Ledyard will welcome perennial state power St. Joseph to Bill Mignault Field this fall.

Norwich Free Academy, according to sources, has filled its open dates by scheduling a murderer’s row of fellow Class LL schools — defending state champion Darien, Staples and Xavier.

Whether or not Ledyard and NFA will be able to fill their future football schedules, however, is a major question.

The Eastern Connecticut Conference moves to a 5-4-4 divisional alignment this fall and only guarantees six league games to its Division I teams — East Lyme, Fitch, Ledyard, New London and NFA. Those five schools had to scramble to find four games to fill out their respective schedules.

But coaches and athletic directors from all five schools said that it wasn't as challenging as they feared. Ledyard, for instance, it will play Cranston East (R.I.) for the second straight year, while Montville (Division II) and Windham (Division III) have agreed to play the Colonels.

“It wasn’t as difficult as I had anticipated, but the scary piece is that the problem isn’t solved forever,” Ledyard athletic director and football coach Jim Buonocore said. “In 2017, maybe I can still get Cranston East and St. Joseph, but what happens if Montville and Windham are on our league-generated schedule? Do I have two other teams in our league willing to play us? I don’t know.”

The ECC also guaranteed its Division III schools (Griswold, Killingly, Plainfield and Windham) only six games (60 percent of their schedules) in 2016 while the Division II schools (Bacon Academy, Montville, Stonington and Waterford) have been guaranteed eight games.

It is Connecticut's only conference that guarantees its football teams so few games. The Naugatuck Valley League and South-West Conference don’t even play out of conference, assuring their league members a 100 percent guaranted schedule.

“We tried to go within the ECC to get the 10th game and couldn’t,” Fitch coach Mike Ellis said. “It’s a pain in the neck. … but if we end up going out-of-the-league and scheduling (tough competition), and if that helps as a league to get ourselves and the kids and the program to understand that this is who you have to beat to win it all, then maybe that’s a positive in the long run.”

The Division I schools were able to find teams from both the Fairfield County Interscholastic Athletic Conference and Southern Connecticut Conference looking to schedule games.

NFA filled all four of its open dates with non-conference opponents. The Wildcats will travel to Darien, Stamford and Xavier and play host to Darien.

“For us to develop as a program and compete on a state-wide level and for a state championship, I think you do need to play a higher competitive level,” NFA AD Eric Swallow said. “I wouldn’t say it was (difficult finding four games). It was challenging.”

New London (Wilbur Cross) and East Lyme (Branford and Law) secured games with SCC schools.

“It’s interesting how much you hear that conferences are locked in (to their own scheduling),” East Lyme AD Steve Hargis said. “But there seems to be games available. They may not be games that you want to have, but they’re certainly available.

"The hardest part is getting handed a (league-mandated) schedule and then moving games to other weeks (to squeeze in crossovers). That was not super easy, and there’s been a lot of shuffling around the league to fit open dates, but if that’s the worst problem, we’ll deal with it.”

Bacon Academy, Killingly, Montville and Windham all helped Division I schools by agreeing to schedule games that were not included in the ECC's master schedule. Killingly and Windham each agreed to play three Division I teams.

“We’ve always been willing to play a couple of them,” Windham AD Pat Risley said. “We feel that Windham’s success has always been built on facing teams like that. It’s just a matter of playing them week-in and week-out (would be difficult)."

The Division I schools want the league to guarantee them more games. There’s a large discrepancy between NFA (1,140 boys based on 2014-15 enrollment) and the rest of the league. There isn’t, however, a large gap between Fitch, the ECC’s second largest school (565 boys) and Plainfield (333).

Ledyard has been one of the ECC’s most successful programs. It has 422 boys this school year, but Buonocore indicated the school has projected a decrease in enrollment for the 2016-17 academic year that could drop the football program into Class S.

Woodstock Academy is the league’s fourth-largest football playing school (490 boys), but has struggled so badly for so long that it won’t play a league schedule this fall.

“I think eight would be reasonable, nine would be ideal,” East Lyme coach Rudy Bagos said. “I think you can still find two (games) out there. When you’re looking for four games, it’s tough. If we didn’t have a previous relationship with Law, I still might be looking.”

Buonocore said, “To me, the magic number is eight games. If I can get eight games from the league, then I have a fighting chance.”

Risley feels that six guaranteed games are acceptable given the circumstances at Windham. It has the ECC’s second-smallest boys’ enrollment among football schools (299) and has annually had a low turnout.

“Certainly no more than two (Division I crossovers) at this stage where we’re at with our school’s numbers,” Risley said. “If you asked me two years ago, I would’ve have flinched if it was three. We’ve lost our freshman team due to low numbers. … We might have had 25 (players) at the end of this season.”

n.griffen@theday.com

Twitter: @MetalNED

ECC DIV. I NON-CONFERENCE SCHEDULES

EAST LYME: Branford, Law, Killingly, Windham.

x-FITCH: Bacon, Killingly, Windham.

LEDYARD: Montville, Windham, Cranston East (R.I.), St. Joseph.

x-NEW LONDON: Killingly, Waterford, Wilbur Cross.

NFA: Darien, Stamford, Staples, Xavier.

x-still looking for a 10th game.