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.

When the ACC raided the Big East a few years ago, it created a ripple effect across the country. It can still be felt in Lincoln Park, where the DePaul hoops program is 0-13 in the rugged Big East. To make matters worse, its next two games are against Pittsburgh and Villanova, which combined are 43-7.

With that in mind - and on a much smaller scale - we looked at the recent rumblings of defections and realignment within the area's conferences. In the same way that Miami football can set off a chain of events that impacts DePaul basketball, the Western Sun's potential movement could force the DuPage Valley and Upstate Eight to make some decisions.

Before we go any further, let's stress that nothing is about to happen. Last week Metea Valley principal Jim Schmid was gracious enough to field our hypothetical questions before a single practice was held at the school, and said the UEC would require some advance notice.

"It's usually at least a year. I know that when DeKalb left, they let us know about a (year-plus) ahead of time. It's usually primarily because of scheduling," Schmid said. "It's certainly ample time where they're able (to) deal with the nuances of primarily the football schedule, (which) is the most challenging one."

Football may not drive everything at every school, but it's a major consideration. Jim Owczarski and Rick Armstrong mapped out some potential scenarios in the Beacon News. What if dominos start falling and, say, a West Chicago leaves the DVC? Or if Geneva spins out and links up with the St. Charles schools? The Glenbard schools aren't all in the same conference - should District 204 stay together?

This is entirely a game of "what-if." But if you were an area athletic director, what would you be looking for to protect your football program's interest?

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).

Wednesday is the NCAA National Letter of Intent signing day for football, as well as several other sports, and we want to talk to you about it. Join Sun staff writers Patrick Mooney and Paul LaTour and Beacon News football writer Jim Owczarski live throughout the day to talk about who is going where and why.

Waubonsie Valley quarterback Tyler Castro, who was looking at Cornell, probably will not join Nick Mlady in the Ivy League. Castro has visits scheduled for next week at Drake and Eastern Illinois, the two front-runners in his recruitment.

"I know the signing date's coming up and all that but I'm not exactly sure when I'm planning (to decide). Hopefully as soon as possible," Castro said. "I'd like to get it out of the way (but) I don't want to rush it. I don't want to make a mistake."

Paul Johnson has a nice feature up on Ted Monken, Metea Valley's new coach. In five seasons at St. Charles East, Monken has gone 36-17 (.679) with four consecutive playoff appearances. Coaching runs in the Monken family, as Johnson explains:

His father, Bob, is a member of the Illinois High School Coaches Hall of Fame, thanks in large part to his legendary coaching run at Lake Park. He has also been on Ted Monken's staff at St. Charles East all five years.

If that's not enough, Ted's brother, Todd, is the wide receivers coach for the Jacksonville Jaguars. And his brother, Tony, also has experience starting a program from scratch. He guided Vernon Hills' ascent to varsity football in 1999 and has coached that program ever since.

This nugget is also found near the end of the piece and at the center of what should become a good rivalry:

Monken arrives at Metea familiar with the Upstate Eight Conference, and quite familiar with Neuqua Valley and Waubonsie Valley, the pool from which Metea's talent will be drawn.

Monken went only 1-4 against Neuqua in his five years, two of those losses giving Neuqua an outright conference title and rendering St. Charles East to second place. He did go 3-0 against Waubonsie, however, including wins the past two seasons.

Northwestern offensive line coach Bret Ingalls will jump to the NFL and work for Naperville native Sean Payton in New Orleans. The Saints will get an assistant who apparently had some good connections in the Chicago suburbs.

ESPN.com Big Ten writer Adam Rittenberg reports in his blog:

(Ingalls) coached the Big Ten's youngest line this season and got decent results, as Northwestern tied for second in the league in fewest sacks allowed (22) and went 9-4. Ingalls' biggest contributions have come as a recruiter, as he helped land top line prospects like Brian Mulroe (Loyola), Nick Adamle (Wheaton North) and Jeff Radek (Neuqua Valley) last February.

Payton and Ingalls worked together at San Diego State in the late-1980s and early-1990s, helping develop a running back named Marshall Faulk.