Hard to think who else would join. Hall might make sense if and only if they maintain their coop with Putnam County, otherwise they’re too small. Mendota is also too small, same for Bureau Valley. Dixon probably doesn’t join, Streator is bad too. Is IVC a theoretical choice? Morris? If St. Bede or Newman were bigger they could make sense.
WB6 enrollment '25-'26
- Thread starter Swansa01
- Start date
I’m telling ya’ll… nobody is interested in a 1 division NCIC reboot. 2 divisions makes all the sense.
A problem is there are only 6 schools that make sense to me in the “Large” Division. Dixon, Geneseo, Sterling, Rochelle, LP and Ottawa. I don’t see Morris having any interest in this, they are better suited east.
The “Small” conference has 7 potential teams to draw from. Rock Falls, Sterling Newman, Kewanee, Princeton, Bureau Valley, Mendota, and Spring Valley Hall. While I think St Bede would also fit, they seem to have chosen another route to tie in with the other Catholic schools.
Why would Rock Falls be interested was asked? I think in non football sports, being tied to geographical schools like Sterling, Dixon and Newman presents a very favorable draw. In Football, competitively Rock Falls fits right in with my proposed NCIC Small division (outside Princeton). Mendota and Spring Valley programs have been from bad to downright terrible in recent years so Rock Falls isn’t at a disadvantage outside the Princeton game in a hypothetical NCIC Small reboot. Plus RF hasn’t ever needed Football to be a successful athletic school, they are a basketball and baseball school.
Last edited:
The team you most reasonably leave out there is Bureau Valley, as they seem happy (enough) in their new conference. Though, query this... if the NUIC needs another team, does Newman go there and leave this NCIC? Or maybe do you bring in Alleman and have eight teams in the NCIC Small? Perhaps move one team to the large division and play a crossover game each week of conference play based on estimated strength or other factors? (Sterling-Princeton is a fun idea for competitive reasons and we've seen it before. Geneseo-Kewanee is an old cultural rivalry. Hall-LP is interesting. Some possibilities there.)
In all reality, this could work. That leaves Erie/P-town, Riverdale, Orion, Sherrard, Rockridge, Mercer County and Monmouth-Roseville in a basically rebooted Olympic Conference; they could probably find one extra team to fill it out. Try to poach Knoxville or ROWVA/Williamsfield, or Annawan/Wethersfield (boy, that'd be fun). The only trouble here is that the Western Big Six has only five schools in this scenario with no obvious way to add someone else and no reasonable conference to merge with.
Or you move E/P to the NCIC Small in place of Alleman, have a six-team Olympic Conference that doesn't extend into Whiteside County, and leave the Western Big Six as it originally was. Except with an unreliable Alleman.
Great ideas. Good luck getting it done. Districts would be easier to make because it would be tough to get every one of these schools to agree. But a wonderful idea.
Districts wouldn’t get all those schools together. Dixon would be 3A, Geneseo 4A, Sterling probably 5A… not to mention, what would Moline’s district look like…
Alleman will have to join my newly proposed TRAC, because the NCIC teams have zero interest. Ditto for EP. Zero interest there. If Bureau Valley is out, gives a perfect 6 in small with Newman being the 6th. (Princeton, RF, Kewanee, Mendota, Hall, Newman).
6 Large + 6 Small and you’re right on target with 1 crossover per year.
Also for everyone saying good luck making it happen, I agree wholeheartedly. Never know though, I think if the right leaders are within these schools, it could happen.
I also agree that Districts is a disaster for these schools. Their geography doesn’t lend itself to conferences based on rigid enrollments.
Last edited:
I don't disagree. But again. Good luck getting everyone to agree. It looks good on paper. Go ahead and get it started. Talk to people.
All.... The Pioneers new hire. Ratsy
Of course they won’t, they were getting taken to the woodshed constantly when they were apart of the NCIC and Big 12
Will not make any difference if they stick in the Western Big Six - Moline already pilfered the good athletes that Alleman used to get back when they were relevant
Good to see they picked up a coach with a lot of experience. Has an up hill battle ahead of him, but hopefully he can start pulling a few of the area's better athletes back into the school. Be nice if in a few years Alleman is relevant in football again.
I doubt we see Alleman as "relevant" again in the sense that they would seriously challenge for a WB6 crown anything more than once in a blue moon. But if UT could go from doormat to mediocre, Alleman could do the same.
I disagree slightly... Only because my point would be that "relevant" in the sense I consider is their ability to get into postseason and win playoff games. Which they used to do a lot of... Always probably helped them a bit playing 5A/6A comp then going 3A/4A in postseason.
However, to your point kind of, Rocky has been on a downhill slide in recent years as well and it may just be a sign that theirs just not a ton of football athletes in Rock Island as a whole right now.
I agree that a conference football title is out of the cards for awhile, but getting to 5-6 wins and then making noise in the lower classes come playoff time would be a good place for them.
I just don't see that happening any time soon. Alleman's enrollment disparity (less than 36% of the next largest school in the conference - not to mention comparing them to Moline or UT) is really dramatic, and they're not likely to be really effective in recruiting good players. Alleman is not getting many kids from the public schools who are going to Alleman because they want to play football; if anything, they are *losing* kids to Assumption.
Contrast this to Newman. Newman's enrollment disparity is a lot smaller compared to Orion, etc. Newman also gets kids from Rock Falls who go to Newman to play football.
Last thing with Alleman: the pure numerical disparity causes further problems. Moline and Quincy, for instance, have enough kids that they can afford to play a lot them on only offense or defense and not both (or rotate guys in and out). So if the bigger teams are playing Geneseo, even if there's not an immense talent gap, they can wear the smaller team out by the fourth quarter and run up the gap a bit. That is even worse for Alleman. (And not much of a problem for Newman; few if any of the other TRAC schools have enough to really have multiple platoons.)
To be able to get to 5 wins, Alleman is going to have to schedule some real cupcakes in nonconference play and be able to get at least three wins in conference. Alleman is going to need to not just get their enrollment stabilized (which they say they have done), but actually reverse the trend and get it significantly up if they want to challenge for enough WB6 wins to get to the playoffs. I simply don't see a school that small challenging even a Galesburg or Rock Island. Those teams haven't been good lately, but they're not, say, a Proviso East or Thornton that can't really get its act together. They'll be decent enough to blow past Alleman without much trouble until Alleman can build something, and I don't see it happening until they get enrollment nearer 400 or so.
Wanted to make a point regarding Alleman (or any school) playing 5a and 6a schools and having that prepare them to make a deep run in the smaller class playoffs. That's a long-held fallacy, imo. Simply playing bigger and/or better teams does not, in and of itself, make a smaller school prepared to make a run.
However, being able to compete (and sometimes beat) the bigger teams is an indication that they CAN make a run. It's not a magic elixir to just have those teams on your schedule. You have to have the roster size and talent, as Alleman had during their better years.
However, being able to compete (and sometimes beat) the bigger teams is an indication that they CAN make a run. It's not a magic elixir to just have those teams on your schedule. You have to have the roster size and talent, as Alleman had during their better years.
Similar threads
