The Central Suburban League broke from tradition by establishing a third division for football instead of the previous two, which had stood for the past 54 years. Glenbrook North is now in a Central Division with Highland Park, Niles West and Deerfield.
“We were super ecstatic [about the division change], but we were also like, ‘We have to do everything right this year,’” said senior Broden Ethen. “‘There’s no way we can just let this slip on by.’”
The CSL is now made up of a North, South and Central Division consisting of four teams exclusively for football. The CSL was previously comprised of two divisions of six teams.
“The records for the CSL were a little lopsided, so the athletic directors, the football [coaches and] the principals decided to explore other options with how we can align our conference,” head football coach Matt Purdy said.
The football divisions are determined by total school enrollment and overall record against conference opponents.
“I would say that this new schedule, while maybe not perfect, provides the most competitive games and competitive seasons for our conference,” CSL president Brett Bildstein said.
According to Purdy, the athletic directors and principals decided for competitive balance reasons to split the CSL into quads just for football this past year.
GBN will no longer play New Trier and Maine South in the regular season.
“It doesn’t mean that there’s not going to be some difficult matchups,” said Bildstein. “There will be, but [the division change] makes it more competitive and equitable for all teams in the CSL.”
According to Purdy, this year is in a pilot phase and being assessed.
The CSL division change is going to be on the athletic directors’ agenda every month for the very foreseeable future, Purdy said.
The addition of the Central Division required many steps and votes at each stage of the process from athletic directors, principals and superintendents.
“We’re not playing teams that are way above our skill level, and we’re also not playing teams that are way below our skill level, ” said senior Tyler Schmidt. “We’re right in the middle.”
According to Bildstein, “All conferences are always looking at football schedules to see what they can do to make them more competitive and to provide the best opportunity for [teams] to make the playoffs.”
Football is the only sport in which teams do not automatically qualify for the playoffs. Unrelated to the CSL division change, the IHSA playoffs expanded to have 48 qualifying teams instead of the previous 32 for each of the eight classes.
The ultimate goal for this realignment is to do what is best for all 12 schools and our conference, Purdy said.
According to Schmidt, reaching the playoffs feels a lot more possible this year.
“I feel like we’re just more motivated each week to work hard at practice and be focused because we know every game is winnable,” Schmidt said.
