Naperville Central will announce the site of the Week 1 opener at a later date; here's what the Warriors will have to face next season:

2009 WAUBONSIE VALLEY SCHEDULE
Aug. 28 at Naperville Central
Sept. 4 vs. Oswego
Sept. 11 at Bartlett
Sept. 18 at St. Charles North
Sept. 25 vs. Neuqua Valley at North Central College
Oct. 2 vs. St. Charles East
Oct. 9 vs. Elgin
Oct. 16 at Lake Park
Oct. 23 vs. East Aurora

All games are scheduled for Fridays at 7:30 p.m.

Naperville Central's stadium situation is unsettled, so the site for its Sept. 4 game against Neuqua Valley will be announced later. Bill Ellinghaus, the Neuqua assistant football coach and assistant athletic director, indicated that another location might change but the here's the rough draft of the schedule:

2009 NEUQUA VALLEY SCHEDULE (TENTATIVE)
Aug. 28 vs. Naperville North
Sept. 4 at Naperville Central
Sept. 11 vs. South Elgin
Sept. 19 at Bartlett*
Sept. 25 vs. Waubonsie Valley at North Central College
Oct. 2 at Cathedral (Ind.)
Oct. 9 at. St. Charles North
Oct. 16 vs. St. Charles East
Oct. 23 vs. Elgin

*Except for the Saturday afternoon road game at Bartlett, all games are
scheduled for Fridays at 7:30 p.m.

One of the points we tried to make in this column was how inexact recruiting is, no matter what the experts say. Perhaps the best example local example is Dan LeFevour, the Benet graduate who was shunned by the Big Ten schools but entered Central Michigan and then the Heisman Trophy conversation. Area coaches should probably keep that unexpected story on file for the next several years.

As it turns out, LeFevour and the Chippewas will open the 2009 season on Sept. 5 at Arizona, a school that is trying to make recruiting inroads in Illinois (more on that later).

By the way, Central Michigan's 34-man recruiting class - including preferred walk-ons - featured just two scholarship players from Illinois: linebackers Kyle Zelinsky (Bartlett) and Alex Smith (Barrington).

This morning Paul LaTour analyzes the Upstate Eight Conference and how it has historically struggled in the postseason. R.J. Gerber of The Courier News agrees, saying that undefeated Bartlett has something to prove in Class 8A.

The Naperville North program has already earned that respect, but if it is to repeat, then it may at some point have to lean more on its passing game. Its road back to Champaign could go through 9-0 Bolingbrook, which, as Bill Scheibe of The Herald News explains, has a strong secondary.

And finally Stephen Spiewak of MaxPreps shares his three games in 24 hours odyssey, which began at Harshbarger-Welzel Field last Friday.

Join me around 7 p.m. for the Sun's Game of the Week live blog. We should have a good one tonight with host Neuqua Valley taking on its long-time rival Bartlett. The Wildcats (3-3, 2-2 UEC) enter after back-to-back wins helped save their season, while the undefeated Hawks (6-0, 4-0) are considered one of the top Class 8A teams in the state.

The Upstate Eight Conference will expand and realign into two six-team divisions beginning in the fall of 2010.

The conference announced the anticipated move on Thursday and it took into account several geographic considerations. Metea Valley, which in scheduled to open in the fall of 2009, will become the conference's new 12th member and join District 204 rivals Neuqua Valley and Waubonsie Valley in the UEC South. The division will also include East Aurora, St. Charles East and St. Charles North.

The UEC North will be made up of Bartlett, Elgin, Lake Park, Larkin, South Elgin and Streamwood.

What's your early take? How will this impact these UEC programs?

Today we looked at special teams play and how it influenced several season openers. As crazy as some of those game-changing plays were, check out this view of the DuPage Valley Conference:

-Seven of eight DVC teams won in Week 1.
-That group includes Glenbard East (1-0) and West Chicago (1-0), which went a combined 3-15 last season.
-Meanwhile Glenbard North, the only DVC program to lose its opener, was the Class 8A runner-up in 2007.
-And despite losing to Bartlett 28-21, Glenbard North came away with the most playoff points (nine) in the conference from Friday night. All nine teams on the Panthers' schedule are currently 1-0.

Any guesses as to how the DVC will look after Week 9?