I found this interesting as I thought SF might pay a CPS for week one since joining CCL....good for them.
Downers Grove North @ St. Francis week 1
- Thread starter SiuCubFan8
- Start date
They have the same amount of non-con (2) as they did in Metro. SF played Lake Forest and Sterling last year in non-con. But yes, I like it.
It won’t be easy, that’s for sure.
Really need 2-0 in non con and thats far from a given.
All.... St. Francis certainly doesn't want to limp into postseason play at 5-4 this season. After 4A had a new overall power look the last two seasons that is gone. 5A is back to well being 5A and now will have along with the Spartans JCA, SHG, (LFF2023) , possibly NLP which will be on the 5A/6A bubble enrollment wise, and of course returning class champion Nazareth among others. Ratsy
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Wow. Without delving in to see who has whom returning, etc, I see six or seven very challenging games for St Francis. 5-4 doesn't look promising.
Who's JVA and how is their football team?
Lots of kids with fat fingers that can’t type.
Not so sure ICCP is all in on the CCL for 2023. I keep hearing a lot of talk about how the school is raising hell about having to play...I think...Marist and LA.
Some tough draws for both SF and ICCP but that’s why they signed up to the big show. I think both programs will continue to get better and deeper. Kids want to play against competition. I think maybe outside Marist, LA, and MC currently, they can be competitive with anybody. Wins could be tough but both teams have a lot of talent.
This is the Achilles heel of the CCL/ ESCC there is no reason ever for 3A team to be playing an 8A team. Outside of them all being private Catholic schools which they all have common there is so much variation in enrollment, funding and emphasis on football within the conference to make it run smoothly. There really isn't really a good solution this problem either.
I think that's true, if it means going 5-4 or 6-3, and then making a 3A playoff run as a team that has been battle tested. However, a few years of 3-6 or 4-5 (and playoffs being an occasional thing), could make it hard to keep kids, let alone grow.
I agree about the crossovers being the worst thing about the CCL/ESCC, although ICCP is going to pummel most small and medium sized CCL/ESCC schools, so there's that.
The solution is to get even bigger, create divisions based on competitive level, and limit crossovers only between divisions immediately above and below, with the most and least competitive divisions only having one crossover, and the rest of the divisions having two.
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Why not divisions based on enrollment instead of competitive level? Isn't mediocrity being rewarded then?
When the conference was initiated 4-5 years ago, I remember the stated goal of the divisions to be to qualify as many teams as possible for the playoffs. Grouping them isn’t really about rewarding anyone or trying to establish true division champions as much as it is about maximizing the playoff potential of the league.
Doing it by competitive level and locking them into as few intra division games as possible is the best way to meet that goal.
Which is unintentionally hilarious when considering the some of the posters around here are constantly harping on get better if you want a trophy or teams should play where they play and not be manipulated into classes.
They just need to work harder like Stillman Valley and Princeton.
I get the sentiment but I am surprised that more leagues don’t take the approach of trying to maximize their playoff qualifiers.
A 10 team league playing round robin is almost certain to place 4-6 teams in the playoffs except in rare circumstances and they are guaranteed a static number of playoff points. They would benefit from going to two divisions of 5. Then play 3 crossovers and 2 non conference
12 team leagues that split into two divisions would likely benefit from three divisions of 4 teams each done by competitiveness. Play 3 intra division games and then 2 games against the second pod and 2 games against the third pod while also having 2 non conference games. The best pod likely qualifies all 4 teams. The middle pod qualifies 2-3. And the bottom pod should qualify 1-2 if they schedule the right non conference games.
I have no problem with leagues doing it but there is some irony to it when reading some of the posts on here.
I think both closed conferences around here would be much worse off if they played noncons (NIC-10, Upstate 8). Also qualifying for the football playoffs is really only a private school thing when it comes to school health. Enrollments are already dropping and if you lose another 40-50 kids because the football teams sucks, it can get really bad.
Here are your largest five and smallest five CCL/ESCC teams, sorted by largest to smallest:
Loyola
Marist
St Ignatius
Notre Dame
Rice
JCA
Montini
Aurora Central Catholic
Leo
ICCP
ACC isn’t playing football in the CCL.
Leo is the only odd ball in the conference. Can’t make rules based on one outlier.
Stillman Valley, yeah. Princeton, no.
Princeton proved they can hang with the best when they took the eventual 3A state champs to overtime in the quarters.
ACC is joining the Catholic League. Are they dropping football or playing as an independent? Going to 8-man?
I thought they are not joining until 2024-2025 because of previous commitments.
Forgot my source but it was that they didn't want to play football in the CCL.
Link to their upcoming schedule...a tad bit easier than the CCL.
ACC 2023 Schedule
SF loses Tj McMillen, Dash Dorsey, Amari Head, and another FCS D-lineman. Besides the few kids I mentioned, they basically return the whole starting offense.. Power 5 quarterback, 4 lineman, 3 receivers. Defense returns about half of the starters as well. Still going to be an extremely tough schedule. But again, that's what the kids wanted, is to play with the big dogs. Will only make them better in the long run.. that schedule the past few seasons beating teams by 50,60,80 points every week did them no favors come playoff time, and quite frankly wasn't fun for the kids...Especially the starters who would only play the 1st half, in some cases only 1 or 2 series. But should be interesting nonetheless! that 3 week stretch at home vs IC, JCA, and Rita is tough..
Interesting. I certainly understand why they didn't want to play a CCL/ESCC schedule. But, their joining the CCL for all sports except football rubs me the wrong way. If I were the CCL, I would have said it's all or nothing, or their admission to the league is conditioned upon them playing a CCL/ESCC schedule after a year or two as an independent.
This is why I said in an earlier post that what is needed is for there to be more teams in order to help with the crossover problem. Steal Christ the King, St. Edward, Mac and Marian Central away from that new Christian conference. Them, plus Leo and ACC gives you that small school division of the CCL/ESCC
I had heard rumblings from some on this board with no supporting evidence that ACC was not joining due to previous commitments.
Then Friday Night Drive stated a few months ago that ACC would not be joining the CCL/ESCC for at least the next year or until they got their program numbers up.
So I assume that is the reason but I don’t know what metrics or expectations are in place for them to join the following season.
