Northern 8 Football Conference

The Northern 8 Football Conference was created in October 2019 when Stryker and Toledo Christian agreed at a meeting to form the league for OHSAA schools that are committing to play 8-man football.^[1] The OHSAA does not currently sponsor 8-man football,^[2] but several member schools chose to play 8-man or choosing not to play their seasons.^[3] Stryker and Toledo Christian forfeited their football membership in the Toledo Area Athletic Conference but remained members of the Buckeye Border Conference and the TAAC respectively, for all other sports. Two other schools that attended the initial meeting would later get board approval to join the league, Holgate agreed to join later on in October 2019^[4] and Danbury joined in November 2019.^[5] Holgate was ultimately kicked out of the Green Meadows Conference for their decision to go 8-man but later joined Stryker in the BBC for all other sports beginning in 2021.^[6] Danbury also remained in the Sandusky Bay Conference's River Division for other sports.

St. Mary Central Catholic was invited to join in the league for a minimum of two years and accepted their invitation in 2021 but intended to get back to 11-man football eventually. As of 2023 they still intend to play in the N8FC.^[7]

The league announced in October 2022 that Sebring McKinley of the Mahoning Valley Athletic Conference was invited to join for the 2023 season.^[8] The Trojans had similar issues with low roster numbers and had only won 37 games between 1993 and 2022 after posting their last winning record at 6–4 in 1992.^[9] The N8FC hosted its first ever 8-man State Championship in November 2022, which is currently being sponsored by the OHFSCA. The Holgate Tigers defeated the Toledo Christian Eagles 37–34.^[10]

On October 20, 2023, St. Joseph Central Catholic announced their intention to play 8-man football beginning in 2024 with their belief that it would offer safer competition against schools closer to their size.^[11] Less than a month later on November 7, 2023, the conference announced they had admitted SJCC into the league as well as Southington Chalker, beginning in 2024. Chalker fielded a varsity football team for the first time since 2020, as they were not able to field a team in 2021. They became a club football team in 2022 and played a hybrid JV/8-man schedule in the 2022 and 2023 seasons.^[12]

Toledo Christian announced in December 2024 that they would returning to 11-man football in 2025. They spent the 2025-26 season as an independent school for football and will return to the Toledo Area Athletic Conference as a member for all sports beginning the in 2026-27 school year.^[13]

In April 2025, Cardinal Stritch announced the return of its football program and that they'd be joining the N8FC after having cancelled two of its previous three seasons due to low participation.^[14]

Kennedy Catholic of Hermitage, Pennsylvania was officially accepted into the league in November 2025 along with Windham.^[15] The Eagles played an 8-man schedule with N8FC opponents in 2025 but didn’t officially join the league until the 2026 season. Windham chose the 8-man route after seeing dwindling enrollment and roster numbers for the past few seasons.^[16]

The league is actively looking for more schools to commit to a two-year membership. They have not set a definite number of schools to be members.^[17]

8-Man, Championships by Team