'Future of football': Inside the latest merger between two Illinois small-school leagues

Super conferences continue to make their way onto the high school football landscape.

The Heart of Illinois Conference and the Central Illinois Conference voted to join forces to form the Heart of Central Illinois Conference for football only starting in fall of 2024.

The decision to merge these two conferences was announced earlier this month in a joint statement from the conference presidents Jeff Baughman (HOIC, Le Roy principal) and Kyle Ladd (CIC, Shelbyville principal).

“We are excited for this opportunity that creates stability for 11-man football and scheduling consistency for our schools,” the pair said in the release, “as well as establishing what we believe to be one of the most competitive small-school football conferences in Illinois.”

17 teams, 1 super-conference: Why these 2 small-school football leagues are merging

Peoria-area schools affected by this move include HOIC members Deer Creek-Mackinaw, El Paso-Gridley, Eureka, Fieldcrest and Tremont. The Heart of Illinois includes those five schools along with the Colfax Ridgeview/Lexington co-op, Downs Tri-Valley, Fisher, Gibson City-Melvin-Sibley, Heyworth and Le Roy. CIC schools are Clinton, Macon-Meridian, Moweaqua Central A&M, Shelbyville, Tuscola and Warrensburg-Latham.

This is the third time in the last year that conferences with Peoria-area teams have announced mergers.

In the fall, the Big 12 and Central State Eight conferences are playing each other in nonconference games. The newly formed merger between the Lincoln Trail and Prairieland conference will debut this upcoming season as a 17-team, football-only conference with two enrollment-based divisions.

What will the new conference look like?

Unofficially, the new HOCI will have at least eight schools between small and large school divisions with an estimated enrollment cutoff between 290-300 students.

“If conferences are going to survive, I think this is a good way of doing it,” Eureka coach Jason Bachman said. “This might be the way the future of football is going.”

After the 2022-23 school year, the CIC becomes a six-school conference with the removal of Decatur St. Teresa and Sullivan heading to the Lincoln Prairie Conference. St. Teresa went 14-0 and won the Class 2A state championship last season, beating Tri-Valley, 29-22. Three other CIC teams qualified for the playoffs in Tuscola (9-3), Shelbyville (8-2) and Moweaqua Central A&M (6-4).

“You bring in quality programs like this that have longevity in the coaching staffs,” Bachman said. “You’re playing teams year after year that are going to create rivalries and great football, in my opinion.”

More mergers:Big 12, Central State Eight partner for nonconference IHSA football games starting in 2023

What Peoria-area coaches think

Eureka, which went 8-3 and advanced to the Class 3A second round, gets an early taste of their future brethren. Eureka has two CIC teams as part of a three-game nonconference slate to start the 2023 season.

Besides playing Canton in Week 1, Bachman rounds out that trio of scheduled games with Shelbyville and Clinton.

“We’re kind of entering that (new HOCI) league almost year before some of the smaller (HOI) schools,” he said.

There’s been no official word yet on what schools are in each division or if crossover games will occur between divisions. Regardless of what happens, there will still be some need for scheduling nonconference games, specifically in the first few weeks of the 2024 season.

Tremont football coach and athletics director Zach Zehr says it’s become increasingly difficult for perennial HOIC playoff contenders to fill the holes in their schedules.

“You’re only going to get someone to play you who’s a traditional power,” the Turks athletics director said, “or a bigger than you. Quite a bit bigger than you.

“… Not everybody is willing to take a game if it means they’re going to play a game that they don’t think they can win.”

Every game, every story:Here are the Peoria area's high school football scores, schedules for the 2022 season

Now, the addition of the CIC makes at least one of Zehr’s jobs easier. Ironically, the Turks also get a sneak peek at their future conference mates, playing Clinton and Warrensburg-Latham in the 2023 season. When the first Heart of Central Illinois schedule is released, not much will change for Tremont — and Zehr is thankful for that.

“It’s very much needed,” he said of the HOIC-CIC union. “I’d say just from the standpoint of having stability.”

Adding the likes of Tuscola, Central A&M and Shelbyville to an already strong field featuring Ridgeview/Lexington, Tri-Valley, GCMS and Dee-Mack can only help make each other stronger. In fact, this applies to both divisions, top to bottom.

This is partly the reason why this blending of conferences was voted on unanimously.

“All of our (large-school HOIC) coaches were super excited to just have some teams coming in that fit the mold of the Heart of Illinois Conference,” Dee-Mack coach Cody Myers said. “We’re all super proud. We’ve all taken jobs in this conference because we feel that it is one of the best, if not the best in central Illinois for small-school football."

Adam Duvall is a Journal Star sports reporter. Email him at aduvall@pjstar.com. Follow him on Twitter @AdamDuvall.

This article originally appeared on Journal Star: IHSA football conference merger includes Eureka, Tremont, Dee-Mack