Don't dilute football playoffs

Here is today's trivia question:

Have any football teams that finished the regular season with 4-5 records made the state playoffs?

We'll have the answer at the end.

Now, here is today's not-so-trivial question:

Should teams with records of 4-5 and worse automatically be in a 512-team playoff field?

That answer could be coming soon as an amendment proposal has been made to the IHSA Legislative Commission to double the football playoff field from its current 256 teams.

The plan would reduce the regular season by a game with nearly everyone except for about 30 teams having a ninth playoff game. There are various rationales for the proposal which has been driven by Marian Catholic coach Dave Mattio.

The East Suburban Catholic Conference, which includes Marian Catholic, fell to nine teams when St. Joseph left. This would help the ESCC and other leagues which have problems finding nonconference games in the middle or late in the regular season.

Some believe football should finally fall in line with other sports where everyone is in the postseason. Extra playoff games would also mean extra revenue for the IHSA.

When the IHSA expanded from 192 to 256 teams and six to eight classes for the 2001 season there were questions about adding a bunch of 5-4 teams to the field.

Yes, there are plenty of lopsided openers with overmatched 5-4s against unbeatens. But the idea to give teams that may have suffered from injuries or being in difficult conferences has worked out OK.

Montini won a state title last year with 4 losses. Glenbard North went from 5-4 to playing in a title game three years ago.

Palatine needed a Week 9 win just to get in the postseason. Now it's one of three 4-loss teams still playing in this weekend's quarterfinals.

Palatine head coach Tyler Donnelly recalled his time as an assistant coach at Hampshire and how tough it was before the playoff field expanded in 2001. He said the Big Northern Conference was considered “the DVC (DuPage Valley) of small schools” with powers that included Stillman Valley, Byron and Richmond-Burton.

“It was insane, and I was very much in favor of 5-4 teams getting in because of that reason,” Donnelly said. “I'm not in favor of letting everybody go in.”

Think some of the first-round games are ugly now? Think about winless or 1-win teams against unbeaten teams.

The odds of an upset are about as big as the probable final margin on the scoreboard. What would the best teams get out of that kind of running-clock rout and possibly another the following week?

And there has always been that sense of accomplishment for teams that have made the playoffs. For teams such as Fremd which had to battle back from a 1-4 start to make a 16th straight postseason trip or other teams that ended long droughts.

“It's special teams define themselves by making the playoffs,” Donnelly said. “Why water it down where everyone gets in the playoffs?”

Good question.

So here's the answer to the trivia question:

According to the IHSA Web site, since 1989, four 4-5 teams have made the playoffs. One of them was Schaumburg, which won the Mid-Suburban South title 21 years ago and lost its playoff opener by just 9 points to Downers Grove North.

Making teams such as those anything more than a historical footnote isn't an answer to making the state football playoffs better.