No Matter What Happens...

I'm sure Neuqua Valley is a very good team. But who have they played? Anybody outside the Chicago area? How about one of the top teams from Indiana, Iowa, Wisconsin or Missouri? I don't see any on their schedule for this year. How about any of the downstate teams that are ranked high in Illinois other than just Chicago schools. If you want to be considered one of the best high school teams in the nation, you should try and play someone other than your neighbor down the street. All those tournament wins were against local teams. Not very impressive to me. Go play Reitz Brothers out of Indiana. Play Chaminade or CBC out of Missouri. How about Holt out of Michigan? Heck, why don't you play St.Viator? At least Viator tries to play teams that are considered good out of their immediate area. Then, when you win some of these games you'll earn some of the praise that everyone seems to give you for beating up the locals.

Neuqua Valley is ranked No. 2 in the nation for a reason. You don't need to go play every team in the country to be seen as one of the best in the country. The Chicagoland area, as anyone will tell you, is one of the strongest high school soccer areas in the country. And recent history has shown Downstate Illinois is not as strong as some have thought.

When is the last time you saw a downstate team play? And your right, you don't have to play "every" team in the country to be seen as one of the best. How about playing "one" or "two" of those teams, not all of them? I've seen three teams from the Chicago area this year and St. Viator was pretty good. They lost their tournament to one of the "not as strong" downstate teams this year. Again, I would like to see Neuqua play Viator. My guess is they would have their first loss of the season. I also noticed that Neuqua tied Geneva and had to win on penalty kicks. Geneva lost to Chaminade out of St. Louis 2-0 and Chaminade had a lot of their starters on the bench due to a game that had to be played later that afternoon against who they thought would be a tougher opponent. I also know that ESPN gets a lot of input on their national rankings from people in their respective States. I wonder if that person is from up North? Go figure.....

Well, I've seen 12 Downstate teams play this year and had two Downstate teams in the Pepsi field every year. Neuqua is heads and tails ahead of Viator, and that's no disrespect to Viator. Some people think I rank Viator too high, but it's a credit to just how damn good Neuqua is this year. Neuqua had a number of chances to put the game away vs. Geneva. It was a good game, and Geneva had chances, too. And yes, seeing I'm on the ESPN payroll, it would only make sense I help with rankings.

I only saw one team in your Pepsi field and that was Gibault, a 1A team that has a terrible record this year. Anyway, thanks for the responses, even though I disagree with you on your bias towards Chicago teams. It kinda explains the differences between the ESPN rankings and the NSCAA rankings for the State/Region. Keep up the good work as I will continue to read your columns.

Viator? You're kidding right??

It is hard for any local team to compete with a powerhouse like Neuqua. The school is located in an area FULL of travel clubs. The population of the school rivals some small towns. Good for them, but they are not really a typical Illinois High School by any means. I would hope with that much local training and talent, and the money to hire a coach like Kees that they would do well.

Hi Joe,

According to your logic, the most recent rankings are your final, end-of-season rankings, right? Since one game does not make a difference at this point (or "take away what they've done all season") and the rankings have been pretty consistent over the last few weeks, there would be no reason to change them.

So, even though two of your top ten teams (Morton and Geneva) did not even make the sectional finals they must still be ranked 8 and 10, respectively. If this logic holds, then how weak are the top ten teams if at least one-fifth of them (possibly more) can't even make it out of the round of 32? What about if more of your top ten teams lose their sectional semifinal game on Wednesday?

I don't rank on one game or one tournament. If that was the case, the great Barrington teams of the past that lost in the regional would not have been ranked. It's a year long, best talent ranking. And again, you fail to realize the IHSA tournament is flawed when it comes to rankings. Each sectional is not balanced. Hinsdale Central was ranked to start the season, so it beating Morton is not a surprise at all. Schaumburg has a lot of talent, very good team beat Geneva. But at the end of the day, you look at year - not one game.

Yes, there may be many strong teams in one sectional (e.g. Downers Grove South Sectional), but then doesn't the opposite hold true too? Doesn't that mean that other sectionals are weak?

I'm not saying Schaumburg doesn't have talent, but they were seeded twelfth in their sectional (as voted on by the coaches in that sectional). I don't think that the Hoffman Estates Sectional is disproportionately stacked, do you?

On a separate note, in an effort to be fair, you do rip on posters who have grammar errors and/or do not use spell check. Shouldn't you be held to the same standard?

"Schaumburg has a lot of talent, very good team beat Geneva" is not a grammatically correct sentence.

I actually like that sentence. The IHSA tournament is just another tournament in my book. We cover it like we cover other tournaments - Pepsi, Naperville Invite, Best of West, Barrington, etc. Through the YourSeason.com network, we cover everything as much as possible and more than any other outlet in the Chicagoland area. But at the end of the day as the IHSA has said, it's not a tournament based on rankings but geographic. Rankings are created with geographic in mind, so it's two totally different things. For example, if Barrington or St. Viator loses a game in the IHSA tournament but goes undefeated the rest of the season, you don't drop them. It's one game, and this is just another tournament until the flaws are fixed. We are not talking about a true seeded NCAA Tournament or Bowl Series.

When was the last time a 3A team went undefeated all year?

Harrison (1972), Sandburg (1993), St. Charles (1995, 1996), Prairie Ridge (1999), East Moline (1999), Benet (2000). Lincoln-Way is the only team to enter a IHSA title game undefeated and loss. That came in 2000.

If LT meets Nequa Valley in the super-sectional, you will have the state championship game as #1 will meet #2. Lt clearly outplayed Nequa in the Pepsi Showdown finals as Lt hit the post twice in the first overtime and had better chances in most of the 2nd half of play. I agree that the only way Nequa should move out of the top spot is if LT beats them in the super sectional on Tuesday!!!

Lyons is a very good team, but Neuqua has already beat them twice this year.

I think some of your logic about, "And recent history has shown Downstate Illinois is not as strong as some have thought" is a bit flawed. The problem is that when it comes to the state tournament, there is only 1 downstate team that gets the opportunity to play at state. Quincy will not be at state this year because they got knocked off early and the same with O'Fallon, but both were very good this year. The other problem is that the Chicago area schools will not travel downstate to play these teams. Geneva and McHenry both came to Quincy this year, but outside of that, the majority of the good chicago area teams do not play anyone outside of the Chicago area.

Whoever thinks Peoria Notre Dame isn't very good, hasn't watched PND play this season. They tied the #10 team in the nation CBC 0-0 and lost 1-0 to Chaminade.

Indiana teams can travel out of state but are only allowed to play teams that are within 300 miles of any point on the Indiana border. Reitz Memorial and Zionsville both travel to the St. Louis area for the Gateway City Classic, which use to be in Quincy.

The team that wins the ihsa state tournament is the best team in the state. No arguement.

The team that wins the world cup is the best team in the world.

The team that wins the superbowl is the best team in the world.

The team that wins the stanley cup is the best team in the world.

How can you argue?

It's like saying we wee the better team for 80 minutes but they socred two goals in the last 10 minutes and won.

It's about the right results at the right time.

...that really is not fair to say that nequa will finish number one no matter what. Coming from you who ranked lake zurich no.2 to begin the season and now your trying to tell me that if lake zurich were to beat nequa in the state finals they wouldnt be considered the number one team in state?

The IHSA tournament, as pointed out by IHSA assistant executive director Beth Sauser, is not based on rankings, so it is not the final decider on rankings. It is a factor, as is the overall season. The IHSA tournament, like other tournaments, is just a part of the season. At the end of the day, Neuqua Valley is hands down the No. 1 team in the area and will finish the season No. 1 in the area.

The team that wins the IHSA tournament is not the best team in the state. They won a geographic based tournament. Just like any other tournament, they were the best (and sometimes luckiest) team in the tournament at that time. The World Cup, the Super Blowl, the Stanley Cup - all those playoff formats have true seeding and you have to earn a spot in. It's very simple, and even my friends at the IHSA will tell you that.

I agree with that. And if I was a Downstate team, I'd be ticked at the IHSA for putting Providence in my sectional this year when it's supposed to be a geographic based tournament. They could've stole the Downstate bid.

LTHS beats Nequa Valley!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!