A second proposal to restructure the Illinois High School Association’s football playoff system was put forth by Monticello High School.

It has some similarities and some significant differences from the proposal put forth from Roxana High School earlier this week.

Both proposals seek to expand the current playoff field from 256 teams to 384 teams, with 48 teams instead of 32 teams qualifying for each of the eight classifications.

In Class 7A and 8A, the top 16 seeds would receive a first-round bye. In Class 1A through Class 6A, the top eight seeds in both the north and south brackets would receive an opening round bye.

The qualification structure for the playoffs would remain the same, just with more teams qualifying. Teams that win the most games would be placed on the bracket first and seeded accordingly by playoff points. Using results from the 2024 season as a guide, all teams that won three or more regular-season games would qualify in this format. In addition, the top 23 teams with two wins (sorted by playoff points) would need to be added to the field to fill out a full 384-team field.

All current systems, such as multiplier application/waivers, success formulas, and playing up opportunities, would be applied to the calculations for classifying teams.

“When no proposal came out of the football Ad-Hoc committee, I got contacted by people that were on that committee and people that were not on that committee because we were all anticipating a change,” Monticello Athletic Director Dan Sheehan said. “We were all hopeful that the committee had a proposal for membership because that was the goal of that committee that they put together to try to fix football.”

The fundamental issue that this proposal is attempting to help correct and modify is the increasing difficulty teams are having in scheduling nine games and lessening the pressures of teams scheduling in a way that best enhances their chances to get to at least five victories, better known as the “Drive for Five”.

The proposers believe that expanded playoffs will release the pressure on both of those pressures. The expanded playoff process would open the door to significantly more teams qualifying and in some cases would require as few as two wins to get into the playoff field. It is also the position of the proposers that current conferences would be less likely to disband with playoff qualifying standards being less stringent.

“This is a being supported for a lot of successful programs, Monticello has been in the playoffs for 16 years in a row, but I’ve also been a part of three different conference realignments,” Sheehan said. “I’m hoping this proposal will keep local control, keep conferences and expand the playoffs to allow for more access.”

Where this proposal differs from the other proposal it does not have a scheduling component. The conference structure would remain in place and teams would retain complete autonomy over scheduling decisions.

This format would also require a season calendar schedule change. With an additional round of playoff required coupled with the want to continue to end the football season on Thanksgiving weekend, the regular season would begin one week earlier.

This proposal does not suggest moving up practices to an earlier date to allow for more acclimatization time and will give nine days from opening practice until the start of the season.

That falls outside of the recommended period of 12 days which is the current Sports Medicine Advisory Committee guidelines.

If the proposal is granted approval from the IHSA legislative commission it will be placed on the all-school ballot for consideration for a voting period that runs through mid-December. If approved during that period by a voting majority, the policy would go into effect for the 2026 season.