Vienna will start to play varsity football this year which will return the Black Diamond to a closed conference for the first time since Cairo left and every game will be a conference game. In 2010, Chester, of the SI River to River Mississippi Division, will join the Black Diamond Conference and replace the Carterville Lions.

Carmi-White Co

Carterville

CZR

Eldorado

Elverado-Trico

Fairfield

Johnston City

Hamilton Co

Sesser-Valier

Vienna

2009 BD Conference and Playoff Outlook

Because the BDC is now a closed conference with 10 full teams it makes it easier to predict the order that the teams might finish in conference as well as how many teams will make the IHSA playoffs. Last year the Christopher-Zeigler-Royalton Bearcats was the last team added to the playoffs with a tie breaker, the Bearcats had 36 playoff points. Due to the closed conference format, five wins for the season will result in 40 playoff points, and looking at previous year breakpoints, those 40 playoff points should be plenty to get a team to qualify. It is mathematically possible because of the playoff point system format to have 9 teams qualify for the playoffs. 618football.com believes that five or six teams will qualify for the playoffs this year.

Which Teams? This could change as the season progresses, and as injuries happen, but right now we see the Black Diamond playoff teams as Carterville, Johnston City, CZR, Fairfield, and Sesser-Valier-Waltonville-Woodlawn. How these teams perform in the playoffs is anyone's guess as several of the teams co-op agreement might bump them up into higher classes and because they will be playing no non-conference games it will be hard to get a reading on it. Teams in the Black Diamond have had success in the playoffs with the non-Christopher Zeigler-Royalton team winning the Class 1A title in 1982 (12-0) and the 1996 Carterville team going 14-0 and winning Class 3A. Other than Harrisburg going 14-0 in the year 2000 to win Class 3A, that 1996 championship is the last state title in football won by a Southern Illinois team.

The sixth team we have selected to enter the playoffs is the Vienna Eagles playing in its first year back with varsity football. Why? Mike Rude and his single-wing offense, without a quarterback, will cause problems for teams, even if they have seen it before from Johnston City when Coach Rude started running it in 2002. Coach Mike Rude is familiar with the Black Diamond as well, with a record of 111-53 in 16 years coaching at Johnston City.

Want to know more about the Black Diamond Conference? The Black Diamond Conference website is a wealth of information at http://www.zr188.org/blackdiamondconference/.