Mid-Suburban League considering football-only merger with CSL
The Mid-Suburban League has crowned a champion in football every fall since 1963.
But that streak could soon end if a proposal that has been discussed and will be debated by area athletic directors and administrators this week is put in place.
In those meetings, a proposal to merge the Mid-Suburban League and the Central Suburban League — for football only — will be on the table. Should the proposal move forward, play would begin in 2016.
“Everyone is working well together,” said Augie Fontanetta, who is director of Athletics and Activities for District 211. “The MSL and CSL have had discussions. It is not quite there yet, and it is a long way from cementing a decision. Let's see where the end result is.”
The MSL athletic directors will be meeting on Tuesday, with the football merger certainly near the top of their discussion list.
The unnamed football superconference would consist of all 24 teams that currently make up the MSL and CSL. It would also include Vernon Hills, which joins the CSL for play next fall.
The latest proposal would have conferences broken up into 3 divisions, with 8 teams in each division. The breakdown would be strictly by enrollment.
The largest eight schools would be New Trier, Barrington, Evanston, Fremd, Palatine, Glenbrook South, Niles West and Maine South.
The middle group would consist of Conant, Schaumburg, Niles North, Prospect, Glenbrook North, Maine West, Highland Park and Hersey.
The smallest eight schools would be Elk Grove, Buffalo Grove, Hoffman Estates, Maine East, Rolling Meadows, Wheeling, Deerfield and Vernon Hills.
“The goal is to get schools with like enrollments to play one another,” Fontanetta said. “We are looking for competitive balances between the teams.”
Should the proposal be ratified by both current conference members, the agreement and conferences would be in place through the 2019 season. It would then be realigned based upon 2019 enrollments and re-examined every two seasons after that.
But it could take some time to get all the details in agreement. Not only does that proposal affect 24 schools with as many athletic directors and principals involved, but 10 different school districts as well.
The realignment of conferences, especially for football, has become a hot topic the past few years. Schools which are on the bottom in enrollment have found it difficult to compete year in and year out with their larger conference foes. Add in the concussion factor and high school football has begun to look at creative ways to assure the most level playing field possible.
Recently, the Chicago Catholic League, North Suburban and DuPage Valley conferences have realigned, mostly due to imbalances in enrollments and football outcomes. And the North Suburban's Prairie Division broke away completely from the Lake Division to form its own conference.
The Mid-Suburban League has seen its fair share of lopsided football results. Since the conference reorganized in 1998 to an East and West format, the MSL West has dominated play, winning 61 percent of the football games (186-120).
It's become more one-sided in recent years. Last year, the West won 13 of the 18 games the teams played. Over the past nine years, the West has won 67 percent (108-54) of the crossover games.
But it hasn't been rosy for all the West schools. Hoffman Estates, which has the lowest enrollment among West Division schools by 402 students, hasn't been able to win 2 games against MSL opponents in a single season in over 10 years.
“With all the pressure that football is under, this is really looking at the health of the sport,” Hoffman Estates coach Mike Donatucci said. “There is a reason there are eights levels of play at state for the IHSA. And this aligns to what the state thinks. It just makes sense for us to do it.”
There have been discussions to simply realign the MSL in all sports. But there has been opposition to the various configurations that have been put together.
Based upon that, it led the MSL to begin to look into different directions — which also included expansion. But this new proposal has begin to gain steam from coaches and athletic directors.
“There is a little bit more urgency now,” said Barrington athletic director Mike Obsuszt, “especially considering the IHSA entertained a proposal last year for districting. We are trying to solve problems here, and the schools are looking to get more balanced with the enrollment of teams that they play.”
The superconference future?
How a proposed football superconference would look if the Mid-Suburban League and the Central Suburban league merge to form a football-only conference with three eight-team divisions, grouped by enrollment:
Largest: New Trier, Barrington, Evanston, Fremd, Palatine, Glenbrook South, Niles West and Maine South.
Middle: Conant, Schaumburg, Niles North, Prospect, Glenbrook North, Maine West, Highland Park and Hersey.
Smallest: Elk Grove, Buffalo Grove, Hoffman Estates, Maine East, Rolling Meadows, Wheeling, Deerfield and Vernon Hills.