As the landscape of football conferences in Illinois continues to take shape, Bradley-Bourbonnais became the latest area school to see the constant conference shuffling firsthand this week.

The SouthWest Suburban Conference, of which Bradley-Bourbonnais is a member, will be combining with the DuPage Valley Conference to form one 15-team conference for football only.

The Daily Herald initially reported on the merger, which the Daily Journal confirmed with Bradley-Bourbonnais athletic director and head football coach Mike Kohl Wednesday night.

Beginning next school year, the SWSC and DVC will combine for a conference of three five-team divisions, currently the blue, red and green divisions, which are using a formula based on enrollment and football success to create.

The Boilermakers, whose enrollment of 1,877 makes them the conference’s smallest members, will begin as members of the green division. They’ll be joined by current SWSC Red Division rivals Stagg (2,479 students) and Lincoln-Way Central (1,960), as well as DVC members DeKalb (1,907) and Waubonsie Valley (2,462).

The largest division, the Blue, will feature Lockport (3,821), Neuqua Valley (3,381), Lincoln-Way East (2,729), Naperville North (2,655) and Homewood-Flossmoor (2,750). The red will include Sandburg (2,834), Naperville Central (2,591), Metea Valley (2,941), Andrew (2,217) and Lincoln-Way West (1,927).

While yearly rivalry games with current division rivals Andrew and Lincoln-Way West will be gone — although the Boilers will play a divisional crossover with L-WC next year — the ability to keep some conference rivalries together while also finding a secure solution after Bolingbrook departed for the Southwest Prairie Conference is a great combination in the eyes of Kohl.

“Some of these schools we haven’t ever played and some of these schools, like Dekalb, are a far trip for us,” Kohl said. “A lot of changes and a lot of unknowns, but our schedule is actually a lot more games with schools closer to our size, 2,000-2,200 kids, so that’s good for us.

“ ... We’ll lose Andrew next year, but I’m excited to keep some rivalries and see some new teams as well.”

With Bolingbrook leaving the conference, the SWSC was facing one full nine-team conference, as opposed to its current format of two five-team divisions. Schools were split into the divisions based on enrollment and would play one another each season, with conference schedules being completed with two crossover games. Moving to a nine-team format would mean every team would play one another each season, a size disadvantage for the schools in the smaller red division that the conference wanted to avoid.

In the new, currently-unnamed conference, the Boilers will play each of their divisional opponents every year and one crossover game with the other two divisions. The green is the “smallest” of the three divisions, meaning the two crossover games will presumably be comparable to the current two-game SWSC crossovers.

“I’ve always loved playing in the SWSC because it’s so competitive; look at Lockport and Lincoln-Way East winning and going to the last two Class 8A state championships,” Kohl said. “Competing with those guys year in and year out, we’ve had some pretty good football games.

“The DVC is one of the best conferences, just like the SWSC, so we’re definitely excited about the competition, and that’s the biggest thing for us.”

For the rest of Bradley-Bourbonnais athletics, teams will continue to compete in the SouthWest Suburban Conference as is. Kohl noted the only difference for other athletic teams will be a slight adjustment to conference schedules to make up for Bolingbrook’s departure.

The SWSC, of which Bradley-Bourbonnais is a charter member, was formed in 2005, amidst uncertainty across the South Inter-Conference Association, the former 33-team conference that disbanded after the 2008-09 school year.