The Illinois High School Association’s legislative committee has approved six by-law changes, including sweeping changes to the way football teams are organized in the state, and the 800 or so high schools in the association will vote on those changes in December.
If the changes are approved, there would be no conferences for football starting in the fall 2015 season. Teams would be grouped by location and enrollment into seven-, eight-, or nine-team regions, a total of eight regions at each enrollment class in the state. The top four teams in each region would qualify for the playoffs in each enrollment class.
“The vote to advance the football proposal was a surprise,” said IHSA Executive Director Marty Hickman. “At the town meetings there seemed to be little support for a sweeping change like this. But it speaks to the passionate feelings we’ve heard from both sides of this issue that the Commission thought it best to put the question to the membership.”
Pros and cons
We make no attempt to influence the vote, but we want to make sure IHSA’s members know what they’re voting for and why.
First, the change would bring Illinois football into line with many other states that are strong. For example, in Texas, teams are not part of conferences; rather, schools get a designation like 27-4A, meaning geographical region 27, enrollment class 4A. Texas is bigger than Illinois, so there are more geographical regions. I assume Illinois would use a similar naming convention for the groups, though.
Second, the change would increase representation in the football playoffs from the state’s many geographical locations. At least four teams will be guaranteed a playoff berth from each of the eight regions in the state.
Third, since the current system guarantees only the conference winner an automatic playoff berth, the rules give an advantage to teams that play in smaller conferences. The number of teams in Illinois conferences this year ranged from four to 12, with a mode of six:
- Chicago Catholic – Red, 4 teams
- Heart of Illinois, 12 teams
If the change is approved, the bars representing conferences of sizes four, five, six, 10, and 12 teams would disappear, and the graph would show probably equal bars for seven, eight, or nine teams.
Each school’s region would be good for two years under the new, yet-to-be-approved rules, after which the regions would be recomputed. This would seem to balance out the advantage of teams in the Chicago Catholic – Red Conference with the disadvantage of teams playing in the small school-crowded Heart of Illinois Conference.
A few cons: Teams that now play in small conferences might not like the change, because it would seem to neutralize their advantage. And big schools that now typically receive an at-large bid might not like it, either, since it strengthens the competition they’ll feel for those at-large bids by removing smaller schools from their pack. There would be no “at-large” bids if the change is approved. Four teams from every region, instead of just one from each conference, will be guaranteed participation in the IHSA playoffs.
Second, the change will almost certainly propel weak teams into the playoffs. Just look at this year’s NFL division standings in the NFC South. The pros use conferences and divisions, as opposed to regions and enrollment classes to determine the playoffs, but if a school’s region at a given enrollment class is weak, four of those schools will make the playoffs anyway, compared to only one under the current system. This could give teams with four or even three wins a shot at the playoffs that they would never have had under the current system.
Third and a minor point, big schools outside the Chicago area might not like the change, since it could force them to travel greater distances in order to play against other schools in their group. This isn’t a big problem, though, since very few big schools are surrounded by smaller schools in their present conferences.
The bigger problem could come in the 1A and 2A enrollment classes, which often compete in the same conferences under the present system. These schools could be split into different regions if the change is approved. For example, Deer Creek-Mackinaw (2A) would no longer be in the same group (Heart of Illinois Conference) as Heyworth (1A), meaning both schools would likely be grouped with at least some schools that aren’t as close.
Elimination of ‘at-large’ bids is the key
The bottom line, I think, is that there will be no at-large bids if the change is adopted. Under the present, conference-based system, after the automatic bids are determined by conference standings, all the remaining schools in the state, from 1A to 8A, are put into the same pool to compete for the remaining at-large bids. Schools in Class 1A would never be in the same selection pool as schools in Class 8A if the change is approved.
That means the change would align the regular season to the IHSA playoffs and make the entire regular season almost an integral part of the playoffs. In some cases, teams now play in “conferences” that have nothing to do with their enrollment class. For example, schools in the East Suburban Catholic Conference play in classes from 5A all the way up to 8A. This weakens the odds of 5A teams making the playoffs and strengthens the odds for the 8A teams.
The reorganization would make it so only schools in the same enrollment class compete against each other for playoff spots. In other words, schools in Class 8A wouldn’t affect the playoff chances of schools in Class 5A anymore.
