With an avalanche of IHSA playoff action on the horizon, what better time than now to kick a hornet’s nest.

Interesting news emerged early this year when the central board of control of the Alabama High School Athletic Association (the equivalent of our Illinois High School Association) voted overwhelmingly to separate public and private schools into different championship competitions.

Can you imagine the reaction if that happened in our very own Prairie State? Heads would spin quicker than that girl in “The Exorcist.”

I’m not even sure we could handle a split of private and public schools, no matter how many squeaky wheels plea for separation. But here’s the AHSAA, founded in 1921, prepping to do just that for a trial period of two school years starting in the fall.

Instead of seven combined playoff classes, there will be six classes for public schools and two for private schools. Gone are the enrollment and success multipliers for private schools.

While avoiding the elephant in the room — the perceived inherent recruiting advantages of private schools — the board of control instead praised the additional opportunities for state championships across every sport. Now it’s eight titles instead of seven.

“After careful review — and after listening to our public and private school members — the Central Board determined that now is an appropriate time to restructure championship play, resulting in restructured championships for public and private schools,” Heath Harmon, executive director of the AHSAA, said in a statement at the time.

The split will be for the postseason only. Regular-season competition against each other may seem natural, but then you look around the country at the example being set in other states.

Earlier this spring in Nevada, dozens of high school football programs withdrew from the Nevada Interscholastic Activities Association because they were tired of competing against private school powerhouses.

It’s stunning to hear that kind of news in Illinois, where the bark of the private vs. public school debate is far worse than the bite.

No matter how much fans, coaches and administrators complain about private schools, nothing much changes. Except for maybe a tweak to multipliers, success factors and the distribution of classification waivers by the IHSA.

IHSA leadership has been historically consistent in its belief the association works best with the full membership of public and private schools competing together in the postseason.

In the end, though, it’s not for IHSA leadership to decide. If a school presents a proposal for separation, and the membership votes in favor, then the public and private schools will be split based on the language of the proposal.

But through the decades, it’s never happened. Time and again, starting in the 1980s, proposals have been presented to forge a separation. Each time, the attempt failed.

The majority of member schools seem to agree with IHSA leadership that together — even with the flaws — is better than apart.

That obviously could change in the future. All it takes is another football season like 2024, when seven of the eight state champions were private schools, for the pot to be stirred again.

There are plenty more hornet’s nests out there ready to be kicked.

https://www.dailyherald.com/20260507/prep-football/could-illinois-follow-alabamas-lead-in-splitting-public-and-private-school-competition/