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

Peoria High versus Rochester? Maybe Peoria Notre Dame against Springfield Sacred Heart-Griffin?

Both matchups of football powerhouses could soon happen after the Big 12 and Central State Eight conferences have decided to team up. The two central Illinois leagues recently finalized an agreement to play nonconference football games against one another starting in the fall of 2023.

This decision comes on the heels of Lincoln rejoining the CS8 for the 2023-24 school year, making the Springfield area and Decatur-based league an 11-team conference.

Decatur Eisenhower, Decatur MacArthur, Normal U-High, Chatham Glenwood, Jacksonville, Springfield High, Springfield Lanphier and Springfield Southeast along with Rochester and Sacred Heart-Griffin are in the current Central State Eight.

Likewise, the Big 12 has 11 teams across Peoria, Bloomington-Normal and Champaign: Peoria High, PND, Richwoods, Manual, Bloomington, Champaign Centennial, Champaign Central, Danville, Normal West, Normal Community and Urbana.

The odd number of teams in each league often puts each school in a tough spot to find nonconference games. The conferences each play against eight other league opponents with one open week to schedule a nonconference game.

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This scheduling can be especially difficult for the Big 12, which rotates its nonconference week for each school. For example, Peoria High will play its nonconference games in Week 1 for 2022 and 2023, then it moves to Week 3 the following two years. With the crossover arrangement in place, scrambling to find an opponent is gone.

So, what’s the duration of this partnership?

“It certainly could be a very long-term marriage of nonconference games,” Peoria High athletics director Brien Dunphy said, “because having 11 teams means somebody’s looking for a nonconference opponent Week 2, 4, 6, 8, 9 and those are not easy to find outside of weeks 1 and 2.”

Rochester AD J.R. Boudouris echoes that sentiment.

“I’ve been there,” Boudouris said of attempting to secure an open week foe. “Trying to find a nonconference game in Week 4,5,6 — pretty much any week other than (Week) 1 or 9 — is really tough to do.”

With Lincoln coming on board to the Central State Eight, the league’s athletics directors approached the contingent of Big 12 ADs with a proposed collaboration. Bourdouris says the Big 12 was open to the idea and now there will be a Big12/CS8 crossover game all nine weeks of the 2023 regular season.

Teams with a similar talent level will meet.

“What if we matched it up and said, ‘Hey, these are our top 3. Give us your top 3. Give us your four through six’,” Bourdouris said, “and we’ll make sure we get a game that matches up with a really quality opponent, whether you’re ranked one in the conference or 11.

“We think that we’ve preliminary done that in terms of adding one nonconference game that can be competitive to the schedule. To kind of help each conference out and balance things out.”

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Added Dunphy, “Our schools are comparable in size. The travel is not difficult. We seem to have some schools that are always really good and some schools that struggle and we’ve agreed to kind of match (teams) up by our predicted potential. That’s a really good thing, too.”

Plus, central Illinois football fans now have the ability to see teams they may only know by reputation.

“It gives exposure from our schools in the Springfield market to Peoria and vice versa,” Bourdouris said. “The Peoria and Bloomington area will have a chance to watch Rochester play and maybe wouldn’t get that opportunity. The opposite’s true — the Springfield-area (will) get to see some of the Big 12 schools play.”

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: Big 12, Central State Eight partner for 2023 IHSA nonconference games