A Non-District Rumor! Let's Speculate ...

My previous post went into some detail about the new districts for 2016-17 and the scheduling/playoff changes that's going to bring. In the course of that, I was speculating about Xavier's two non-district opponents: I figure Regina will likely continue to be one, but the other opponent was pretty much up in the air (no local 3As will probably be interested at all; the metro 4As have said they only want to play 4A competition; Dowling didn't work out all that well for the past two seasons; Wahlert will almost certainly not have a non-district opening; Assumption, I dunno; who else?).

There's talk that an area 4A may indeed be willing to put Xavier on their non-district list. Linn-Mar may have interest in resuming a series with the Saints for 2016-17, as a non-district game. Frankly, this is somewhat of a surprise, at least at this point. The impression has been the Cedar Rapids-area 4A schools don't want to play Xavier because 1) they say there's nothing in it for them - beat Xavier, and you were supposed to since you're bigger; lose to them, and you just lost to a lower-class opponent; 2) Saints Field is looked down upon as a field and a facility, compared to Kingston and the other local 4A fields; 3) the attendance boost for Xavier games at Kingston, say, really wouldn't make up for a return game at Xavier; 4) the 4A schools have no difficulty in filling out their non-district schedule with 4A competition only; and 5) there's some lingering resentment against Xavier, as they are seen as ditching the MVC and bringing about the district system to the eastern part of the state (this opinion really isn't true at all, as I've pointed out before - Assumption and the MAC schools were the first to petition to go to districts, and Xavier pledged to remain in the MVC as long as membership and scheduling didn't change. Once Wahlert dropped to 3A, that cat was out of the bag).

I did expect this attitude to thaw over time, with maybe four to six seasons before the metro 4As might consider putting Xavier back on their schedules. So this talk, that Linn-Mar might agree to play the Saints after just two seasons of district play, is earlier than I would have thought. I'm glad to hear it, though ... the travel aspect is huge (especially with Xavier being stuck in a district along with Decorah, Charles City and Waverly-Shell Rock, while Linn-Mar's district includes Burlington and Ottumwa) and Linn-Mar's facilities are awesome (the Saints got only one game at the new Linn-Mar field before moving to 3A).

There's still no real problem with the area 4As being able to fill their four non-district games with 4A opponents. Here's the eastern Iowa 4A district setup:

4A DISTRICT 5

• Cedar Falls
• Cedar Rapids Jefferson
• Cedar Rapids Washington
• Mason City
• Waterloo East
• Waterloo West

4A DISTRICT 6

• Davenport West
• Dubuque Hempstead
• Dubuque Senior
• North Scott
• Pleasant Valley
• Western Dubuque

4A DISTRICT 7

• Bettendorf
• Clinton
• Davenport Central
• Davenport North
• Iowa City High
• Muscatine

4A DISTRICT 8

• Burlington
• Cedar Rapids Kennedy
• Iowa City West
• Linn-Mar
• Ottumwa
• Prairie

All the Cedar Rapids-area schools have at least two non-district games all set up right in the metro, with Wash and Jeff having three possibilities. For Linn-Mar, though, other than Wash and Jeff there aren't obvious local opponents - potential trips to Dubuque, Epworth, Iowa City or the Quad Cities, perhaps. Filling one more non-district game with Xavier would be really handy for the Lions.

Again, just a rumor. We've got about a month until schedules come out, and then we'll know.