Football scheduling isn't just a problem for the Eastern Connecticut Conference's larger schools.

Montville, which was a Class S program last season, is currently scrambling to fill an open date on its schedule for 2017. It will have to find one less game for 2018 as it, Stonington and Waterford will take part in the football scheduling alliance between the ECC, Southern Connecticut Conference and South-West Conference.

East Lyme, Fitch, Ledyard, New London and Norwich Free Academy will take part in the inaugural year of the alliance in 2017. The five schools comparise the ECC's Division I.

“Scheduling is difficult,” Montville athletic director Phil Orbe said. “Most of the (other) conferences are locked within their own conference. … With this alliance between the three conferences, it just makes scheduling easier from our point of view.”

SCC commissioner Al Carbone said, “The more (teams), the merrier.”

Football scheduling is as big a headache if not the biggest in all of high school sports. Schools have become more unwilling to play larger and/or superior programs with the ECC struggling with that obstacle more than any other conference in the state.

The ECC’s Division I schools are guaranteed six league games. The Division II schools (Bacon Academy, Montville, Stonington and Waterford) are guaranteed seven or eight. Griswold, Killingly, Plainfield and Windham, which comprise Division III, get five to six.

Division I schools don’t play Division III schools unless they agree on it and that has forced them to scramble to fill out their schedules. NFA had to play three Fairfield County Interscholastic Athletic Conference teams and Xavier from the SCC in order to have a 10-game schedule last fall.

The SCC and SWC have also had their issues. The commissioners of the three leagues, Dave Johnson (SWC), Gary Makowicki (ECC) and Carbone, got together and announced last November a schedule of non-conference games between the leagues to alleviate the issue. Most schools will play two interleague games in Weeks 2 and 6. Some of the SCC’s Class LL schools will have to play one another as there aren’t enough schools of that size to go around.

Montville, Stonington and Waterford will play crossovers against the SCC’s smaller schools in Week 2.

“There’s no guarantee that (schools) in the league will pick up games with each other year-to-year,” Makowicki said. “It was a safe move for them. They’re going to get one appropriate game (based on enrollment).”

The 2018 schedule of games for the eight ECC schools are:

• East Lyme: Pomperaug (Class L, SWC); Weston (SWC, Class M), and at Guilford (SCC, Class L).

• Fitch: at Hamden (SCC, Class LL), Harding (SCC, Class L), at Wilbur Cross (SCC, Class LL).

• Ledyard: at Bunnell (SWC, Class M), and Lyman Hall (SCC, Class M).

• Montville: at Lyman Hall.

• New London: at Notre Dame-West Haven (SCC, Class L), and Hillhouse (SCC, Class M).

• Norwich Free Academy: Xavier (SCC, Class LL), at Fairfield Prep (SCC, Class LL), and Newtown (SWC, Class LL).

• Stonington: Branford (SCC, Class M).

• Waterford: Guilford (SCC).

“Credit Gary and Dave for being able to get their schools on board,” Carbone said. “We laughed because Branford and Stonington is a field hockey matchup. Guilford and Waterford matchup pretty well, too.”

Carbone said that they’ll present their scheduling alliance to other leagues at the bi-annual commissioners meeting in May in hopes of getting more leagues involved. The large-school FCIAC, for instance, had schools last fall that demanded divisional realignment because they were struggling against state powers such as Darien (Class LL) and New Canaan (Class L). The league voted 9-to-8 against a major realignment, but did some minor tweaking.

“We’re going to show how we did it and show how the committee got it right if you look at the matchups,” Carbone said. “Unless you present details on paper and show them what it looks like, how it would work for them, I don’t think people are apt to change.”

Orbe often scheduled non-conference games when he was Montville’s head baseball coach.

“I actually enjoyed getting outside of the ECC, particulary if we knew we had a good team coming in,” Orbe said. “It’s good to get exposure across the state. … I think it’s good so that the kids know that when we had a good run that there were teams out of our area that were pretty good, too. It’s a different brand of baseball on the other end of the state.

“Our boys’ and girls’ soccer teams have played Weston, a similar-sized school, the last three-or-four years."

n.griffen@theday.com