IHSA Announcements

August 12, 2002

Board Approves Team Sports Grouping and Seeding Procedures

The Illinois High School Association (IHSA) Board of Directors approved grouping and seeding procedures for the team sports other than football and dual team wrestling at its regular meeting Monday (Aug. 12) at the IHSA Office.

The procedures will be used in the sports of boys and girls soccer, volleyball, basketball and water polo, as well as girls softball and boys baseball. They will be used beginning with the fall sports in the upcoming (2002-03) school term.

In each of the sports involved, the advisory committee for the respective sport will recommend to the Board that the state series be conducted in the traditional regional to sectional to (super-sectional) state final geographic format, or the new sectional complex format. Under the new sectional complex format, sites will be pre-determined and the top seeds will be spread among the fixed sites with the remaining teams being assigned geographically to the sites.

In football, four quadrants involving eight (8) teams will be created in each class and the teams will be paired in each quadrant according to their seed among the 32 qualifiers in the class. Match ups within the quadrants will be based on the seeds.

In dual team wrestling, the schools qualify their team for the sectional from correlated individual series regionals. Teams are grouped geographically on the basis of pre-determined sectional sites.

Complete Grouping and Seeding Procedures approved by the Board follow the text of this article.

Other Action

The Board took the following action on other items:

1. Approved a recommendation to increase judge fees in Lincoln-Douglas Debate from $120 to $150 per match.
2. Approved adoption of a revision in the manner in which data is collected for results that are placed on the ScoreZone on the IHSA Web Site. Beginning this fall (2002-03 school term), the host school will be responsible for submitting the required score, results and highlights via the Internet to the IHSA Web Site. Procedures will be supplied to all hosts in the annual school mailing in each sport where ScoreZone participation is required.
3. Appointed the following to the IHSA Foundation Board of Directors: Asst. Executive Director Anthony Holman, retired Normal (Community) Principal Dr. Alan Chapman and Dr. Frank Stout, current Summit (Argo) principal and member of the Board of Directors.
4. Did not approve participation by players from Illinois in the National Federation of State High School Associations (NFHS) Midwest sectional basketball camp for girls July 25-27, 2003 and for boys April 11-13, 2003.
5. Approved Wharton Fieldhouse in Moline as the site of the 2003 Dual Team State Final Wrestling Tournament site.
6. Approved an Asthma Policy to be included in Terms and Conditions for the upcoming (2002-03) school term. That policy is as follows: A student with asthma may possess and use his/her medication during an IHSA competition, while under the supervision of school personnel, provided the school meets the outlined procedures or self administration in the Illinois school code.

Discussion Items

At each meeting of the Board of Directors, there are certain agenda items the Board discusses, but upon which it takes no action. Following is a report of those on the August 2002, agenda:

National Federation Rules Committees: Heard a report that three members of the IHSA administrative staff have been named to serve on National Federation committees. Dave Gannaway has been named to the Wrestling Rules Committee. Anthony Holman has been named to the Baseball Rules Committee. Scott Johnson has been named to the Records Committee.

Status of Boys Gymnastics and Debate:  The Board heard presentations regarding the status of their sport by representatives from the boys gymnastics community and a presentation regarding the status of Debate by Robert Neuleib, assistant to the director. At its June meeting the Board began discussion regarding the future of the two state series as part of the IHSA state series structure. The Board directed the IHSA staff to prepare a recommendation regarding the two series.

Public/Private Action Team:  The Board heard a progress report regarding the Strategic Planning action team reviewing issues involving public and private school members. The action team's next meeting is August 13.

Rules Meeting Video:  The Board previewed a videotape prepared by Asst. Executive Director Dave Gannaway and Asst. Executive Director Susan Hinrichsen that will be shown at all 2002-03 rules interpretation meetings.

Officials Education Program:  The Board heard a status report regarding official's education curriculum being developed.

Grouping and Seeding Procedures

Criteria for Grouping and Seeding the following IHSA Team Tournaments:

• Boys and Girls Soccer
• Boys and Girls Volleyball
• Boys and Girls Basketball
• Girls Softball
• Boys Baseball
• Boys and Girls Water Polo

Each sport will be able to use the Sectional Complex format or the Traditional Regional Structure.

A. Sectional Complex

Sectional Complex will be used in the following sports:

• Class A and AA Boys and Girls Soccer
• Class A and AA Boys and Girls Volleyball
• Class AA Boys and Girls Basketball
• Class A and AA Girls Softball
• Class A and AA Boys Baseball
• Boys and Girls Water Polo

Sectional Complex Structure

• Seeding will take place at the Sectional level host site.
• If all Sectionals have 24 or less teams, then there will be one Seeding Meeting for each Sectional.
• If any Sectional has 25 or more teams, then all Sectionals will be split into two Sub-sectionals with one Seeding Meeting at each Sub-sectional. Each Sub-sectional will represent two (2) Regionals. The IHSA will appoint host for each sub-sectional seeding meeting.

Seeding for a Sectional or Sub-sectional in a Sectional Complex

• Each Sectional will seed all teams.
• Each school will submit seed list from top to bottom, one (1) being the top seed. No school can vote for itself.
• Any ties will be broken by a vote of all coaches on only the tied teams. If a tie remains, then a flip of the coin will break the tie.
• Sectional manager will collect each list and post on a master seed chart available to all coaches.
• Seed chart will be available to each school before they leave the seed meeting.
• Sectional manager will fax a copy of the seed chart to the IHSA immediately after the seed meeting.
  Seed meeting will be conducted on Monday, three (3) weeks prior to the start of the first round of the tournament, except for Girls Basketball, which will be held on Tuesday.
• No later than Friday (three weeks prior to the start of the tournament), the IHSA will post all pairings on the IHSA Web Site.
• Monday, two (2) weeks prior to each round of the IHSA tournament series, the IHSA will post officials assignments on the IHSA Schools Center to all schools that are hosting a tournament.
• If any Sectional has sixteen (16) to twenty-four (24) teams, then the top eight (8) seeds will be separated in all Sectionals, otherwise, only the top four (4) seeds will be separated.

Pairings In Sectional Complex:

• Once the IHSA has the seeds for a Sectional Complex, the top four (4) teams will be sent to different Regionals and then no more than two (2) of the top eight (8) seeded teams will be assigned to any Regional.
• If all Sectional Complexes have fifteen (15) or less teams, then only the top four (4) teams will be separated.
• If a school is hosting a Regional, it will be assigned to that Regional.
• No. 1 Seed might be with No. 5, No. 6, No. 7 or No. 8. It is not guaranteed that No. 1 will be with No.8. Once the top eight (8) teams are placed in Regionals, then the remaining teams will be placed geographically. All schools will be placed geographically and the seeds from the Seed Meeting will be used to determine the pairings at the Regional tournament once the teams have been placed in each Regional tournament.
• In sub-sectionals, the top two (2) teams will be separated and then three (3) and four (4) will be separated. It is not guaranteed that the No. 1 rated team in the sub-sectional will be with the No. 4 rated team in the sub-sectional. All schools will be placed geographically and the seeds from the Seed Meeting will be used to determine the pairings at the Regional tournament once the teams have been placed in each Regional tournament.

Sectional Pairings In Sectional Complex

• In the Sectional pairings, the Regional that has the No. 1 Sectional seed will play the Regional that has the No. 4 seed in the first game. The Regional that has the No. 2 Sectional seed will play the Regional with the No. 3 Sectional seed in the second game.
• The top team on the bracket will be the home team.

B. Traditional Regional Structure

Traditional Regional Structure will be used for the following sports:

• Class A Boys and Girls Basketball

Traditional Regional Structure:

• Seeding will take place at Regional Level Host Site

Seeding for a Traditional Regional Structure

• Each Regional will seed all teams.
• Each school will submit seed list from top to bottom, one (1) being the top seed. No school can vote for itself.
• Any ties will be broken by a vote of all the coaches on only the tied teams. If a tie remains, then a flip of the coin will break the tie.
• Regional manager will collect each list and post on a master seed chart available to all coaches.
• Seed chart will be available to each school before they leave the seed meeting.
• Regional manager will fax a copy of the seed chart to the IHSA immediately after the seed meeting.
• Seed meeting will be conducted on Monday, three (3) weeks prior to the start of the first round of the tournament, except for Girls Basketball, which will be held on Tuesday.
• No later than Friday (three weeks prior to the start of the tournament), the IHSA will post all pairings on the IHSA Web Site.
• Monday, two (2) weeks prior to each round of the IHSA tournament series, the IHSA will post officials assignments on the IHSA Schools Center to all schools that are hosting a tournament.

Pairings in the Traditional Regional

• Teams will paired according to standard seeding procedures. The No. 1 and No. 4 teams will be in the same brackets and the No. 2 and No. 3 teams will be in the same brackets.

Pairings in the Traditional Sectional

• Pairings are determined by blind draw by the IHSA Office during the respective Internet Drawing for all sports in each of the three sport seasons.

C. Admission

Admission at All State Series:

• Regional $3.00
• Sectional $5.00
• Super-Sectional $5.00