IHSA Announcements

February 23, 1998

Board Acts On Football Playoff Proposals

BLOOMINGTON — Recommendations for changes in the manner schools are classified and the scheduling of the state championship games were acted upon by the Illinois High School Association (IHSA) Board of Directors at its regular February meeting Monday (Feb. 23).

Acting on recommendations from the Football Advisory Committee, the Board:

  1. Did not approve a recommendation which would classify public schools based upon each school's actual official enrollment and non-public schools based upon each school's football enrollment. However, the Board directed the Executive Director to reconvene the Football Advisory Committee to address football classification issues again. The Board also directed that the meeting include representatives from non-public schools to present that perspective on classification. The enrollment of each member school reported to the Illinois State Board of Education on Sept. 30 is a school's actual official enrollment for purposes of classification in the following school year in all IHSA state series except football. Currently, football enrollment is the greater of a school's actual official enrollment or the average enrollment of its opponents. Average enrollment is figured by eliminating the largest and smallest opponent enrollments and dividing the total enrollment of the remaining opponents by that number of opponents.

  2. Approved a recommendation to play only three state championship games a day, each as a single-game session. The new time schedule will be identical each day. Games will be played at 11:00 a.m., 3:00 p.m. and 7:00 p.m. Friday's schedule will be Class 1A at 11:00 a.m., Class 2A at 3:00 p.m. and Class 3A at 7:00 p.m. The Saturday schedule will be Class 4A at 11:00 a.m., Class 5A at 3:00 p.m. and Class 6A at 7:00 p.m.

    Seating capacity at Hancock Stadium on the campus of Illinois State University, where the championship games are played, is approximately 11,500. Attendance at two sessions in the recent 1997 playoffs was over 10,700. The move to single-game sessions is a step to solve parking and seating problems at the championship games. Session tickets will be priced at $6.00 each.

  3. Approved a recommendation to allow only the home team to practice on the game field during the week of the state series contest. Visiting teams will be permitted on the game field no later than one (1) hour prior to the scheduled game time.

Other Action

The Board took the following action regarding the general business of the Association:

Official Ball Adoption: The Board approved an extension of the current Official Ball Adoption with Wilson Sporting Goods. The extension is for a five-year period beginning July 1, 1999 (the 1999-2000 school year) and will end June 30, 2004. At that time, the Board will seek proposals again from vendors. The extension of the current adoption will be expanded to include soccer and volleyball, joining baseball, basketball, football, softball, tennis and golf. Under terms of the extension, Wilson provides IHSA member schools with a supply of game balls that are required to be used in state series competition in those sports listed.

For the 1998-99 (next) school year, use of the Wilson soccer ball and volleyball is optional. The models to be used in the adoption are the H8005 Optima Size 5 soccer ball and the H6000 LE volleyball. Beginning in the 2000-2001 school year the wide channel girls basketball will be used. Following are the model and type of balls scheduled to be used during the 1998-99 (next) school year:
Girls Basketball: B0580 Jet Evolution 28.5" Narrow Channel
Boys Basketball: B0516 Jet Evolution Wide Channel
Boys Football: F1205B TDS (or any other legal Wilson football)
Boys Baseball: A1010B Pro-RS Raised Seam
Girls Softball: A9011B NFSHSA Optic Yellow (.47 COR)
Boys and Girls Tennis: T1071 US Open Championship
Boys and Girls Golf: Staff Titanium provided to state final qualifiers

Discussion Items

At each meeting of the Board of Directors, there are certain agenda items which the Board discusses but upon which it takes no action. Following is a report of those on the February, 1998, agenda:

Strategic Planning: The Board heard progress reports from the action teams currently operating. Those action teams address: a) Non-School Competition and Instruction, b) IHSA Facilities; c) Communications; and d) Promotion. In the report of the Non-School Competition and Instruction action team, the Board discussed pending recommendations from the team, chaired by Board Member Criag Zeck, principal of Downers Grove (South). These recommendations are scheduled to be presented to representatives from member schools at a series of special meetings statewide between April 1 and April 23, 1998. There will be a total of 15 different meetings. The complete listing of dates and sites for these special meetings is being finalized and will be released when completed. In the report of IHSA Facilities, the Board heard of space limitations in the IHSA Office building and of architectural recommendations for enlarging the facility. In the reports of Communications and Promotions, the Board heard of preliminary discussions and that additional action team meetings have been scheduled this spring.

Appeal Procedures: The Board engaged in idea sharing regarding procedures and guidelines to be followed in scheduling appeals before the Board and via telephone conference calls.

Add A. Tude Mascot: The Board received a report of the new sportsmanship mascot's public appearances at winter IHSA and Illinois Elementary School Association (IESA) regular season and conference events, and state finals. In addition, training of personnel to perform as the mascot is well under way, along with future bookings. Persons interested in booking the mascot for a school or conference event should contact the IHSA Office.