MSL football would thrive

What makes football unique compared to every other sport in the Mid-Suburban League?

Of course, not every football team is eligible for the postseason.

Football is also the only one where an overall league champion isn't determined. There hasn't been one since 1974, when a five-year run of MSL Super Bowls came to an end.

But now is a good time to revisit the idea since last year's reigning division champions, Fremd in the West and Prospect in the East, meet tonight in Palatine.

It could definitely be pulled off with a little tweaking to the schedule.

After the season opener, everyone would play two crossover games instead of three and then go into their five-game division schedules.

That would lead to Super Bowl week -- without as much hype but likely with plenty of hoopla and drama.

By all accounts, the Super Bowls from 1970-74 were big events in the area that drew huge crowds. The first one was a matchup of unbeaten rivals Arlington and Prospect that attracted 5,000 fans.

And with the first four, it was the closest anyone could get to a football postseason since the IHSA didn't start its playoff format until 1974.

That was also the reason the Super Bowl format was disbanded. At that time the state playoff system was an exclusive group with just 80 qualifiers broken up into five classes.

So in 1974, Schaumburg was the only MSL playoff qualifier since it beat Hersey in the Super Bowl.

Having its division winners recognized as conference champions allowed Hersey and Schaumburg to go the playoffs in 1975.

But it's a different deal now with 256 teams divided into eight classes for the state playoffs. The majority of the teams that finish 5-4 now make the field.

It would be extremely rare for a division winner to miss the playoffs since the only one with a losing record in MSL history is Schaumburg in 1989.

For a lot of division champions a game such as this would be a perfect postseason primer. There are years where the East or West winner goes into the playoffs without much of a test down the stretch and doesn't get one in the opening round, either.

They would most likely get one in the playoff-type atmosphere of a Super Bowl.

There are a couple of possibilities to set up what would be regular-season ending crossovers for the rest of the MSL. They could be arranged by finish with second-place teams, third-place teams, etc… meeting each other.

Or they could be set up to give a team on the playoff bubble a more favorable shot at making the postseason.

And they could also be done to make sure teams don't play each other twice in the regular season. That's a possibility with a Super Bowl, but one that would be reduced with only two early-season crossovers.

One of the best aspects of the MSL and sports such as volleyball, basketball, baseball and softball are the league championship games.

They're memorable events for fans, players and coaches that draw a lot of attention to the MSL. They produce plenty of excitement and drama.

It's time MSL football players had the chance to experience those emotions again.