There will be a shakeup of the Illinois high school state football landscape if a proposal calling for expansion in the IHSA playoffs is passed.

Proposal 19, which would move the start of IHSA football games up one week and add 16 teams per classification to the playoffs, 128 teams in all, is on the table for IHSA members to vote.

IHSA schools have until midnight Monday, Dec. 15, to vote on this proposal and 22 others. The IHSA expects the results to be posted Tuesday, Dec. 16. Schools may vote in favor, against or no opinion on each proposal. A simple majority of yes or no votes cast will determine whether each proposal passes.

Proposals that receive the simple majority vote from IHSA membership will go into effect on July 1, unless another date is noted within the proposal.

The Bureau County Republican polled 22 Bureau County area schools for Friday Night Drive to see how they would be voting. Of the 17 schools which responded, seven said they are voting in favor of the proposal, while nine voted against it with one school voting “no opinion.” One other coach mentioned he would oppose the proposal.

The responses largely followed a path of those schools who have not made many postseason appearances voting in favor of the proposal and those schools with strong playoff tradition voting against.

Riverdale football coach and athletic director Guy Dierikx, whose Rams made the playoffs for the first time in 13 years this fall, said Riverdale voted yes.

“I feel like this will help conference alignments along with our conference in the postseason,” he said. “We have been 4-5 a few times and felt like if we could get into the playoffs we could be competitive with anyone based off the level of play in our conference.”

Mercer County coach Fred Lucas, who voted yes, shares Dierikx’s feelings, having played six playoff teams in 2025.

“Our thinking is that we play in a tough conference and have such a tough schedule that if we are not able to get five wins and can still qualify for the first round of postseason play,” he said, “we like our chances of being very competitive vs. teams outside of our league, especially with the top seeds in each class getting a bye. We could possibly draw a 7-2 or 6-3 team outside of the conference, which we feel would be a good matchup for us.”

Another Three Rivers coach, Tyler Whitebread of Erie-Prophetstown, also favors the proposal with similar feelings.

“Playing football in the Three Rivers Conference is tough,” he said. “We’ve been fortunate enough to make the playoffs the last few years. However, there have been seasons in the past that we have had good teams, but our conference has had better teams, which doesn’t allow us to get five wins. I have seen teams in the postseason that are not as good teams in our conference that have not made the playoffs.

“I think if this is something that keeps teams in the same conference rather than jumping conference to conference, then that’s a good thing.”

Jim Eustice, who led Mendota (one playoff berth in the last 10 years) to a 2-7 record this fall in his first season after coming over from St. Bede, favors expansion since “football is the only sport kids aren’t guaranteed postseason.”

“You can still be playing for that experience after tough beginnings of a season if three wins can get you in,” he added.

Marquette athletic director Todd Hopkins voted in favor of the proposal, though would rather see districts adopted.

“Hopefully if this passes, districts will next year,” he said.

La Salle-Peru will also be voting for the expansion, athletic director Steve Hanson said, to benefit the Cavs playing in “an incredibly competitive football conference,” the Interstate 8.

“We also feel it is time for a change, and this could be something that helps the football environment across the state,” Hanson said. “We are in a tough spot trying to schedule nonconference games being one of the biggest schools in our area. The smaller schools do not want to play us (rightfully so), which forces us to travel quite a bit for our four nonconference games. A change may alleviate some of the pressure for everyone and keep our athletes and families a little closer to home.”

Athletic director Nick McGurk of Streator said Streator voted for the proposal, but “do have reservations about the shortened number of practice days before the first contest.”

The remaining responses from area schools swayed heavily against the proposal.

“I don’t like it at all,” Princeton coach Ryan Pearson said. “One thing that separates football from every other sport is having to earn your postseason bid. Adding more teams really takes away some of the prestige of the football playoffs."

“I’m not as against playoff expansion as I am against starting games a week earlier in August,” Monmouth-Roseville coach Jeremy Adolphson said. “If expansion is wanted, I prefer eight regular-season games. Teams left out could schedule a ninth game with another non-qualifier and likely have a much more competitive game than those teams may have on their current Week 9.”

“We like the tradition of the playoffs,” Kewanee AD Tim Atwell said.

“We don’t want it watered down and changing the great parts about our playoff system we currently have,” Rockridge coach Sam Graves said. “Football is also different from other sports. You aren’t going to have a Cinderella-story at 2-7 or 3-6 make a run.

“It’s a waste of time at the end of the season. It’s not like the non-contact sports of basketball, baseball, etc., where a less-than-.500 team could win a game or two in a weak regional and play for participation trophies in regionals, etc.”

Graves said Rockrige would still vote yes to a district proposal “so schools are playing like-enrollment sized schools in the regular season, but no to expansion.”

“I am against expanding the playoffs. As a former football coach, I would not want to be playing an extra game if I went 3-6 in the regular season,” Erie AD Brian Howell said.

Newman athletic director Justin Stevenson does not like the proposal on many levels.

“We are happy with the system the way that it is,” he said. “We are not in favor of a bye week (in playoffs). We would rather play. We do not like the idea of starting games any earlier in the calendar.

“We also believe the reasoning behind the proposal, ‘to stop the drive for five (wins),’ will create a ‘drive for two,’ and schools will still switch conferences if they aren’t able to to get the two, three wins they need for playoffs.”

Philip Pryzbyla, athletic director of Bureau Valley, which has not made the playoffs since 2016, said BV would be voting against the proposal, and coach Pat Elder agreed.

“I’m not sure that this will alleviate scheduling issues as much as some hope. Previous expansion was going to alleviate it and has not,” Elder said.

While his stance would be against the proposal, Sterling coach Jon Schlemmer was unsure of what the school’s vote would be,

“I would be in favor if it would benefit all our sports. I do not feel it will help with scheduling games,” he said.

St. Bede cast a “no opinion” vote on the ballet for Proposal 19, AD Mike Armatto said.

“We would rather the IHSA look more at districts, because as a small school we struggle to make our schedule,” he said.

Hall declined to reveal its vote.

HERE’S HOW THE BUREAU COUNTY AREA SCHOOLS VOTED ON PROPOSAL 19: