Proposal of statewide districts resurrected for IHSA football

District football could be back on the menu for IHSA schools in December.

Four conferences on Tuesday jointly submitted a proposal for IHSA football to switch to a district format, which would feature the IHSA grouping like-sized teams and scheduling the football season for schools based on those groupings. This would replace the current conference format.

That multiple conferences are sponsoring the proposal as opposed to only a few schools, as was the case in 2018 when a move to districts passed a vote by IHSA members, then was rescinded a year later, makes DeKalb athletic director Peter Goff optimistic it may pass this time around.

“A lot of people are at a disadvantage when looking for games,” Goff said. “People are always chasing five wins. When you’re not doing well, people will call you left and right. When you’re doing well, those same people won’t play you.

“I think that’s why these conferences are doing this.”

If passed, the proposal would take effect for the 2024 season, although it still has procedural steps to go through before it is even potentially brought to a vote in December. If the proposal goes before the IHSA’s schools again, member schools will have until Dec. 18 to cast their votes. Amendment results are scheduled to be released by the IHSA on Dec. 19.

The vote to retain the current, conference-based system passed 374-241 (with 87 no opinions) on Dec. 18, 2019. It rescinded a vote cast by IHSA member schools the previous December that passed 324-307 (69 no opinions).

Even then, it was widely known the proposal to move to an IHSA-run district format was likely to resurface.

“We do not expect the discussion surrounding football regular-season scheduling and the playoff structure to dissipate,” according to a statement realeased by the IHSA when the vote to rescind the move to districts was announced. “So we will be charged with continuing to facilitate discussion and ideas among our member school coaches and administrators.”

The Interstate 8, DuPage Valley, Apollo and Big 12 conferences are sponsoring the proposal.

For the Interstate 8 schools – a conference down to six members with this year’s departure of Plano and Sandwich and a mixed football-only conference arrangement with the Kishwaukee River expiring after this season – the difficulties finding opponents has converted even a self-described “old-school guy” like Ottawa athletic director Mike Cooper.

“I think this is just what we might have to do for scheduling purposes,” Cooper said, noting Weeks 3 and 9 will be especially challenging to fill for I-8 teams next season and beyond. “Nobody wants to join our league because Kaneland, Morris, Sycamore are so good at football … and last year, all six of us made the playoffs. Who wants to get into a conference when you’re looking at six playoff teams right off the bat?

“As good as our conference is, that’s the one negative. People don’t want to jump in with us in football. Now if we go to districts, then we probably have some schools that would like to join us for basketball and baseball and some of our other sports.”

The Interstate 8 as it stands now is Kaneland, Sycamore, Rochelle, Morris, La Salle-Peru and Ottawa.

In 2018 when the district proposal passed, the Interstate 8 was made up of Coal City, Plano, Sandwich, Streator, Manteno, Lisle, Wilmington, Herscher, Peotone and Reed-Custer. Seneca and Dwight were longtime members of the Interstate 8 shortly before the vote and since leaving have both been in three conferences in the five years since.

“Do you really want to travel four, five hours for a game?” Cooper asked. “With districts, it should be more centrally located with schools that are in your area. Plus it looks like you should be able to have a couple nonconference games that go with it.

“The No. 1 issue with it is scheduling. If this helps our conference with scheduling, then I think we’re all for it.”

The six-team DuPage Valley is set to merge with the SouthWest Suburban for a football-only arrangement. The SouthWest Suburban was set to be at nine teams next year because of a departure but now will feature three five-team divisions.

Goff said the DVC has dealt with teams not wanting to play some DVC members. That has led to the conference adding a second game against a conference team in Week 9. This year, those games will be determined by records after Week 8.

“We don’t want to have to play each other twice,” Goff said. “But some teams don’t want to play other teams in our conference, and it’s what we’ve had to revert back to. ... Schools want to go into the season and have stuff ready to go, not waiting until the last week because someone dropped out or something like that.”

The Big 12 has 11 teams and is dealing with in-season bye weeks with teams from Bloomington, Normal, Peoria and elsewhere in central Illinois. The Apollo is a six-team conference that includes Charleston, Effingham, Mahomet-Seymour, Matoon, Taylorville and Mt. Zion.

Sycamore athletic director Chauncey Carrick said the 2023 proposal is similar to the 2018 proposal, with a few tweaks dealing with tiebreakers and other smaller issues.

With four conferences behind it, Carrick said he’s optimistic it can pass ... and this time, stay passed.

“There’s four conferences behind it, and before it’s always been one or two schools,” Carrick said. “It’s a larger group of schools looking to do this. It just depends on what people are looking for.”