NCAA rule forces City-Suburban Showdown change

One of the highlights of the City-Suburban Showdown near the end of every boys basketball regular season was top teams playing before big crowds at Northwestern's Welsh-Ryan Arena or the UIC Pavilion. But an NCAA rule is forcing the 17th annual event on Feb. 18 to be moved from UIC to Proviso West High School.

NCAA bylaw 13.11.1.8 prohibits "non-scholastic" organizations from hosting high school basketball events at Division I venues. This has required other events to make similar moves in Illinois and elsewhere in the country.

Warren plays Proviso East in the middle game of the tripleheader at 6:30 p.m. St. Rita plays New Trier at 4:30 p.m. and De La Salle faces Simeon at 8:30 p.m.

Fans who have already purchased tickets need to contact the school(s), UIC Box Office, and/or TicketMaster, where those tickets were purchased, in order to receive a full refund. Information on tickets for Proviso West H.S. will be announced, as soon as equitable procedures can been established.