Southwest Prairie Expansion
- Thread starter jimsavio
- Start date
Interesting....heard some very early rumblings but not much since.
I would think prob by location since generally all are 8A sized schools for the most part.
Say a West/East divide? I'm assuming that the plainfields would want to stay together same with the Oswego's..and wkith the exception of Romeoville it works well from a West to East divide...
West
Oswego
Oswego East
W Aurora
Yorkville
Minooka
Romeoville?
East
Plain N
Plain E
Plain C
Plain S
Joliet W
Joliet C
I would think prob by location since generally all are 8A sized schools for the most part.
Say a West/East divide? I'm assuming that the plainfields would want to stay together same with the Oswego's..and wkith the exception of Romeoville it works well from a West to East divide...
West
Oswego
Oswego East
W Aurora
Yorkville
Minooka
Romeoville?
East
Plain N
Plain E
Plain C
Plain S
Joliet W
Joliet C
If you keep the Plainfield, Oswego and Joliet schools together, it makes it difficult. Chicago Tribune/Beacon News had a possible division by size. West Aurora, Joliet West, Joliet Central, Oswego, Oswego East and Minooka in big school and Plainfield South, Plainfield North, Plainfield East, Plainfield Central, Romeoville and Yorkville in small school.
Here is the story from Rick Armstrong. Also of note is that the W Aurora principal lives in the Minooka district and knows the conference and the area very well
West Aurora and Yorkville invited to join the SWP
West Aurora, the Oswego’s, Minooka all in the “West Division” makes that a pretty tough division!
The great thing about this if it happens is that all teams will be able to have a non conference game or two (I’m sure they will have a couple crossover games built into their schedules)
Note to Oswego (and Waubonsie) - I would really enjoy seeing Oswego and Waubonsie Renew their annual non conference football game! It would be great to see that revived again!
The great thing about this if it happens is that all teams will be able to have a non conference game or two (I’m sure they will have a couple crossover games built into their schedules)
Note to Oswego (and Waubonsie) - I would really enjoy seeing Oswego and Waubonsie Renew their annual non conference football game! It would be great to see that revived again!
I realize Yorkville is in never-never land geographically, now 1787 kids, surrounded to the north west and south with 3A to 5A schools and to the east with 7A & 8A schools. Is their enrollment still expected to grow? If it is still growing, the conference makes sense if they go big/small rather than east/west divisions...If they aren't growing, I can't picture them being happy being the 6A runt of the conference full of 7A & mostly 8A schools...but I also understand that they are now double the size of Morris...to think, 25 years ago they were in the I-8...
It's a very similar situation with a lot of the other schools here...once the economy really gets cranking Yorkville will see much more growth and they still have a ton of development still to do
Yep, by square miles yorkville is a massive district with lots of lots ready to develop. Kaneland as well but they are a little smaller enrollment wise now and don't have quite as many lots ready for immediate development.
Yorkville will definitely be one of the bigger schools in the conference down the road. Just not sure if that is 5 years down the road or 20 years down the road. Of course, by the time it happens the conference will look different and yorkville may even go the Oswego/plainfield route and have multiple high schools by then.
Good fit overall for all involved.
This totally sucks because the Napervilles are left out. Was hoping some of the schools mentioned would have eventually been in the same conference as NN and NC. The situation in the DVC can not continue like it is. Was hoping the Oswegos or Plainfields would have been in the DVC mix. What does the DVC do now?
1 Districts?
2 Grab a few of the top remaining upstate 8 teams to add to the Naper’s and Valley’s?
3 Talk with southwest suburban? Two divisions down there?
At least with this change the conference is no longer closed and there will be a bunch more teams needing non conference games (Oswego’s, WA, Minooka, Plainfield’s etc etc). Should be easier to fill the non con schedules for the teams needing more than 2 a year.
What about dividing north and south?
North
Yorkville, West Aurora, Oswego, Oswego East, Plainfield North, Plainfield East
South
Minooka, Joliet West, Joliet Central, Plainfield Central, Plainfield South, Romeoville
And you cannot think these decisions are made solely on enrollment for football. For example, I can imagine that the baseball programs would want a say, because as a whole baseball may be the most successful program for the conference in recent memory.
North
Yorkville, West Aurora, Oswego, Oswego East, Plainfield North, Plainfield East
South
Minooka, Joliet West, Joliet Central, Plainfield Central, Plainfield South, Romeoville
And you cannot think these decisions are made solely on enrollment for football. For example, I can imagine that the baseball programs would want a say, because as a whole baseball may be the most successful program for the conference in recent memory.
I think you need Waubonsie and Metea in the south to make it an 8 team division. The south looks like a nice place to be.
You can put Naperville North and Naperville Central in the north Conference to make that an 8 team division.
Neuqua can play a 9 game non conference schedule with Waubonsie, Metea, Naperville North, Naperville Central, Oswego, Oswego East, Minooka, Plainfield North, and a true non con game with LWE.
OR - how about this as a master plan.
Naperville North and Naperville central move to southwest Prarie to make two divisions of 7 for a 14 team Conference.
The Valleys (Neuqua, Waubonsie and Metea) move to southwest suburban to take that conference from 13 to 16 and two divisions of 8 teams each.
My only request:
That NV and WV and MV required to play each other once a year whether it’s in division or in a cross over.
Naperville North and Naperville central move to southwest Prarie to make two divisions of 7 for a 14 team Conference.
The Valleys (Neuqua, Waubonsie and Metea) move to southwest suburban to take that conference from 13 to 16 and two divisions of 8 teams each.
My only request:
That NV and WV and MV required to play each other once a year whether it’s in division or in a cross over.
Just about every time these decisions are made solely for football. This one is no different.
Everyone in the conference is 4A for basketball and baseball, so the conference could divide up however it wanted for other sports...But for football the 6A Foxes would be the runt, as everyone else is lkely a handful of 7As and mostly 8A's...But it would be illogical to come up with different divisions for football and other sports...
Totally agree. I just don’t necessarily think this conference is going to make its divisions solely based on what is best for a football team or two.
I would imagine it's not our of the question to have football divisions based on size or competitiveness and other sports divisions based on geography. If you do enrollment or conlpetitivness you could rearrange every 2 years. If separating by competitiveness it could look like this....
Division 1
Oswego
Oswego east
Plainfield north
West aurora
Joliet west
Minooka or Plainfield south
Division 2
Plainfield central
Plainfield east
Yorkville
Romeoville
Joliet central
Minooka or Plainfield South
Then after 2 years the most successful team in the bottom division switches with the bottom of the top division
The European Premier League model!
Only downside is... it might be a tad Ego brusing at best or (humiliating at worst) for the Division 1 team that gets relegated down to Division 2. I’m not trying to protect snowflakes, but at the end of the day...this is just a bunch of 15 to 18 year old kids on these teams. Wouldn’t be the best memory of high school football for those kids being the class of JR and Senior Varsity players that got their school/team....Relegated to the bottom division with their subpar play in those two seasons.
That said - there is somewhat of a precedent for this already in the CCL.......Mount Carmel stepped down to the Green and Montini moved up to the Blue......so the model is out there in HS football in the state already!!
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I agree. I am not the biggest fan of divisions being defined by being better than the other based on perception.
The I-8, which has had some interesting & kinda wild enrollment swings since Manteno & Peotone joined in '02, is an example of changing divisions every couple of years...Peotone joined at little over 500, got up to the 670s, and is now back under 500...RC was up to the mid 600's, back under 500...Rumor has it, however, that the snowflakes in the conference didn't want to be sent back to the small division to stay away from Wilmington, who was the smallest school in the conference at one point...
Yes but sorting divisions by size is not quite the same as sorting by “perceived top group and perceived bottom group” and then promoting and relegatIng teams from each division by performance over a couple years.
Me too (and maybe one that includes the Valleys.)
Or (in the alternative) I hear the Bartlett freshman are world beaters again - so maybe back to the future and the Valleys move back into the remains of the Upstate 8?
I think the Napers and Valleys really want to try and remain together - but I think that is going to be tough with the 5 team odd number....unless 2 other Upstate 8 teams (along with the Bartlett freshmen) want to move into the DVC. OR The IHSA moves to the District plan they have floated.
What would be thee incentive for U8 schools to come over to the DVC? You guys are in a tough spot being as large as you are. The only conferences nearby that make sense are the West Suburban and Southwest Prairie. SWP just added schools and it doesnt look like they invited DVC schools and the WSC seems like an exclusive club that doesnt want anyone in or out. You all needed to land us and the Oswegos.
Back to my original argument, I just am not sure these decisions are going to be made solely on football. I can see the 2018 state champion in baseball wanting the most competitive schedule, conference wise, and that won’t be with excluding Minooka or Plainfield South.
Actually, divisions helps in scheduling all sports. For example, I read that baseball currently plays each team twice, accounting for 18 conference games. If they were to play only once, that means they have to find five additional games. Finding more games is not easier than having games straight up scheduled for you.
Actually hearing the exact opposite. Since the expansion scheduling has been a nightmare for every sport except for football. Basketball, volleyball, etc had random unbalanced schedules. Baseball always a nightmare because of weather.
Baseball would just go to 22 conference games. Play everybody twice. They played 21 with 8 teams. Basketball would play 11 conference games. They will play 9 this upcoming season. They played 14 with 8 teams but still played 14 with 10 and it was an absolute nightmare. With IHSA basketball going to 31 total regular season games. Two divisions of 6 playing 10 conference games makes less sense than just having everyone playing each other once like they will this year.
Hearing the Oswego's definitely want to stick together. Not entirely the case with Plainfield's. Plainfield East and Plainfield North want to stay together. Plainfield South would prefer to be in a division with Minooka. Joliet's want to stay together. In other sports divisions is not a foregone conclusion. Basketball, Baseball, Volleyball can very easily schedule for their sports without divisions. There's 3 options for football divisions they are GEOGRAPHY Nothing completely makes sense for everyone no matter if you go East/West or North /South. Then there is divisions by ENROLLMENT but you have Joliet Central with big schools getting pounded every week. The final option is PROMOTION-RELEGATION divions would have SPC Red first division and SPC Blue the second division. How it works last place in first division gets you relegated to second division and first place in second division gets you promoted to first division. Plus, most conference games would in theory be evenly matched. Minus, some rivalry games may not occur and best teams don't necessarily qualify for playoffs with tougher schedule. May be able to fix rivalry situation with flexible crossovers in weeks 3 and 4, division games week 5-9 and true non-conference games in Weeks 1 and 2.
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