Good to be back after some extensive traveling in December. No matter where I go, nothing compares to living in Ogle County.

The big news coming out of the IHSA was an expansion of the football playoffs from 256 qualifying teams to 384. That decision was made by a vote from its member schools, (377 yes, 252 no, 96 abstentions).

What this means is that most teams with losing records will get in. Anyone at 3-6 will make it and several 2-7 teams also will get in.

“Too often throughout the years, football decisions have negatively impacted other sports at IHSA schools,” IHSA Executive Director Craig Anderson said. “We are hopeful that this football playoff 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. It may create some short-term complications for some schools, conferences and coaches, but we remain optimistic it will create long-term stability in football and beyond.”

Some might argue that is diluting the field, but consider teams from strong conferences such as the NUIC and Chicago Catholic League. Fulton and Morrison were 2-7 this season and likely would win a game or two in 1A.

The top 16 teams in each classification will get a bye, which is good and bad. The good is that the 2-7 and 3-6 teams won’t see them right off the bat, thus balancing the level of play a bit.

The bad is that teams don’t necessarily want a bye. Everybody would rather play each week and certainly 17 year olds don’t need an extra week of rest.

Frankly, I see it as a detriment for the recipients of byes. You get out of sync while your next opponent stays in a regular routine.

The first regular-season game will be Aug. 21, and by 2029, it will be Aug. 16. Many coaches have complained about how much of summer is being taken up by an earlier schedule.

When the playoffs began in 1974, the first regular-season game was Sept. 6, with the championships wrapped up the weekend before Thanksgiving. Only 16 teams qualified per class compared with 48 now and the first two rounds were played in one week (Wednesday and Saturday).

Also back then, a lingering school of thought was the farm kids had chores such as baling hay to do and the games shouldn’t begin until after Labor Day. With rare exception, that’s no longer the case.

Opening and ending dates for football vary greatly from state to state. Texas, where it is king, doesn’t end its playoffs until the week before Christmas.

Here in Illinois, Thanksgiving is the ideal time. After that, weather can be a factor, as the postponed 5-8A championships experienced.

Besides, December is the time to be on the basketball courts. With that being said, the Byron girls are off and running again.

After a come-from-behind win over 3A-ranked Dixon in which Macy Groharing scored 13 points in the fourth quarter, the 12-0 Tigers made the finals of the 47th annual Dixon Holiday Tournament. The win streak came to an end with a 43-26 loss to Sterling.

After falling behind 11-2, Byron came back to make it 11-11, but Sterling’s defense proved too stifling the rest of the way, wearing down the Tigers and a less-than-100% Groharing. Holiday tourneys have a way of taking a toll on teams.

In the semis, Sterling beat last year’s champ, Stillman Valley (12-3). Both Byron and Stillman finished with 32 wins last season and tied Dixon (29-6) for the Big Northern Conference crown in one of the best years ever for BNC roundball.

Add Winnebago (12-1) to the mix as top contenders in the conference, and 20-year coaching veteran Joni Carlson has a long tradition of winning at Lutheran. For a team such as Oregon, which has seen improvement, it will be a tall task breaking into the upper echelon of the league.

An assist goes out to my next-door neighbor Josh Messenger for getting the last three columns in the paper. Before leaving town, I had thought they had been sent to editor Jeff Helfrich.

Not so and unfortunately they remained on my home computer, which I did not have access to. About ready to tell Jeff to forget about them as it was close to deadline and I was 1,000 miles away, a last-ditch call went out to Josh.

Fortunately he was home and I was able to walk him through gaining access to the computer and finding the documents to send to the newspaper. A tough task, but he passed with flying colors.

As I said before, nothing beats living in Ogle County, where one can still feel comfortable letting a neighbor into your house. Doubt if that could have been pulled off if I lived in the big city somewhere.

• Andy Colbert is a longtime Ogle County resident with years of experience covering sports and more for multiple area publications.