Lest you think the IHSA is ignoring the carnage inflicted on public schools in boys and girls athletic competitions by the privates this schools year, think again. Recently, they issued a statement on how they will legislate what they refer to as “leveling the playing field”.
The combination of a 1.65 enrollment multiplier, waiver application and success factor for the private schools will be enforced much stricter than it has in the past. Since 2005, they’ve had measures like this in place, but there had been a fluctuation in the enforcement.
The hope is that loopholes in the previous system will be reduced and teams will not have an unfair competitive advantage. Obtaining waivers to avoid the 1.65 multiplier has become more stringent.
A sport or activity program at a particular non-boundaried school is not eligible to apply for a waiver if over the course of the previous three school terms, the program (as a team) has achieved any of the following:
1) In Girls’ Volleyball, Boys’ Basketball, Girls’ Basketball, Boys’ Soccer, Girls’ Soccer, Baseball, or Softball accomplishes the following:
a. Wins a Sectional Semi-final contest
2) In Wrestling or Scholastic Bowl accomplishes the following:
a. Wins a Regional Tournament
Besides the multiplier, the IHSA made an adjustment to the Success Adjustment Policy. The policy was initially implemented in 2014 and seeks to provide greater competitive equity for private schools who achieve certain levels of State Final success by moving them up in classification.
The policy initially looked at the amount of State Final success that occurred over four years, but was adjusted to two years when the IHSA moved to a two-year classification cycle.
Beginning in 2025-26, the Success Adjustment Policy will encompass a rolling three-year period. Entering each school year, if a team has won two state final trophies in the past three years in a sport, they will then be subject to the adjustment and move up one class in that sport.
For example, a school who has won two state final trophies in a sport/activity over the course of 2022-23, 2023-24, and 2024-25 will be subject to the adjustment in 2025-26. In 2026-27, they will only be subject to the adjustment if they have two state final trophies over the course of 2023-24, 2024-25, and 2025-26.
As you can see, the IHSA put a tremendous amount of time and effort to enact said policies, which needed to be approved by the IHSA Board of Directors, a group of 12 school administrators from all over the state.
The whole thing is very complicated to understand and if I interpreted the information wrong, my apologies.
As I scanned through other business the IHSA discussed at its March 15 meeting, I couldn’t help but notice this tidbit:
The Board approved a recommendation to make two adjustments to the game rules of Madden in the IHSA esports State Series. The changes included shortening quarters from five minutes to four minutes and turning on the accelerated gameplay.
No, I’m not making this up. The IHSA offers state series in esports.
Andy Colbert is a longtime Ogle County resident with years of experience covering sports and more for multiple area publications.
