mecklenburg 7A
Independence 7A
Providence 8A
South Mecklenburg 8A
Ardrey Kell 8A
Triad 7A/8A
Southwest Guilford 7A
Page 7A
Grimsley 7A
Reagan 7A
West Forsyth 8A
Northwest Guilford 8A
Charlotte 8A
West Charlotte
Garinger
Palisades
East Mecklenburg
Chambers
Myers Park
Mallard Creek
Hough
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