(11-2-25) A total of 23 proposals, including two for changes in football playoff formats, that could potentially amend the Illinois High School Association (IHSA) Constitution and By-laws were received from principals and official representatives of IHSA member schools for the IHSA’s 2025-26 legislative cycle.

RELATED:

The IHSA Legislative Commission will review the proposals at its first meeting on Monday, November 3.  The proposals will be discussed at Town Meetings held in-person between November 6 and 19.  The Commission will reassemble on Monday, November 24, to decide whether to submit each of the 23 proposals to a vote of the general membership.  The final vote by IHSA member schools will take place between December 1 and December 15.

A PDF of ALL the proposals can be viewed here: 2025-2026 IHSA BY-LAW PROPOSALS.pdf

The two football proposals are listed below –

Proposal #1 –

SUMMARY OF PROPOSED CHANGES: Click Here to Explore the Details …be sure to check this site out for details, very well done.

Propsal #2 –

EXAMPLE BRACKETS

2023 Class 1A Football – North/South Seeded 1-24View BracketComplete
2023 Class 2A Football – North/South Seeded 1-24View BracketComplete
2023 Class 3A Football – North/South Seeded 1-24View BracketComplete
2023 Class 4A Football – North/South Seeded 1-24View BracketComplete
2023 Class 5A Football – North/South Seeded 1-24View BracketComplete
2023 Class 6A Football – North/South Seeded 1-24View BracketComplete
2023 Class 7A Football – Seeded 1-48View BracketComplete
2023 Class 8A Football – Seeded 1-48View BracketComplete
2024 Class 1A Football – North/South Seeded 1-24View BracketComplete
2024 Class 2A Football – North/South Seeded 1-24View BracketComplete
2024 Class 3A Football – North/South Seeded 1-24View BracketComplete
2024 Class 4A Football – North/South Seeded 1-24View BracketComplete
2024 Class 5A Football – North/South Seeded 1-24View BracketComplete
2024 Class 6A Football – North/South Seeded 1-24View BracketComplete
2024 Class 7A Football – Seeded 1-48View BracketComplete
2024 Class 8A Football – Seeded 1-48View BracketComplete

So how do other states select teams for the playoffs?

Indiana allows everyone team to qualify for the football playoffs…there is no rankings or seeding in how teams are placed in the brackets….the true blind draw. To top it all off the IHSAA uses ping-pong balls to make-up the brackets.

From the IHSAA –

About the Draw
To conduct the random drawing for the state tournaments, the IHSAA places ping-pong balls representing each school in each sectional into a lottery-style air mix machine. A motorized fan in the bottom of the machine blows the balls around the inside of the transparent container and air then forces each ball up through a tube in random order.

For example, the first ball retrieved from the machine will be the visiting team in game one with the second ball representing the home team in game one. The third ball to come out is the visitor in game two and the fourth ball the home team in game two. That same method is followed through all 64 sectionals and 16 regionals.

In Ohio…several years ago the OHSAA doubled the seize of teams that qualify for the playoffs from 8 teams to 16 teams and an added week to the season. After coaches and administrators complained about how the system was not working with 16 region qualifiers, in which last season saw several teams turn down opportunities to compete in the playoffs due to the thinking that their teams would not be competitive.

So in June of this year the Board of Directors, without a membership vote, cut the regions from 16 qualifiers to 12 qualifiers. The top 4 qualifiers in each reason were given bye weeks in the first round.

In Wisconsin…after a few teams were excluded from the playoffs in 2024 due to errors in the qualifying process…a new system was recently completed. The new process has incorporated parts of the highly successful Ohio system (joeeitel.com) used to place qualifiers in the playoffs.

Other states…

History of playoff format proposals…(The Playoff Soap Opera)

The reality of the upcoming procedures…with two proposals to be considered…only one will would most likely be approved to vote on…if even one of them is approved to move forward.

Remember…that over the past several years at least one proposal for playoff changes has been considered, one even passed, but that plan would be turned over by the IHSA before it could be put in place.

A look at the past…