UEC, FVC add spice to end of season with crossover series

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If Kory Brown (right) and his Elgin teammates win the Upstate Eight River, they'll host the top team in the UEC Valley on Feb. 24 in a crossover championship game. | Andrew A. Nelles~For Sun-Times Media

Updated: April 3, 2012 10:14AM

Both the Upstate Eight and Fox Valley conferences are adding a new twist to the end of the regular season this year.

The UEC will showcase its top teams Feb. 24 when the winner of the River Division squares off against the winner of the Valley Division. The showdown will follow a series of crossover games played on Feb. 23 pitting the second-place team from the River against the second-place team from the Valley, the third-place team from the River against the third-place team from the Valley, and so on.

A similar plan is in place for the FVC, with the exception being all seven of its crossover games will be played Feb. 24, including the clash between the top team in the Fox Division and top team in the Valley Division.

Both leagues expanded to two seven-team divisions within the past two years, prompting the decision to follow the blueprint laid out by other conferences such as the Mid-Suburban League. For years the MSL has put division bragging rights on the line with a series of crossover games at the end of the regular season, culminating with a de facto championship game between the top teams.

“No. 1, it’s going to be a great game with a good atmosphere before the playoffs start,” said Huntley coach Marty Manning, whose team is currently alone in first in the FVC Valley. “It’s also going to bring a little recognition to our conference, which is good. And to be honest, I don’t think we play enough crossover games.

“The way it looks right now, we might play one of the Grayslake schools, which is great because I don’t think we’ve played a Grayslake school in four years.”

All of this year’s FVC crossover games will be hosted by teams in the Fox while all the UEC crossover games will be hosted by River teams.

Part of the UEC’s plan includes announcing the UEC River and UEC Valley all-conference teams and most valuable player awards in conjunction with the crossover championship game Feb. 24. The hope is the award ceremony will attract coaches and players from throughout the league to the showcase event.

For both leagues, the new way of doing things will be a work in progress. Manning said the FVC may look to move its crossover championship to a night of its own sometime in the next few years, but there are more pressing matters at hand for now such as finalizing tiebreaker rules.

The UEC will settle ties between teams in the division standings based on head-to-head records, and if the teams split their two division meetings the tie will be settled by a coin flip. That means that teams like Metea Valley and Elgin, which boast superior overall records compared to the rest of the teams in their respective divisions, could be held out of the crossover championship by virtue of a coin flip if they fail to win their divisions outright.

“It’s our first year doing this, so we’ll check it out and see what we have,” Elgin coach Mike Sitter said. “It certainly toughens up the schedule because it is almost giving you a sectional-level game to end the regular season.”

Regional seeds announced for Class 1A, 2A

At the Westminster Christian Class 1A Regional, the host Warriors landed the No. 2 seed behind top seed Hinckley-Big Rock. Elgin Academy is No. 4 and Harvest Christian is No. 5 in the seven-team field.

St. Edward is the No. 5 seed in the Genoa-Kingston Class 2A Regional. The host Cogs are No. 3 while Rockford Lutheran landed the No. 1 seed in the seven-team field.

Postseason pairings for Class 1A and 2A will be released today.

This weekend’s top games

Larkin at South Elgin — The Royals and Storm renew their District U46 rivalry in a nonconference matchup Friday. South Elgin leads the all-time series 4-1, but it will have its hands full with a Larkin squad that has won five of its past six.

Elgin at St. Charles East — The Maroons and Saints are locked in a four-team race for the UEC River title along with Geneva and St. Charles North. Elgin won the previous matchup between the teams 55-39 in December and will be looking to bounce back Friday night in its first game since having its 12-game win streak snapped last week.

Dundee-Crown at Jacobs — The Chargers will try to beat their District 300 rival for the fourth straight time when the teams clash Friday night in Algonquin. Dundee-Crown has won six of its past seven overall, and one of those triumphs was a 49-38 victory against the Golden Eagles on Jan. 7.