The Eastern Connecticut Conference will take on a whole new look in 2018.

The 19-school league (Putnam returns next season) announced its new fall divisional lineup on Thursday, and the major change will be four division setups in cross country, soccer and volleyball.

Football will remain three divisions, although there is some movement — Ledyard moves down to Division II, Montville moves down to Division III, Killingly moves up to Division II and Woodstock Academy will play a full league schedule in Division III.

Field hockey (seven teams) and swimming (six) will still have just one division.

"I believe the new ECC alignment process is a huge step forward for the league," ECC commissioner Gary Makowicki said in a release. "The final alignments will benefit programs that are struggling to be competitive in the division they had been assigned based strictly on enrollment.

"The new alignments will also serve programs from smaller schools that are looking for a more competitive schedule. This process is a bold step by the advisory board to create more appropriate competition for the athletes."

Makowicki said the new alignment was unanimously accepted by the conference athletic directors and approved during a meeting of the ECC Board of Directors on Tuesday.

Unlike previous years, when divisions were based strictly on enrollment, the new divisions began with enrollment figures by gender for each sport, then moved based on program strength. The alignment committee of athletic directors Gene Blain (Killingly), Jim Buonocore (Ledyard), Scott Elliott (Lyman Memorial), Bryan Morrone (Stonington) and Aaron Patterson (Woodstock) then evaluated programs "based on success over the past two years, size of programs, number of levels and projected strength."

The hope, according to Makowicki, is to create more balanced divisions and competition, along with more reasonable crossover games to help fill schedules. The 2018-19 winter and 2019 spring alignments will be announced in 2018.

"We're in a good spot," Makowicki said by phone. "This realignment works for everybody. Take New London volleyball. It works for them because it gets them out of Division I (to Division IV), but it also works for the (more established) programs because they have don't have to play New London twice.

"Nothing is perfect, because by far we're the most disparate league in the state, but this allows for more balance and crossovers that should be more competitive for the large and small schools in the league."

The divisional alignments will be addressed on a yearly basis, Makowicki said, adding the change to four divisions in a majority of the sports was "the biggest piece" of the new agreement.

"That allows programs to move up or down a division without real significant impact," he said. "It's a lot easier to move from (division) four to three. That was a big factor."

Makowicki said there will be no crossovers from Division IV to Division I and "very limited" crossovers from Division III to Division I.

"The issue of getting people enough games is still there," he added, "but there seems to be a real cooperative effort between the ADs to schedule more games within the league."

Football scheduling remains complex, but the ECC's large school scheduling alliance with the Southern Connecticut Conference and South-West Conference this fall was met favorably, and Makowicki said there have been talks with the Central Connecticut Conference to form a future alliance, too.

"Once these leagues set their own schedules, they're realizing there's not a lot of other games out there," he said. "I think this (alliance) is going to expand and help fill out schedules for all of our programs."

The alignment committee did not address ECC postseason tournaments, but individual sports chairs will meet with their respective coaches before the end of the year and come up with a recommendation for 2018. Volleyball held two tournaments this season while boys' and girls' soccer opted for just one.

If certain sports elect to stay with a two-division postseason format, having four divisions will make qualification easier because the Division I and II schools will play in one tournament and schools in Division II and IV will play in the other.

c.banning@theday.com