Expanded MSL/CSL series makes good football sense
Putting together a Mid-Suburban League football schedule has been relatively easy compared to the challenges other leagues face.
For years in the MSL, it has worked like this: Season opener outside the league, three crossover games against teams from the other division, and then five games inside the division.
No one had to scramble to find a game with someone else who had open dates in the middle or at the end of the season.
But the format has not been so easy on the MSL East since the league realigned to East and West divisions from North and South in 1998. Including last week, when the West claimed 5 of 6 crossover matchups by an average victory margin of 27.6 points, that side of the MSL has a 191-121 overall advantage against the East.
The last two seasons it was 13-5 and 14-4 in favor of the West. The East has finished a season with the edge in crossovers four times (2001, 2002, 2004 and 2005) and both divisions split the 18 crossovers in 2010.
The discrepancy in the Central Suburban League is even greater as it gets ready for the first of its two rounds of crossovers between North and South divisions this weekend. The last two seasons the South has won 21 of 24 matchups.
Since 1999, when perennial state power Maine South moved to the South division and Niles West moved to the North, the CSL South has claimed crossover supremacy every year en route to an overall advantage of 155-55.
So, based solely on these numbers, it would make perfect sense for the two leagues to collaborate in order to provide some competitive balance in football. The plan is for schools from the MSL to play schools with similar enrollments from the CSL in the third and fourth weeks on the schedule.
There is more to it than just won-loss records. Many years the discrepancies on the scoreboard when MSL East met West reflected stark differences in enrollments, roster numbers and overall player size.
Losing three crossover games along with a starting quarterback and a two-way lineman before the start of division play was a legitimate concern — especially when the margin for error to make the football playoffs is small.
Another positive is teams would get a chance to play somebody different. It is not as if MSL and CSL teams are total strangers since they have played nonconference openers and met in the playoffs. But it is still a chance to for teams to break out and see some different styles of play.
That could be a big benefit in preparation for less-than-familiar teams in the postseason. And now that the IHSA has gone to 1 through 32 playoff seeding in Class 8A and 7A, the potential of early-round meetings between CSL and MSL teams that played each other in the regular season is not as likely.
All of it seems to add up to a winning combination for the MSL and CSL.
Howland moves to Winthrop: Former St. Viator boys basketball coach and two-time Daily Herald all-area guard Mike Howland was hired this week as men's basketball director of operations at Winthrop University in Rock Hill, S.C. Howland held the same position last year at Missouri State.
“I am extremely thankful to coach (Pat) Kelsey for giving me the opportunity to join the basketball staff here at Winthrop,” Howland said in a story on the Winthrop website. “It's an honor to join a staff comprised of not only great coaches, but great people as well. I believe in the vision coach Kelsey has for Winthrop basketball, and I'm excited to get to work preparing for the upcoming season.”
Howland was 69-19 in three seasons as Viator's head coach before leaving for Missouri State. He was also an assistant coach at his alma mater for eight years and played on Viator's 1997 East Suburban Catholic Conference championship team.
marty.maciaszek@gmail.com