By Bobby Narang –
The East Suburban Catholic Conference and the Chicago Catholic League made headlines when a football merger was announced October 4.
The two heavyweight high school conferences are poised to create a super conference that will dramatically alter the Illinois high school landscape.
The East Suburban Catholic League (ESCC) and Chicago Catholic League (CCL) announced the merger only for football, starting with the 2019 season. The plans call for a 24-team league that has yet to be named.
The new football conference will have 14 full members of the CCL and 10 full members of the ESCC divided into six divisions of four teams each that will take in account numerous aspects.
State powerhouses Montini, Nazareth, Mount Carmel, and Loyola are among the teams in the merger.
The 14 schools from the CCL will include State power Loyola, along with Brother Rice, De La Salle, DePaul Prep, Fenwick, Leo, Marmion Academy, Mount Carmel, Providence Catholic, St. Laurence, St. Rita, St. Ignatius, and St. Joseph. Hope Academy is the only CCL team not included.
Meanwhile, the ESCC schools include Niles Notre Dame, Benet Academy, St. Viator, Carmel, Joliet Catholic Academy, Marian Catholic, Marian Central, Marist, Nazareth, and St. Patrick.
This merger is not the first time the two major conferences have formed an alliance. From 1996 to 2002, the two conferences formed the Catholic Metropolitan Conference.
Marmion Academy head coach, Dan Thorpe, said, “The merger will be great for Marmion Academy. We will play more schools our size and not two schools like Mt. Carmel and Brother Rice (both of which defeated the Cadets in lopsided scores this season).”