A humble request to the IHSA: Take 1 more step to straight seeding

Before we begin let's get one thing straight.

I don't envy the IHSA.

It's a thankless job preparing endless supplies of playoff tournaments. But somehow, through layers of labor, the games suddenly appear for us all to enjoy.

Appreciated, it isn't. Bashed quite often, it is.

Perceptions of inequity drip onto nearly every sport under the IHSA umbrella. And, boy, do the folks in Bloomington hear about it.

That being said, and in the nicest possible terms, can we please go back to the good ol' days of postseason football?

Remember the straight 1-to-32 seeding in each class? It was a beautiful system, based on formula and leaving little to debate.

Unbeaten teams received the top seeds and were ranked based on playoff points, a strength of schedule stat representing the number of wins by a team's opponents. Teams with 8-1 records were seeded next on the same basis, and so on until the bracket was complete.

That system, in existence less than a decade, wasn't perfect either. One iffy element concerned weaker unbeaten teams seeded higher than 6-3 teams with tougher schedules.

Still, it worked well with few complaints. Most important, it was purely objective.

Then came the quadrants, a system that formed groups of eight teams based on geography. From its inception in 2002, its unpopularity reigned supreme because of unevenly balanced groups and inherent subjectivity.

This season the IHSA inched back toward nirvana. In three classes -- 3A, 6A and 8A -- two groups of 16 were seeded based on wins and playoff points.

A step in the right direction, but problems remain.

Questions arose when unbeaten Mt. Carmel, placed in a southern quadrant last year, moved north this year. A look at the Class 8A pairings map, and you can see the IHSA's reasoning -- it's more of a northeast-southwest split than a north-south split.

But given the state's delicate relationship with multiplied private schools, the move leapt off the bracket page for fans and coaches.

Another red flag: For travel reasons the other five classes were divided into three parts. Half the bracket was seeded 1 through 16, the other half was divided into two eight-team quadrants.

Caught in the mess was Wheaton Warrenville South, which got stuck in a Class 7A quadrant where six of the eight teams boasted a combined 13 state titles. Tonight in Wheaton the Tigers, last year's 8A champion, play St. Rita, last year's 7A champion.

That's a second-round game, folks, not a semifinal or title game. While I generally don't buy into conspiracy theories, legitimate questions keep coming up.

Why did Mt. Carmel move from south to north even though the field of teams hasn't changed dramatically?

Why is half of a class bracket seeded 1 to 16 while the other half is divided into two groups of eight?

Why is travel such an issue in football when teams play only once a week, on weekends, and are free to pick the date and time of the game?

These are questions the IHSA shouldn't have to hear, but its own actions leave little choice. Every move IHSA administrators make is scrutinized for motive and possible bias.

Returning to 1-to-32 seeding would end most, if not all, the suspicion. For the IHSA's own sake it'd be a wise and welcomed decision. And with three classes this year split in two and seeded 1 to 16, we're almost halfway there already.

Oh, and while we're at it, can we please go back to five or six classes?

I know, I know. Baby steps.