I can see the finishing line from here.
We’re just two weeks away from the season opener for IHSA prep football. To celebrate, we’ve been counting down — week by week — to Aug. 30.
We’ve brought you seven area season openers to watch, six of the top senior recruits, five notable coaching changes, four of the toughest schedules and three bold predictions.
This week, we’re reminding you of two important things to remember heading into the 2024 season.
Conference shuffling
It seems like things have been relatively calm the last few years in terms of conference jumping.
That’s changed heading into this season. I can’t believe I’m writing this, but the DuPage Valley Conference no longer exists for football. And the Upstate Eight Conference has expanded to 14 schools in two divisions.
The six teams of the DuPage Valley — DeKalb, Metea Valley, Naperville Central, Naperville North, Neuqua Valley and Waubonsie Valley — struggled for years to fill their schedules. To solve the problem, they merged with the Southwest Prairie Conference for football to form a 27-school mega-conference.
There are five divisions also featuring the Plainfield, Oswego, Lincoln-Way and Joliet schools, Romeoville and Bolingbrook.
It’s a shame the former DVC schools are in separate divisions, but at least some of the matchups between the Valleys and Napervilles still remain. The one glaring absence, though, is Neuqua and Waubonsie won’t play.
The demise of the Metro Suburban Conference, combined with West Aurora’s triumphant return, allowed the Upstate Eight to expand. The five U-46 schools, East Aurora, Glenbard East and South, West Chicago and Fenton have been joined by the Blackhawks, Elmwood Park, Ridgewood and Riverside-Brookfield.
The new schedule for the Upstate Eight Conference, divided into East and West divisions, mirrors the West Suburban Conference — two divisions of seven with one crossover and two nonconference games.
It’s a nice change from when the UEC was a closed conference playing just each other in the regular season.
An early start
Following the lead of 10 surrounding states, Illinois for the first time will allow preseason scrimmages between schools the week before the regular-season begins.
The idea for Week 0 was overwhelming supported by the IHSA member schools in a statewide vote. The scrimmage is designed to give teams quality game simulation without having to lean on their own undermanned or under-skilled scout teams.
Smaller programs may not even have enough players for an 11-on-11 scrimmage in practice. And bringing up freshmen or sophomores to do it isn’t the best idea.
IHSA officials will be on hand for four separate 12-play segments during the scrimmages scheduled for Aug. 23 or Aug. 24. There will be no special teams plays and no contact in practice for the teams on the day before or after the scrimmage.
For various reasons, not every school will participate in a scrimmage. Many teams this summer got a taste of competition in 7-on-7s and shared camps.
But for other schools, it’s an opportunity to get a hint at the real thing.
It’ll be interesting to see how the allowance of scrimmaging evolves. Will more schools embrace it, or will the idea fade away?