So it begins...or I guess it never really stopped.
Playoff un-expansion
- Thread starter Travelin Fan
- Start date
While I dont like the expansion you cant look at this year to see what it has done. Gotta at least wait two years since most contracts are home/home and some would have been set up
I mostly agree, and I don't think "un-expansion" solves what Jostes' original post. Should instead implement the rule where picking up an opponent in place of a forfeit game doesn't count against your record. You get your forfeit win and still play 9 regular season games.
Yeah. Also start practice on that Monday instead of Wednesday and bring back the scrimmage. Then see how it all plays out.
Wholeheartedly disagree with that. We dont need exhibition games. Why would anyone want to play in a game that doesnt count? What if you get an injury in a game that doesnt count? Life lessons, games come with wins and losses. No participation trophies.
So play a game that doesn't mean anything? No points, no playoff points, just a 1-0 victory?
This was supposed to fix teams dodging playing other teams and most people knew that this wasn't the fix.
Program numbers fluctuate and things happen that are out of the control of the school and coaches (See Payson Unity and the skin infection) but of a program is 2-3 injuries away from cancelling the varsity season, it needs to be done before the season starts. A deadline needs to be set so teams can find opponents.
Also, ADs and coaches should probably start looking for backup games on top of filling the 9 week schedule or conferences could create alliances where they agree to play crossovers on open weeks. For example, the HoI could have an alliance with the ICE, and if 2 teams have open weeks they play each other.
I'd go a step further and say we should go back to 32 teams per class, and with no more than six playoff classes. Right now, there's no appreciable difference between classes 1-2, between classes 3-6, or between classes 7-8.
Nope... Take the win or potentially lose a game...
Say they go to a 1-32 seeding... Teams taking the FF win AND win a rescheduled game leaving the team with a 10-0 record. How would you seed a 10-0 team against a 9-0 team?
Just food for thought!~
As someone who has the pleasure of watching a conference with notoriously bad football, looking at the new playoff expansion rules through the stats of 2025, this year’s first few rounds might be brutal. In 2025, the conference I watch regularly, sent 6 teams to the postseason, finishing with an 1-6 record while being outscored 335 to 174. The only victory came when two teams from this same conference played each other.
Under this new format, this same conference could have sent 11 teams into the playoffs, despite a massive drop-off in team talent and the fact that most of the inter-conference games between the 6 and 11 were clocked games. While I understand the thought behind expanding the field (which I don’t agree), I think it’s a massive mistake to dilute the class brackets this much. If they want to include these lower-tier teams (3 wins) , they should create a secondary invitation bracket—similar to NIT—rather than watering down the class brackets.
All they did was take away making the playoffs as something meaningful to a program and really isolate the remaining teams who don't make it.
Under this new format, this same conference could have sent 11 teams into the playoffs, despite a massive drop-off in team talent and the fact that most of the inter-conference games between the 6 and 11 were clocked games. While I understand the thought behind expanding the field (which I don’t agree), I think it’s a massive mistake to dilute the class brackets this much. If they want to include these lower-tier teams (3 wins) , they should create a secondary invitation bracket—similar to NIT—rather than watering down the class brackets.
All they did was take away making the playoffs as something meaningful to a program and really isolate the remaining teams who don't make it.
How the rule works in other states that utilize it is you get a FF win and the game you play doesn't count for/against records. Its just an opportunity to play another game.
This was always a symptomatic remedy to a systemic issue. Has been the case with the majority of the proposals ADs have put forth, and the adjustments the IHSA have actually put in place.
Playing devil's advocate here...
Rather than expanding the amount of teams per class, why not just add additional classifications? If you're adding teams just add to the classes.
Personally, I dont like the idea of a playoff bye.
If you're letting in 384, just have 12 playoff brackets of 32 teams or go back to 6 classes of 64. Seed 1-32 or 1-64.
Break up the 384, and if you toss em into 12 classes, break up the 64 largest qualifiers in each classification (We will call it 6A and 6B for this exercise) and the largest 32 qualifiers go into 6A, next 32 into 6B, and so on down the line.
Still can seed 1-32.
Can move the regular season back a week.
No playoff byes.
Would need additional state championship site though.
Rather than expanding the amount of teams per class, why not just add additional classifications? If you're adding teams just add to the classes.
Personally, I dont like the idea of a playoff bye.
If you're letting in 384, just have 12 playoff brackets of 32 teams or go back to 6 classes of 64. Seed 1-32 or 1-64.
Break up the 384, and if you toss em into 12 classes, break up the 64 largest qualifiers in each classification (We will call it 6A and 6B for this exercise) and the largest 32 qualifiers go into 6A, next 32 into 6B, and so on down the line.
Still can seed 1-32.
Can move the regular season back a week.
No playoff byes.
Would need additional state championship site though.
They play games that dont matter in Texas... Non-division games... They are not important at all... I'm not a fan of worthless games... Yet here we are in the participation playoff era... Far cry from back in my days where you had to go 9-0 or 8-1to be considered for the playoffs... So this year is totally a waste... I just hope players don't get hurt playing a 2-7 team with nothing to lose attitude...
Illinois is broke... Adding 4 classifications and all the $$$$ to have the championship weekend stuff added would never fly... I get that some teams that finished at 4-5 and 3-6 could do damage in the playoffs... Well I say do damage in the regular season and win 5 games... It has always been special to make the playoffs... You earned it. Allowing teams in with 2 or 3 wins is comical at best... THEY are weakening the sport... Can you see yourself telling glory day stories of how you made the playoffs with a 2-7 record to someone from a non-blue state like Texas?!!! How embarrassing! My Jr year we went 7-2 and watched the playoffs... 5-4 my Sr year... We didn't cry and say things should've been different... We knew what it took to make the playoffs... We didn't get it done... Shame on us!!!
You can actually be 0-10 and make the playoffs in Texas depending on the size of your district. 
Seems like many schools have already made up their mind. Edgy had been hinting at it on podcasts since before the season started.
I only have a few data points but I have seen a few non-con schedules that don't look like they expect expanded playoffs next year.
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6 Classes - 32 teams per class.
4A, 5A, 6A seeded 1-32
1A, 2A, 3A seeded North/South
Championship Weekend: Noon , 3:00 , 6:00
4A, 5A, 6A seeded 1-32
1A, 2A, 3A seeded North/South
Championship Weekend: Noon , 3:00 , 6:00
Correct…but let’s see how it plays out. I think the expanded playoffs will end up being a good thing. The complaint, and it’s a major one, is how it was rushed through and implemented immediately causing chaos.
Certain 1-8 & 2-7 teams would running clock certain 7-2,8-1 or 9-0 teams
Could have just tried seeding it 1-32 first before expanding. Will a 3-6 team who loses by 40 in round 1 really feel as if their season is a success?
The 3-6 coaches wont feel like a success. I doubt they put a lot into film and practice that week.
Bingo!!!
Any additional teams wanting to be in the playoffs can form their own NIT Tournament with any rules they want because I would not really give a $#@!.
How’s that any different than the 9-0 team who gets clocked in round 1?
I would argue the kids themselves want an opportunity to play, especially those that can gain from game film. Coming from a parent of a 2021 Senior that needed that game film and just wanted the kids to have game day experiences (both on the field and in the stands), every game is welcomed.
No disagreement with wanting to play. It should count on your record though.
Kind of ignores, doesn't it, the lower classes and how non-competitive many of their title games are as well. The focus should be on improving the product as a whole. Seed every class 1-32 for best results. It's really that simple, to start... 2A, go glance at those brackets and tell me we don't need to include them... Mommies and daddies will shell out thousands to get Johnny on an "elite" select team but we can't ask them to pay it forward for the kids to get them to a football game upstate or downstate when it's the freaking playoffs? The travel issue in the lower classes cracks me up dude... some of them act like it's 1948 and they only have one car for the whole town.
The 5-4 teams were at least above .500- there are some conferences up north where beating 3 abysmal teams gets you in and those teams don’t belong in the playoffs. Spare me the argument that every other state series lets everyone in. More kids won’t go out for football next year at schools that are 3-6.
What I'm viewing this new format is....it's getting the 256 best teams in by providing, essentially, a play in game prior to the round of 256. The teams that have good records from bad conferences will go by the wayside for teams that played a tough schedule.
Nobody in Metropolis wants to travel to Byron or vice versa for a playoff game. Or Wilmington to Johnston City. Parents might go for one game like the Semis, but I doubt the school administrators would sign off on it.
We can create neutral sites... that can be a thing... The idea that two towns won't agree to play each other in the playoffs is wild to me. I would almost guarantee that would be a very lopsided discussion in favor of the southern programs dismissing it... while the north could be persuaded. Or, we just could split the state into north and south...maybe that's the everyone gets a trophy solution here...
Maybe we just exclude southern IL schools to begin with... zero champions in decades outside the ME right? It would seem from the glance, southern programs are only watering down the product at this point and being one of the largest contributors to non-competitive state title games. In other words, they're not worthy. Central Illinois seems to be supplying most title game contenders from the southern brackets anyways.
Exclusion is always the answerWe can create neutral sites... that can be a thing... The idea that two towns won't agree to play each other in the playoffs is wild to me. I would almost guarantee that would be a very lopsided discussion in favor of the southern programs dismissing it... while the north could be persuaded. Or, we just could split the state into north and south...maybe that's the everyone gets a trophy solution here...
Maybe we just exclude southern IL schools to begin with... zero champions in decades outside the ME right? It would seem from the glance, southern programs are only watering down the product at this point and being one of the largest contributors to non-competitive state title games. In other words, they're not worthy.
Inclusion hasn't gotten us a better product in this specific situation, has it?Exclusion is always the answer
The inclusive option was laid out, in districts, and the schools shot it down faster than a duck on opening day.
To your point though... how long until the elite in the state get fed up and just create their own playoffs and champions? That seems to be what some people want anyways... CCL + ESL and maybe a handful of others... Morris, Rochester, SHG come to mind. The whole goal for many voting in this scenario just want private schools gone... well their goes the quality of the state's tournament with it...
That's a story as old as time. It's not going to happen.
However, maybe they can create their own Southern Illinois Version of the Prep Bowl.
