Three Rivers invites Mercer County, explores realignment for new divisions

The Three Rivers Conference is looking to the past for stability for the future.

The Three Rivers has extended an invitation to Aledo Mercer County to fill the vacancy created by the pending departure of St. Bede. Mercer County is presently a member of the Lincoln Trail Conference.

If it accepts the invitation, Mercer County would join the conference in 2024. The Three Rivers invitation is expected to be an action item at the Mercer County board meeting April 26.

The invitation to Mercer County includes realignment in the conference with implications for football.

The proposal, which was drawn up by Princeton administrators, would call for three divisions for baseball, boys/girls basketball, softball and volleyball with a nod to where the schools have come from.

“We sat at a meeting and tried to address everybody’s concerns. For the most part, that model does, [but] it’s not perfect,” Princeton athletic director Jeff Ohlson said.

The new North Central Division would include the traditional Three Rivers schools – Bureau Valley, Erie-Prophetstown, Newman and Riverdale.

The new East Division would pair the old NCIC schools – Hall, Kewanee, Princeton and Mendota.

The proposed Southwest Division would group the former Olympic Conference schools – Monmouth-Roseville, Orion, Rockridge and Sherrard along with Mercer County.

“We’re trying to appease everyone. Sometimes that’s hard to do. That’s why I think the plan for the three divisions has really gained some ground,” Bureau Valley athletic director Brad Bickett said. “We just hope everyone stays put and we can initiate this plan eventually and go from there.

“I think just geographically for [Mercer County], knowing they’re going to get back and relight their rivalries with some of the old Olympic schools, it’s a good fit for them.”

In the three-division set-up, each team would play a home and away series within their division each year and play a crossover game with teams in the other divisions, rotating home and away each year.

Currently, while many do, schools are not not required to play crossover games in these sports.

“It was kind of intriguing just with the different enrollment sizes that we’re continuing to see. It’s kind of nice knowing that [there is that] home and away [of schools your size],” Bickett said. “And if you choose to play a rival home and away, so be it, schedule away. I think having the those divisions where it’s the old TRAC, the old NCIC and the old Olympic, I think it was was intriguing to some of us, especially with the smaller enrollments.

“We have to be wise and do what’s best for our student-athletes and that competitive edge for some of those schools with larger enrollments. It’s a significant concern for all of us, whether it be school board, administrators, parents, everyone.”

Football would remain in two divisions with a shift of teams.

Mercer County, if it accepts, would be placed in the small-school division, which based on current enrollment figures listed by the IHSA, would be Morrison (279), Newman (215/355.5 multiplied), Orion (337), Riverdale (337), Bureau Valley (344) and Rockridge (370). Mercer County would be the largest school in the division at 373.

The large-school division would be made up of Hall-Putnam County (702), Kewanee (552), Princeton (546), Mendota (539), Monmouth-Roseville (504), Sherrard (427) and Erie-Prophetstown (406).

Each team, as it does now, would play each of the six opponents in its division and three crossovers. Crossovers would be based on geographical distances with an emphasis on traditional rivalries.

The remaining sports – track and field, cross country and wrestling – would have all the schools grouped together in one conference.

St. Bede, which is returning to the Tri-County Conference this fall and will play in the new Chicago Prairie Football League, will become the third school to leave the Three Rivers in the past seven years. Amboy left in 2016 to join the NUIC, and Fulton followed the Clippers there in 2021.