Meet the new Sawtooth Conference, the same as the old Sawtooth Conference - except for the face-lift, tummy tuck and a lifetime supply of Botox.

That's what it feels like for the Class 1A Division II football conference, at least, after a dizzying sequence of events nearly doubled next year's membership from this season's.

While certainly a headache to schedule for, a superconference isn't really a bad thing at all.

"I was excited about that," Carey coach Lane Kirkland said of the moment he learned of the jump from nine to 15 teams for 2010. "It's going to be a big change. We've had 11 or 12 before but never 15. It just kind of proved to us that maybe the small schools can stay alive and maybe this whole thing is working. We created these two divisions (Class 1A Division I and II in 2004) for the small school to survive."

Next season the Sawtooth Conference will have two divisions in and of itself. Camas County, Carey, Clark County, Dietrich, Leadore, Mackay and Richfield make up the North Division, with Castleford, Jackpot (Nev.), Lighthouse Christian, Magic Valley Christian, Murtaugh, North Gem, Rockland and Sho-Ban comprising the South Division.

Sho-Ban petitioned down to Division II despite having Division I numbers. Lighthouse Christian and Castleford were relegated to Division II based on lower student-body numbers.

Lighthouse Christian petitioned to remain Division I during the last classification cycle when it was a football-only issue, but elected to drop down with basketball and volleyball to consider, athletic director and football coach John van Vliet said.

"What's going to be interesting is the new schools that are joining the conference and seeing if they're going to be able to compete," van Vliet said. "It'll be more interesting trying to pick up JV games where you can."

District VI schools Clark County and Leadore come in from Montana's 6-man Western Division. Magic Valley Christian, which started football with a junior-varsity schedule this season and initially planned to field a full varsity squad in 2011 at the earliest, committed to join the conference a year ahead of schedule.

Kirkland, Carey athletic director Lee Cook and Camas County football coach and conference president Randy Jewett helped devise the plan, and it was selected ahead of other proposals at a conference meeting in Burley last month.

"There were a couple of schools that weren't real happy with it but you could break it down five different ways and there's always going to be somebody that it doesn't work out for," Jewett said. "You wish you could keep everyone happy but with the way this lies it just isn't possible. Lane's proposal was the one that we thought was the best."

The Sawtooth Conference also hopes to gain a fifth berth into the state playoffs, likely at the expense of District I, which gets two bids this year but will only have two teams at the Division II level next season: Mullan and Kootenai. Genesee, which petitioned down from Division I, could replace Clark Fork in a combined District I-II conference.

Kirkland said North Valley Academy in Gooding is also in the mix as a prospective member of the North Division. A Nov. 23 meeting will determine NVA's status for the 2010 season.

David Bashore may be reached at dbashore@magicvalley.com or 208-735-3230.