Next year the Southwest Valley will split into 2 divisions down from the current 3 this year. Those divisions will finally allow for some of the ridiculous Blue versus Red crossover games that we have seen in the previous years to disappear and should result in more competitive balance.

The SWVC Blue will be Lincoln-Way East, Sandburg, H-F, Lockport, Naperville Central, Naperville North, Neuqua Valley, and Metea Valley.

The SWVC Red will be Lincoln-Way West, Lincoln-Way Central, Bradley, Andrew, DeKalb, Waubonsie Valley, and Stagg. The 7 team Red Division will need to find Weeks 3-9 non-conference games the next two years.

But what if we could improve the Southwest Valley Conference even more? Already this year the combining of the old DVC and SWSC for football has led to some more competitive matchups and reduced the need for those old Blue versus Red crossovers in the SWSC that resulted in a 95% win percentage for the Blue. Arguably the Southwest Valley is already the top public school conference in the state in my opinion, though several other conferences can make a solid argument. So why not improve it?

So here is an idea free of charge for the 22 ADs and multiple adminstrators of these south suburban schools to take a look at when scheduling your football teams out in the future. It guarantees competitive matchups for years and saves you the work of needing to fill a random Week 7 game for example if you're in the current Southland Conference or Southwest Valley Red.

Take a lesson from the CCL/ESCC that has managed to create perhaps the most exciting competitive atmosphere in high school football in Illinois by virtually ensuring that 80-90% of their teams will have 4 wins heading into Week 9 of the season because of how masterfully they have balanced the divisions in their conferences. Don't want to lose kids to private schools? Let them be on a team that is in the playoff hunt all year instead of getting drilled by a team they shouldn't be playing in a non-competitive crossover because the AD and school/district adminstrators were too lazy to competively balance the football team's schedule like the CCL/ESCC schools do a masterful job at.

In this scenario, I'm combining the Southland Conference into the SWVC, but doing it in a way that will allow a bit more competition for Kankakee and Crete-Monee, but still allowing for any of those schools from the Southland Conference to get a clear path to 5 victories for the playoffs and reduce their need for finding a random Weeks 3-9 game. Here is my plan to improve the south suburban high school football landscape and also kind of recreate the old SICA which was the best setup ever.

Let me know what you think.


I present to you the Southwestland Valley Football Conference...


SOUTHWESTLAND VALLEY FOOTBALL CONFERENCE

CONFERENCES DETERMINED BY SCHOOL ENROLLMENT AND PREVIOUS FOOTBALL SUCCESS
(MODEL USED NOW BY THE SOUTHWEST VALLEY)

BLUE: Lincoln-Way East/Neuqua Valley/Lockport/Naperville Central/Naperville North/Sandburg
RED: Homewood-Flossmoor/Waubonsie Valley/Rich Township/Bloom Township/Metea Valley/Stagg
GREEN: Lincoln-Way West/Lincoln-Way Central/Bradley-Bourbonnais/Andrew/DeKalb
GRAY: Kankakee/Crete-Monee/Thornwood/Thornton/Thornridge

WEEK 3: RANDOM CROSSOVERS (HAND-PICKED FOR COMPETITIVE BALANCE FOR THIS EXERCISE):
Lincoln-Way East-Lincoln-Way Central
Naperville Central-Kankakee
Naperville North-Bradley-Bourbonnais
Lockport-Andrew
Neuqua Valley-Crete-Monee
Sandburg-H-F
Lincoln-Way West-Waubonsie Valley
Metea Valley-DeKalb
Stagg-Thornwood
Rich Township-Thornridge
Bloom Township-Thornton

WEEK 4: BLUE/RED AND GREEN/GRAY HYPOTHETICAL CROSSOVERS::
Lincoln-Way East-H-F
Neuqua Valley-Waubonsie Valley
Lockport-Rich Township
Naperville Central-Bloom Township
Naperville North-Metea Valley
Sandburg-Stagg
Lincoln-Way West-Crete-Monee
Lincoln-Way Central-Kankakee
Bradley-Bourbonnais-Thornton
Andrew-Thornridge
DeKalb-Thornton

WEEKS 5-9: BLUE AND RED CONFERENCE GAMES
GREEN AND GRAY CONFERENCE GAMES WITH 1 GREEN VS. GRAY WEEK 5-9 CROSSOVER GAME BASED ON PREVIOUS YEARS STANDINGS

They are 4-1, with a sorta close loss to Jackson, MO at the Classic. Jackson is one hell of a program!

They have some playmakers on both sides of the ball and decent size. Unranked and barely mentioend in the 4A AP polls, garnering 2 points.

Here is the lede for the game piece that ran today. How long has this writer been wanting to use this twist of words:

Correyontae Midget was one of the smallest guys on the field Friday night.

But the 5-foot-9, 170-pound senior running back towered over the Marion defense all game.

His 275 yards and three touchdowns on 22 carries keyed Cahokia’s 28-6 South Seven Conference win that put it in the driver’s seat to win the league title.

Midget rushed for scores of 4, 57 and 55 yards, using a patient running style and exploding into the open field after making one decisive cut.

Sorry no postgame

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