Bringing Back the MSL Football Championship Game

With the IHSA recently releasing the schedules for the 2011 football campaign, there is one noticeable difference compared to the other major sports that are played throughout the difficult Mid-Suburban League. High school football does not have a championship game.

“It would be awesome to see (the game) and really cool for the league,” Barrington coach Joe Sanchez said. “There is such great competition on both sides (of the conference), and it would be really cool to have this culminating event.”

The Broncos’ football team wouldn’t have played in the game last year. The west division top spot slipped through their fingertips when they were unable to win either of their final two games against Fremd and Palatine. But in years past, they would have made it to the finals. 

The championship game is already a staple in other sports and is viewed as a starting point for the playoffs, with the event usually drawing considerable fan and media attention. Last year, both the Broncos’ basketball team (lost to Prospect) and the volleyball team (lost to Buffalo Grove) participated. Over the decades, multiple programs have had a chance to participate in every sport but football.

The MSL Super Bowl was the area’s only football playoff game in the mid-’70s. The game was stopped after a short run in the same year that the IHSA developed a state football playoff format.

The MSL regular season ends with only division titles being decided. Due to IHSA regulations, the championship game cannot be added simply, so some tweaking of the schedule or format would be needed.

One suggestion by Sanchez, which he feels would allow the event to happen in the current nine-game schedule, is to eliminate one of the three beginning-of-the-season crossover games. After playing the season’s first two crossover matchups, the teams would begin playing their five divisional games. The third crossover game would come at the end of the season when the East and West conference heavyweights could meet in what would be a nice opening to the playoffs.

But Sanchez sees some drawbacks.

“One negative that the league and other coaches might see is the potential for some teams to see each other twice in the year,” Sanchez said.

Another potential issue with just eight games is that a small number of games would decide the divisions. This fear includes the likelihood that a .500 or sub-.500 team could be playing in the championship game. All that would need to happen for such a scenario is a strong showing by a division team in a year of parity. In fact, in 1989 Schaumburg won the MSL West with a losing record.

Fremd football coach Michael Donatucci also would like to see the game, especially considering that the Vikings have held a stranglehold on the West’s top spot, winning it seven of the last eight years. And like Sanchez, Donatucci believes that all it would take is some schedule tweaking.

“Because of the state playoff format, the only way (the championship game) could happen is to run it like some of the Catholic/public leagues do,” Donatucci said. “That way, we can have the game after the participants are eliminated from the state tournament.”

But like most of the plans for instituting the game, Donatucci sees some drawbacks.

“If a participant continues past a certain level in the playoffs, then the (league’s) runner-up takes the spot in the championship game,” Donatucci said.  “That would obviously water down the meaning of the MSL Super Bowl game.”

2011 Broncos Football Schedule: 

• Aug. 26: 7:30 p.m. at Libertyville
• Sept. 2: 7:30 p.m. vs. Elk Grove Village
• Sept. 9: 7:30 p.m. at Arlington Heights (Hersey)
• Sept. 16: 7:30 p.m. at Wheeling
• Sept. 24: 2 p.m. vs. Hoffman Estates
• Sept. 30: 7:30 p.m. at Palatine
• Oct. 6: 6:30 p.m. vs. Hoffman Estates (Conant)
• Oct. 14: 7:30 p.m. vs. Palatine (Fremd)
• Oct. 21: 7:30 p.m. at Schaumburg