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I noticed in our area that a couple of conference announced today that they are realigning. Some of these conferences have been active since 1918. Members are leaving and joining and are essentially realigning based upon the 4 class system. That brings some new discussion to the board. I know that many of the Chicago schools won't have to worry about this since your HS are all around 2,000+. However it is a big deal with the middle and southern portions of the state.

Take us for instance. Our school pop is 1,300. (School IHSA enrollment says 1,332 but that is inaccurate as we lost many students from last year.) We play a good mix in our schedule. Now, with the change, we are going to have to think about who we play and what the consequences of that are at seed meeting time. NO ONE CARES WHO YOU PLAY AND ONLY FOCUS ON RECORD! In saying that, we'd need to think about scheduling more 3A schools since that is the class we'll be in. However, heres a problem, they won't schedule us. We've lost at least 5 or 6 of these schools off of our schedule in the last few years. We've replaced them with schools of 2,000+. Naturally we'd like to keep these bigger schools. I think several schools are going to have to re-evaluate their conferences and schedules with the change to 4 classes. THOUGHTS?

"Failure depends upon people who say I can't."  - my dad's quote July 1st, 2021.  CoachB25 = Cannonball for other sites.

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Coach, that is an interesting spot to be in. I suppose you have to weigh the value of playing bigger competition against the possible lower seed if you lose a few of those games. I think I'd do as you are scheduling the bigger schools.

In the smaller communities throughout the state, every coach will be asking himself the same question and there will be those on either side. Seeding could look at what sized schools you play against....I think football does. I'm not sure what playing in a different conference will do, or does that play into which class you fall into?

I'm sure there will be some things that happen that weren't thought about and they will be addressed a year or two after thsi begins.
quote:
Originally posted by FastballDad:
I'm not sure what playing in a different conference will do, or does that play into which class you fall into?

I'm sure there will be some things that happen that weren't thought about and they will be addressed a year or two after thsi begins.


That is why some conferences are realingning now. One smaller conference north of us lost two members in a vote last night as those schools were accepted into a yet smaller conference. Essentailly at 1,300 we will be dead center of 3A which, by the way, is my pick for the class with the most private schools. I know that I've heard rumblings from a bunch of schools in similar size to us. My lips are sealed but there could be some MAJOR CHANGES soon since next year will begin the changes.
Last edited by CoachB25
We have realigned our conference the last two years with the breakup of SICA. We (Oak Forest) are now in the Southwest Suburban conference with the likes of Richards, Reavis, Shepard, Lemont to name a few. Our enrollment is around 1450. Personally, I'm not going to change our schedule. We play a very competitive non-conference schedule; Sandburg, Andrew, Lockport, Stagg, Brother Rice (all bigger schools) as well as Troy-Triad, Lincoln, Whitney Young. I believe this will get us battle tested even if it does cause us to drop during the seeding meeting. Sooner than later we will have to play the better teams. The problem is how the IHSA sets up the regional and the sectional. Teams like Mt. Carmel and St. Rita have a "free" trip to a sectional final game because of the bracket they are in (many of the weaker city schools). I don't believe this is fair at all. Will the open-enrollment schools still have the multiplier?
It's starting to happen around Peoria too coach. Although nothing is official, the Mid-State 6/5 are in talks to merge with the Corn Belt to create a predominantly Class 3A conference (there would be 3 large 2A schools). Nothing like conference baseball games between Rantoul and Quincy Notre Dame.
Or a basketball game between Mahomet-Seymour and Peoria Manual. Or a football game between Stanford Olympia and Peoria Notre Dame.
I don't think the IHSA thought this would happen at all. I hope they're ready to reap what they've sewn.
Coach Czar, when you walk into your seed meeting and you tell them that you played Troy-Triad, they probably bust a gut at you playing those hicks from the sticks. Soon followed by "WHO THE HECK ARE THEY?"

YOU ARE IN A FANTASTIC CONFERENCE! You guys face the toughtest competition day in and day out up there imaginable. We will have 3A school in our regional sectional complex that will play a predominately "A" and "AA" schedule due to their conferences. Rumors are flying on various message boards here in the south about conference breakups. If these rumors are correct, our conference Mississippi Valley will grow by a bunch. However, I'm getting these rumors off of a message board and so...

Ben_Doggle, you are so right. I have gone on the record as saying that I'd favor 3 classes but never four. Some would sugget that even 3 is absurd. We don't have any power over that and must do our best to set up a schedule that will enable our kids to have their best chance for success in the post season. JMHO!

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