Fixing Illinois prep football scheduling — it's possible

</element><element id="paragraph-1" type="body"><![CDATA[HARRISBURG - So we venture off into another season of prep football in Illinois. And the headaches still exist.

While conducting our "straw poll" of football coaches for the SIRR Ohio Division, I wound up speaking to Herrin coach Jason Karnes at length about scheduling.

Seems the Tigers are going to have to find a replacement for the 2009 season opener. Olney is filling the current void, but that contract is up when the two teams play Aug. 29.

"Right now, we're trying to talk to Maple Park Kaneland," Karnes said while looking towards the Tigers' first game next season.

Kaneland?

The same team which defeated Harrisburg in the 1997 Class 3A championship game?

Herrin-Kaneland?

That matchup should be separated by a playoff bracket, instead of being created in a regular-season opener.

So here we go again - more absurdity generated by the Illinois High School Association's broken football system.

But today, we offer hope.

Last season, I found myself covering Kentucky high school football, and was unfamiliar with its format.

Once I learned how things worked in the Blue Grass, it all began to make sense.

When you compare what I am about to lay out here, you'll wonder why Illinois ever created a state of confusion.

And away we go ...

For starters, the Kentucky High School Athletic Association's football system is divided into six classes, with eight regions in each.

Are you lost yet? No? Good.

The top four teams in each of eight regions, per class, qualify for the playoffs, giving six classes of 32 teams each.

Any confusion? Didn't think so. OK ...

The goal in Kentucky is to finish in the top four in your region, among your own kind and class.

Do that, and you're in.

Anything short of that, you stay home.

Sounds simple enough.

But that's not where Kentucky's system really flourishes. The system rewards schools for the games they are mandated to play, and doesn't penalize them for the non-District games they must schedule on their own.

Now let's cross back over the Ohio, into the Land of Lincoln, and observe the way things are done at home.

First of all, all Illinois schools are assigned bogus enrollments, using a formula that produces the median enrollment of a school's opponents.

The biggest and smallest schools are eliminated from the equation. And when all is said and done, your number is either up or down - but you aren't what your enrollment says you are.

HHS athletics director Jay Thompson said the enrollment formula was the first in a long line of bad steps.

"The enrollment average was the worst idea," Thompson said. "It forced smaller schools to realign, because they were getting penalized for playing bigger schools."

Of course, all the paranoia all stemmed from the "Belleville Althoff" rule.

Public schools complained that private schools were able to recruit players and beef up their schedules before smashing smaller schools in the playoffs.

Really, nothing has been done to actually resolve that matter. Addison Driscoll is winning state titles left and right, so addressing that issue is moot.

Actually, playoff class assignment is actually not determined until the end of the season, when all 256 qualifiers are determined.

The qualifiers are then lopped off by size, 32 enrollments at a time - from top to bottom - until an eight-class playoff system is formed.

Conference champions are given automatic bids, and the rest are left to fend for themselves.

The magic number is to win five games or more, regardless of whether those victories are achieved inside or outside conference play.

Teams are then seeded on a point system, which calculates the total number of wins by an opponent.

If you're used to the system, it's old hat.

If you're not, allow yourself to sit and take a break. It is dizzying.

Now, back to the original point - why is Herrin having to look five-plus hours to the north in order to find a first-week opponent?

That's because no one wants to take a potential loss to Herrin - in a non-conference game - that could cost them a fifth win and exclusion from the playoffs.

That makes no sense. Illinois' football playoff system is so broken that it borders on comedic.

You can always use Harrisburg's schedule as a perfect example.

Let's say the Bulldogs go 3-2 and finishes third in the SIRR Ohio Division.

But, Jason Roper's club - having to play powerhouses such as Du Quoin and Mount Carmel and two South Seven schools in Marion and Carbondale - manages to win just once outside its league.

Well, that's 4-5, and not good enough.

On the flip side, a slightly smaller SIRR Mississippi Division school, such as a Chester, isn't interested in playing cross-over games with the Ohio, and goes 2-3 or 1-4 in the league, but cleverly schedule games across the river in Missouri or what-not, and win three or all four non-conference games.

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Well, guess who makes the playoffs, because their hands aren't tied?

And that is not a slam on Chester.

The Yellowjackets are merely playing with the hand they have been dealt.

It's time for the IHSA to pony up and reward teams for the games they HAVE to play, and not the ones they are forced to drum up because they win a few games.

"The price of success in high school football," Thompson said, "is not finding teams to schedule.

"Obviously, I wished there were some 'easier teams' for us to play. But you have to be realistic.

"It's what everybody wants - scheduling schools your own size you can beat. But that severely limits your options," Thompson added.

Yes, the SIRR is looking into the cross-over scheme, where the Mississippi and Ohio would rotate trade-offs. But it's all being held up for the reasons Thompson stated above.

Would a Kentucky system work in Illinois, and how would it apply locally?

Obviously, there are more football-playing schools in Illinois than in Kentucky. The IHSA has 562 schools playing 11-man football this season, with 514 eligible for the playoffs.

To make 64 regions in eight classes, it would take an average of 8.03 teams per region to fit in all the teams in each class.

Of course, the IHSA would be scrapping the conference formats. Conferences in high school are obselete anyways.

That means, on average, a team playing seven region games, leaving two non-district games that would have no bearing on playoff status.

Suddenly, teams would only have to go outside the district to find two games. And what's more, smaller schools wouldn't have a problem playing bigger schools to fill the schedules.

If you're a small school, play someone close to you that may be a bit bigger. It's all right.

Master the possibilities ...

Locally, you could re-create rivalries, and discover a few new ones.

Don't think Eldorado and Harrisburg wouldn't re-kindle their series?

Wonder how an improved Carmi-White County or Fairfield program would stack up against former North Egypt Conference menace Mount Carmel? And the Aces could come home again, instead of playing in Indiana.

I'd imagine Carterville taking on Marion and former coach Kerry Martin would sell a few tickets, or Herrin needing a short jog to meet up with Carterville.

The matchups are endless.

Nahhh, that'd interfere with three stops at the gas pump and that trip to Maple Park ...