Mercer County to the TRAC

[jotapepe]

Mercer County's school board has approved a move to the TRAC for 2024-25. This is a big help for a few conferences:

- Mercer County is in the Lincoln Trail/Prairieland merger, which currently has 17 and will now be able to get down to 16, making things much more reasonable.
- Mercer County will now join the TRAC and get them back to 14 teams after a year of 13 teams since St. Bede left.

It's also good for Mercer County to get back some of their old rivalries against Sherrard, Orion, and especially Rockridge.
I cannot imagine Mercer County joining the TRAC East (I refuse to use the stupid Mississippi/Rock division names), so I would assume they will take the simplest way out and just move Morrison to the east. It will allow them to get back to solely conference games for everyone. It also helps fill a hole between Monmouth-Roseville and everyone else. Assuming this change, we have the following new divisions:
West - Monmouth-Roseville, Mercer County, Orion, Sherrard, Rockridge, Riverdale, Erie/Prophetstown
East - Morrison, Newman, Kewanee, Princeton, Mendota, Hall, Bureau Valley

All told, this is a good thing for both the TRAC and Mercer County.

It is a very bad sign for Alleman, who is not playing in the Western Big Six this fall. Signs are not positive for that program to get reasonably competitive in the Western Big Six ever again and a move to the TRAC would have seemed to be a way to salvage their program. Now that that will almost certainly not happen, it seems like Alleman's options (again, discounting a radical increase in enrollment and competitive level, which I do) are either to apply to the NUIC as by far the southernmost team, try to stake out some sort of independent schedule, or play 8-man.

 

[ClownBaby]

I know nothing about any of these teams and the chances of me being able to find any of them on a map are slim but I love reading about small town football so I will definitely give your post a like. Post more.

 

[jotapepe]

Thank you, good sir, and I will endeavor to. Always have enjoyed Western Big Six (not really small town, to be fair) and TRAC ball and I'll keep the thread this year.

 

[stl705]

Regarding Alleman, I think there are plenty of options for them to join TRAC West… bring Rock Falls over to the East and you can add Alleman to West.

Above scenario would probably just make more sense to have the East move to an entirely new conference if it makes sense for other sports.

 

[jotapepe]

Not sure why Rock Falls would leave their conference, given that they have ten teams and never have to worry about scheduling. Further, I think they would want to stay with Dixon. Admittedly Rock Falls hasn't been a winner in the BNC but I think they'd stay.

 

[stl705]

Not sure why Rock Falls would leave their conference, given that they have ten teams and never have to worry about scheduling. Further, I think they would want to stay with Dixon. Admittedly Rock Falls hasn't been a winner in the BNC but I think they'd stay.

They are perennial doormats in football in BNC. They could swap Dixon for Sterling Newman and have the old NCIC teams that are much more in line competition wise. I’m thinking geography would be better too?

 

[Bobby Boucher 9]

Morrison has had discussions about leaving the TRAC for the NUIC. The moving and a shaking might not be over yet.

 

[jotapepe]

I doubt the TRAC would want Rock Falls. Other than Hall's co-op, Rock Falls would be the largest school in the TRAC by enrollment by nearly 100 kids, and would be over twice the enrollment of Morrison.

Other than the two private schools in Rockford, the smallest enrollment in the BNC is Oregon at 417. I count seven public schools in the TRAC smaller than the smallest BNC school (Erie/Prophetstown at 394, Bureau Valley at 319.5, Morrison at 268.5, Orion at 307.5, Riverdale at 321, Rockridge at 361, and Mercer County at 376.5), not to mention Newman at 210 (more than 70 kids less than Rockford Lutheran at 282, and Rockford Christian is bigger than that).

So all of a sudden Rock Falls becomes by far the biggest fish in that pond. We don't have to look very far to see situations where that creates imbalances. Even aside from the obvious situations like Huntley, Richland County, or Moline, a quick look at last year's sudden success for Mount Vernon and Macomb, both bigger schools with much smaller counterparts, shows how that can turn. A good coach at Rock Falls could quickly make them serious TRAC contenders, especially given that they don't have to play all of the really good teams (Rockridge, for instance) every year.

On the other hand, it's certainly not a sure thing that Rock Falls would be a playoff contender. Sure, they would likely win a game or two most years, but going up against Princeton, Newman, Kewanee, and Hall every year isn't gonna be a simple matter.

And the travel wouldn't be much less either. The average trip for Rock Falls in the BNC is 59 minutes. Longest trip is to North Boone at 81 minutes. In the 16-team TRAC with Alleman, the average in-division trip is 39 minutes and average overall trip (assuming 7 division games and 2 crossovers) would be 44 minutes. Average savings of 15 of travel time. Plus there are two trips farther than North Boone (Mercer County and Monmouth-Roseville).

So I think that the gains for Rock Falls would be speculative and pretty marginal. Their current setup does pretty good things for them and I think they'd prefer not to mess with a good thing.

Of course, Morrison leaving would change all of that, but I think there's probably no desire for a move. (Not to mention that would leave the BNC with only 9 teams, which is a bad situation.) And if Morrison leaves, just bring Alleman in and your problem is solved.

 

[stl705]

Jota - love the discussion. I think if Rock Falls was to join Trac East, they would just separate and create NCIC Lincoln 2.0 with 7-8 teams. Mendota, kewanee, Hall, and Princeton all fit well size wise with Rock Falls imo. Newman gives them a next door neighbor.

As far as RF competing in football, they haven’t been good in football for over 25 years, probably longer (even against same Trac East teams), so I agree football success isn’t a big factor with them. They are a baseball/basketball school and have been forever.

The Trac West and East make no sense to even be in the same conference if you ask me. Only reason they are all together is because the schools didn’t have any better options at the time and Mendota was tired of getting it’s ass kicked in the football in BNC last few yrs there.

 

[rink62221]

It's been 30 years since Rock Falls made the postseason, and they've only been there twice in its history.

 

[guerinfbfan]

Aledo had an amazing run in football under Cullen Welter in the early 2000s. The Green Dragons were a force to be reckoned with. I know many, many were upset to see Aledo merge with Westmer, ending the Green Dragon legacy.