Tyson LeBlanc considers a part of himself old school in how Illinois playoff football is done.

The Oswego East coach loves that football teams have to earn their spot in the postseason. He appreciates how it differentiates from all other sports where everybody is let in.

But LeBlanc also wears the hat of a coach, and a teacher. He is someone who values most opportunities for kids.

“As a coach how can I not be in favor of kids getting to play one more game?” LeBlanc said. “I look at it from a participation perspective, and how hard kids work in this sport. All the other sports, everybody gets in. For me, that is the part that I can come to peace with. More kids get a chance to play high school football one extra week.”

Starting in 2026, they will.

It was announced Tuesday that a proposal to expand the IHSA football playoffs by 128 teams was passed by a schoolwide membership vote, 377-252, with 96 abstentions.

Under the proposal submitted by Monticello High School, the playoff field will expand by 128 teams, increasing the field of qualifiers from 256 teams to 384.

“More participation for the playoffs is an overall positive step for high school football across the state,” Plano coach Kyle Tutt said. “Any time you can increase opportunity for more kids to experience meaningful games that is a win for the students, the schools and the communities.”

IHSA Executive Director Craig Anderson said in a news release that he hoped the expansion “will provide intended relief to our schools by stabilizing conference movement and eliminating the difficulty of scheduling football games that many of our schools face each year.”

Yorkville coach Dan McGuire said he heard last week the proposal had a good chance to pass and “I didn’t believe it.” But McGuire said it was also clear that enough people were frustrated with scheduling issues that it became the boiling point.

McGuire said that giving his team the best chance to get to five wins for the playoffs has become more and more difficult the last several years, playing in the competitive Southwest Prairie Conference West Division and with nonconference scheduling increasingly difficult.

McGuire said that Yorkville did vote for playoff expansion, in part as a nod to its league. Under the expanded model the SPC West would have had all six of its teams in the playoffs in each of the last three seasons.

Fellow conference member Oswego voted against the proposal.

“Every year is a battle. Plainfield North I felt was a playoff team this year,” McGuire said. “You can look back on multiple years where I felt that could be said about teams in our league that didn’t make it. Now we will be rewarded for being in a good conference, tested all year long. When it’s all said and done I wouldn’t be surprised if a team from our conference could make a run in the playoffs with a below .500 record because of the challenging league we play in.”

Using data from previous seasons, all teams with three or more wins will make the playoffs.

In the case of 2025 data, 32 teams that ended 2-7 would have made the field. However, there is also the concern of how competitive teams like that could be in a postseason game, especially after the grueling physical demands of a nine-game season.

Sandwich would have been one of those 2-7 teams this fall, although that school did not vote in favor of the proposal.

“Our process is not going to change much,” Sandwich coach Jason VanPelt said. “We are not just trying to make the playoffs at 5-4. We have higher aspirations than that; that is where our mind is at. In our mind we should be there anyway if we are achieving our goals.

“I’m not sure what this will look like. We will have to get through the season. Whether it is beneficial or not remains to be seen.”

LeBlanc had a friend he was college teammates with that grew up in Indiana, where every team makes the playoffs. That person and a teammate got injured early their senior year, and they wound up 3-5.

“By the time the playoffs came around they were both healthy enough to not win a state championship but to make a run,” LeBlanc said. “I don’t think that is something that happens in 8A football here but it could happen in a small school. I don’t think this waters down the playoffs. You hear arguments about blowouts in playoffs. There are already blowouts in playoffs. It gives more kids opportunity to play.”

LeBlanc believes the expansion will remedy the issues with scheduling and conference jumping.

“Absolutely I think you will see less schools trying to switch conferences,” LeBlanc said. “I think you will see more big-name games early in the season.”

The regular season still will include nine games, but the beginning of the season will start one week earlier to accommodate the extra week of playoffs games that need to be scheduled.

This adjustment will eliminate the scrimmage week and will allow for only 10 dates to get in nine practices preseason to meet the previously established state acclimatization practices.

That detail in the plan was one McGuire was not a fan of. VanPelt noted that pushing up the football calendar could mess with summer schedules. Tutt said that losing the Week 0 scrimmage is a change.

“Losing the scrimmage may be the biggest effect,” Tutt said. “Getting to practice against somebody else was a huge advantage for us.”

LeBlanc did not anticipate the truncated fall practice schedule to be as big of an adjustment as some would believe.

“We have plenty of practices during the summer,” LeBlanc said. “By the time you get to that point in the preseason you are just trying to survive to Week 1.”

McGuire can understand why some other schools didn’t want expansion. He’s a history major, a guy that likes to see things stay the way they are. He can see that point of view.

“I think we have to honor the things done in the past, but things are changing,” McGuire said. “Ultimately we are all here to help kids. It’s not about what I want, or what Joe Blow wants. It’s about what will help kids the most and give kids more opportunities.”