Oct. 29--The Illinois High School Association released 16 proposals that will appear on the organization's winter ballot, and one would redefine the football regular-season schedule and playoff qualification process.
IHSA legislative commissioners will present the proposals at town hall meetings throughout the state during the next month. The commissioners then vote according to straw-poll results to see if each proposal makes the final cut to be put on the ballot. Proposals that make it on the December ballot become IHSA bylaws with a simple majority vote of school representatives. Any proposal that is approved will take effect July 1, 2015.
One major proposal came from Sycamore, which would overhaul the regular-season and playoff format for high school football. Currently, teams schedule their own opponents and are classified by size once the regular season ends. The new format would classify teams before the season and dictate their regular-season schedules according to school size and location. Teams would be placed into geographic regions, which would replace conferences, so that teams would have to earn a playoff bid by defeating like-sized schools. Under this system, the IHSA would decide the regular-season schedule.
Four teams from each region would qualify for the state playoffs. The proposal still uses the multiplier system but eliminates out-of-state games. Sycamore's proposal also mentions conference realignment as a reason why region-based regular-season might be beneficial.
Two other proposals call for tweaking eligibility requirements. One would allow the IHSA board of directors to examine previously unapproved foreign exchange programs, and another would allow one private-school to private-school transfer for student-athletes.
Chicago Christian sponsored a proposal to create a second classification for boys and girls tennis, and Willowbrook represented the West Suburban Conference in calling for the elimination of the multiplier and establishing separate playoff classifications for non-boundaried and boundaried schools.
Lincoln proposed allowing one preseason scrimmage for all sports, and Palatine recommended changing baseball and softball guidelines from a maximum of 35 games to 25 dates. Because many teams play doubleheaders on weekends, most teams could approach the existing 35-game threshold anyway.
.jpg?w=600)
