Proposal seeks to expand IHSA football playoffs, regionalize scheduling

Roxana High School officials have written a proposal to the Illinois High School Association that would dramatically alter several things about the high school football season.

The most significant change to current operations would be the expansion of the IHSA playoffs from the current structure of 256 qualifiers and increasing them to 384 total qualifiers. 48 teams would qualify for each classification. In Class 7A and 8A, the top 16 seeds would receive a first-round bye. In Class 1A through Class 6A, the top eight seeds in both the north and south brackets would receive an opening round bye.

This proposal must be approved by the IHSA’s legislative council before being placed on an all-school ballot for consideration to have the proposal applied to the sport. That vote is typically resolved in mid-December.

“We started to survey and we started to get a sense that coaches and administrators wanted change,” said Roxana athletic director Mark Briggs. “We kept getting feedback that was moving us toward playoff expansion. And we tried to figure out how to make it work within the IHSA calendar.”

Qualification for the playoffs would still be in the same structure as is done currently. Teams that win the most games would be placed on the bracket first and seeded accordingly by playoff points. Using results from the 2024 season as a guide, all teams that won three or more regular-season games would qualify in this format. In addition, the top 23 teams with two wins (sorted by playoff points) would need to be added to the field to fill out a full 384-team field.

All current systems, such as multiplier application/waivers, success formulas, and playing up opportunities, would be applied to the calculations for classifying teams.

The changes don’t stop at the potential playoff expansion. The proposal also suggests applying a “flex regional” system for scheduling.

The proposal states: “The Flexed Regional Model restructures IHSA football into regionals of at least six teams, determined by geographic proximity and enrollment similarity. The system provides flexibility at enrollment boundaries, expands the playoffs, and standardizes scheduling across the state while respecting traditional rivalries.”

The basic principle of the Flex Regional Model works like this. All playoff-eligible teams will be sorted via the enrollment that is to be used for the football program. They will then be divided equally into eight classifications, which would become the most likely group of teams that will be divided into regionals.

However, the 25 smallest teams in each classification group could be flexed into a smaller classification if there is a better geographic fit in one of the regionals for them and a need for them to fill.

The same principle would also be applied to the 25 largest teams in each classification group, as they could be flexed into a larger classification if there is a better geographic fit and a need for them to fill.

Under no circumstances would a team be moved more than one class in any direction.

“Our experience over the past year, I think, has opened our eyes to some of the experiences that other schools throughout the state have faced in recent years,” Roxana assistant principal Adam Miller said. “And as we became aware of that kind of undercurrent throughout the entire state, we were trying to think about how can we not only help fix this for Roxana, but what could we maybe do to help schools across the state to bring about lasting change?”

Exceptions to these rules would only be applied in extreme geographical situations, and in those cases, teams might be placed in a regional with more than six teams.

Preliminary “mock-ups” of the regionals will be provided by the proposal committee over the next few weeks.

Chicago Public League schools, which currently make up 56 schools of the playoff-eligible school list and 24 noneligible programs, would be exempt from the regional format and allowed to keep their current structure. The CPL would continue to keep control of deciding which of its programs would be eligible for playoff consideration.

Regional games for six-team groupings would be played in Weeks 4 through 8, and nonregional games would be played in Weeks 1-3 and Week 9.

Eight team groups would have seven regional games (Weeks 2 through 8) and nonregional games in Weeks 1 and 9, while seven team groups would follow a similar protocol with a neighboring seven team district providing a crossover game option to allow no team to be on a bye week.

Schools would retain autonomy of their nonregional game schedules to allow for the ability of schools to still schedule rivalry games with programs that might not be in the same direct regions or from different classification groups.

All regional groupings would be for a two-year period for each of the teams in each district, and a team’s enrollment number, multiplier status would be applicable for a two-year period, and any team that elects to play up would also be doing so for a two-year period.

With the additional round of playoffs, this season will be extended for one more week, but the calendar will actually be backed up.

The season will still conclude with the state championship being held on Thanksgiving Weekend, but with one more week of playoffs being needed, the postseason will begin in mid-October.

The season’s first regular-season game will be held a week earlier in August, and the proposal is to eliminate the option of a “Week 0″ scrimmage game, as that would be the new Week 1 of the high school football season.

Opening day practices would also be moved up three days to the previous Wednesday; in the case of the 2026 calendar, opening day would be Aug. 5. This would allow for a full 12-day acclimatization period and would allow the sport to be in concert with SMAC safety guidelines for football.

If approved, the policy would go into effect for the 2026 season with official regional recommendations expected to be provided in February or March by a Flex Committee working with the IHSA. The committee will consist of representatives from throughout the state and across all classifications and will include current athletic directors, IHSA staff and select media.

While Roxana is the school at the top of the proposal, Miller is quick to point out that a large cross-section of schools from across the enrollment spectrum are in support of the proposal.

“This is proposed by Roxana,” Miller said. “But this is not Roxana’s proposal. This has been collaborative with people from around the state: football coaches, school representatives, athletic trainers.”