Maybe this has been suggested elsewhere, but with the OC settling in on swapping Joplin out for Central, and with the COC adding in Joplin, that gives each of them 10 teams which of course everyone has realized is a nice sweet spot, especially for football.
So, focusing in on the 16 remaining class 3 and class 4 teams plus Lamar in southwest Missouri, because of course Lamar wants to play with the bigger schools and has proven they can. Take Buffalo off the list because they are on a far edge of southwest Missouri and have chosen to join the Ozarks Highland Conference starting in 2018-19.
This leaves 15 teams, which is basically the newly expanding Big 8’s 14 total teams due to the merger of the old Big 8 and the current Small COC (less Bolivar), but also adding Bolivar into the mix for 15 total teams. Create three divisions of 5 teams each, call them what you want (Red, White and Blue for sake of the example).
Red consists of, generally speaking, the five largest (McDonald County, Marshfield, Bolivar, Nevada, and Rogersville). White is Lamar, Seneca, Cassville, Monett, and Aurora. Blue is Reeds Spring, Catholic, Hollister, Mt. Vernon, and East Newton, generally the five smallest with some exceptions due to geography and long-time rivalries superseding enrollment in the Red White and Blue divisions.
Each year, speaking of football, you play the other four teams in your division, plus 3 from one of the other divisions and 2 from the third division. The following year, in addition to your own division games, you play the other 2 and other 3 that you didn’t play the preceding year. This would seem to work fine, and for those who argue that you can’t crown a true champion, sorry, but they are now going to have that in the newly expanded 14-team Big 8 anyway.
Bolivar doesn’t seem out of place here. Two schools in the expanded Big 8 are larger and 3 more are within 100 students in size. Others a little smaller such as Cassville, Seneca, and the old Small COC schools are all comfortable playing Bolivar, I’m sure, as of course would be the smallest of them all, Lamar.
As for basketball and other sports, with 15 teams you’d pretty much have a good chunk of your season scheduling put in place for you with up to 14 built-in opponents for you, depending on the sport. Farthest drive between any two Big 8 schools would be something like Hollister/Nevada which is 160 miles 2.5 hours all on four lane highways, or Bolivar/McDonald County which is 120 miles or two hours, all on four-lane highways.
First year opponents for Bolivar (example): Nevada, Rogersville, Marshfield, McDonald County, Lamar, Monett, Cassville, Reeds Spring, Catholic.
Lamar: Seneca, Cassville, Monett, Aurora, Bolivar, Nevada, Catholic, Reeds Spring, Mt. Vernon.
The above looks like pretty good football schedules for both of these schools in the example.
