IHSA football district proposal fails 379–272

By Mike Monahan

NORMAL – A proposal in football that would have done away with conferences and made eight districts throughout the state failed December 19 by a vote of 379-272 with 76 no opinions.

“Last fall was the first year we had a locked-in conference (10 teams, meaning no non-conference football games) and I feel good about that now,” said former Arcola football coach and current high school/junior high principal and athletics director Nick Lindsey. “With anything that can change. I see both sides of the vote. I understand the push for it. We are in a much better position than a lot of schools are. From our standpoint it didn’t make a lot of sense for us right now.”

Each district, determined by the IHSA using geography and classification, would have had eight teams in each and would play other district teams from week 3-9. The top four schools in each division would qualify for the playoffs.

Seeing procedures would have been similar to the cur rent seeding procedure with teams from the same district not to play each other in the first round. Had the proposal passed the IHSA would have had to form the districts and set the district schedules all by sometime in January as district play would have started in the fall of 2024.

The 2023 legislative process brought out the highest voting total in over a decade, as 89.2% of the membership participated in the vote.

It would have been up to the athletic directors to schedule the first two games, which would have been out of district games. District tiebreakers would have been playoff points and records.

“I think in my seven years here we have moved to a new conference, gained people and lost people and that is the main reason for the proposal and I understand that,” said Lindsey. “You look at other schools that have to drive an hour and a half on a Monday night for girls’ basketball and if not for football they would not have had to do that.”

IHSA executive director Craig Anderson said in a press release, “The IHSA Board of Directors has already had discussions about the potential of forming a Football Ad Hoc Committee in 2024 in the event that this district proposal failed to pass. They want to be proactive in trying to address the issues that are at the root of different football proposals seemingly being brought forth each year. They recognize the myriad issues in IHSA football are unique and can be based on geography, school size, conference affiliation, and the traditional success of a program, which is why no recent proposals have garnered enough support to pass. There is likely no singular answer to these issues, but the Board wants to explore the idea that a large and diverse group from around the state might be able to find some solutions that the high school football community in the state would support.”

Lindsey said they were not told by the IHSA what their district would be like.

“We were told they had no idea,” said Lindsey. “I understand that schools don’t have to declare for the eightman team yet and another big thing was which Chicago Public League teams would be joining the IHSA for football.

Those numbers affect where you go and what you do and what the district looks like.”

Lindsey said had the proposal (proposal 18) passed it would have been crazy for a while.

“The schedule for next fall is already set and I had the game workers and officials already scheduled that a lot of people take for granted. I have some stuff scheduled 3-4 years from now and it could all change and be for not. The real scramble would have been who is in the district and who is not and who do you want to play week one and two. So many factors went into it.”

The only other proposal that did not pass sought to decrease the number of allowable summer contact days between coaches and student-athletes.

The proposal was to modify the summer contact days from 25 to 18. The proposal failed 407-302 with 18 no opinions.

Two football related proposals passed in No. 17 and No. 12. No. 17, which passed 410-232-85, creates the opportunity for teams to conduct a pre-seasons scrimmage with another school on Friday, August 23 or Saturday, August 24 (season starts Aug. 30). Specific scrimmage limitations include the following: use of IHSA officials, 4 separate 12 play segments, no special teams, 48 total play limits per player, no live contact in practice the day before or after the scrimmage. Players must participate in eight different days of practice to be eligible.

Proposal 12 passed 566-132-23 and allows coaches to conduct strength and conditioning workouts with limits of no more than 4 days per week and no more than 90 minutes per session during the summer contact days. Conditioning training does not count against the summer contact day count. No coaching of the skills of a sport during any session in order for the session not to count as a summer contact day.