As usual, Illinois high school football will open the fall 2014 season with slightly different conference alignments from last year, the Illinois High School Association (IHSA) is reporting.
- The Central Illinois Conference is new in 2014
- The Chicago Catholic Conference has added a fourth division, Green
- The Eastern and Egyptian divisions of the Little Illini Conference have unified
- The Little Okaw Valley Conference split into Northwest and Southeast divisions
- The Metro Suburban Conference split into East and West divisions
- The Black and Blue divisions of the Okaw Valley Conference have unified
- The Suburban Christian Conference, Blue and Gold divisions, no longer exists
The first Friday night games take place on Aug 29, and our complete, somewhat mathematical coverage will begin on Aug 15, here.
The total number of conferences or conference divisions in the 2014 season, 81, is the same as last year, despite the minor realignments noted above.
The significance of conference realignment is that the IHSA uses conference standings as a way of guaranteeing teams a spot in the playoffs. All conference winners, in conferences eligible for the IHSA playoffs, automatically make the playoffs. Various tie-breakers, including the number of wins, are then applied to fill the remaining playoff spots in a field of 256 teams.