New up north: See Northern Colorado sports conferences for 2026-28

As the 2026-27 school year begins, high school sports in Colorado are getting another shuffle with a new CHSAA cycle.

That means new conference setups for teams in the Fort Collins area and Northern Colorado for the 2026-28 sports seasons.

These new conferences will feature minor variations in schools from sport to sport. However, they will be the main league configurations for sports like baseball, basketball, softball, soccer, tennis, wrestling and more.

While there is overlap, football has smaller and unique conference alignments specific to the sport.

Here's what the new conference memberships will like look across Northern Colorado high school sports, starting in fall 2026:

This conference resembles the former FRL, though it's smaller at just eight teams for most sports. The league should be a standout in sports like baseball, soccer and softball.

• Fort Collins
• Fossil Ridge
• Rocky Mountain
• Broomfield
• Erie
• Fairview
• Horizon
• Legacy

This NoCo conference is changing but heads back to its more traditional primary 4A roots for most members. It includes schools in the Fort Collins-Loveland-Greeley metro region.

• Poudre
• Timnath
• Windsor
• Greeley Central
• Greeley West
• Loveland
• Mountain View
• Northridge
• Roosevelt
• Severance
• Thompson Valley

This is one of Colorado's largest leagues, featuring 17 primary members. That means it's split into two divisions for the vast majority of sports.

• Liberty Common
• Wellington
• Windsor Charter Academy
• Berthoud
• Eaton
• Fort Morgan
• Resurrection Christian
• University

• Brush
• Frontier Academy
• Highland
• Platte Valley
• Sterling
• Strasburg
• Valley
• Weld Central
• Wiggins

The MHL remains one of Colorado's most stable conferences, built around smaller schools with similar religious and charter profiles.

• Heritage Christian
• Dayspring Christian Academy
• Estes Park
• Lyons
• Belleview Christian
• Clear Creek
• Dawson School
• Denver Academy
• Flatirons Academy
• Front Range Christian
• Gilpin County
• SkyView Academy

This NoCo league has geography on its side, as most of the main members are in close proximity to each other.

• Centaurus
• Frederick
• Holy Family
• Longmont
• Mead
• Monarch
• Niwot
• Silver Creek

More Northern Colorado conference notes for the CHSAA 2026-28 cycle:

• Loveland Classical, Nederland and Poudre Community Academy will compete in the Foothills League.
• Skyline (Longmont) will be in the Colorado League with north and east Denver suburban schools.
• Front Range Baptist (Fort Collins) will remain in the 5280 League with other 1A and 2A teams.

See the full Colorado conference memberships for the 2026-28 CHSAA cycle, including breakdowns by sport, at chsaa.news/data/CLOC/leagues/?cycle=2026-28.

Chris Abshire covers high school and community sports for the Coloradoan.

This article originally appeared on Fort Collins Coloradoan: New up north: See Northern Colorado sports conferences for 2026-28