The Illinois High School Association is considering changes that could reshape the postseason for Geneseo and every other public school in Illinois — including whether public and private schools continue meeting on the way to a state championship, face each other only in the final rounds, or compete in entirely separate tournaments.
Geneseo High School Athletic Director Joe Nichols said the district believes changes are needed to address competitive differences between schools, but officials are not yet ready to endorse a particular proposal.
"We are not sure yet where we fall on these two proposals," Nichols said, referring to proposals that would separate public and private schools either entirely or until the state semifinals. "With any proposal there could be unintended consequences that may affect schools negatively so we will be spending some time investigating all those ramifications."
The proposals are being discussed at IHSA town meetings for school personnel Nov. 5–18. The meetings are closed to the public. The IHSA Legislative Commission will reconvene Monday, Nov. 23, to decide which proposals go to a vote of member schools, with that vote scheduled Dec. 1–15.
Nichols said Geneseo representatives will attend a town meeting next week in Sterling. IHSA member schools are required to attend one town meeting annually.
There are 24 proposals in all. The ones that matter most to Geneseo are about competitive balance between boundary schools — public schools like Geneseo, which draw students from a set geographic area — and non-boundary schools, which include private schools and public magnet schools.
What is being proposed
Proposal 8, submitted by the West Suburban Conference, would place public and private schools in separate playoffs altogether in sports with three or more classifications. In football, public schools would compete in Classes 1A–6A by enrollment, while private schools would compete in Classes 7A–8A. In other sports, non-boundary schools would be grouped into one playoff, while boundary schools compete in their own separate classifications.
Proposal 15, also from the West Suburban Conference, is less drastic. Public and private schools would still compete for the same state trophies, but they would travel separate paths to the state semifinals. Private schools could be placed in one or two quadrants of a bracket that lead to the state semifinals, while public schools occupy the remaining quadrants.
Proposal 0, submitted by Williamsville, would raise the enrollment multiplier applied to non-boundary schools from 1.65 to 2.5, which would generally push private schools into higher classifications.
Proposal 16, submitted by Camp Point Central, would restore the previous football playoff format of 32 teams per class, rather than the 48-team format that started this fall.
Another proposal would require a supermajority — at least two-thirds of voting member schools — to pass a proposal, rather than a simple majority.
Geneseo Previously Proposed Its Own Solution
Nichols said Geneseo has already raised concerns with the IHSA about the way non-boundary schools are classified.
Last year, Geneseo submitted its own bylaw proposal that would have adjusted enrollment multipliers according to the population density surrounding a school. The proposal was not placed on the membership ballot.
"We feel that schools in the Chicago area, and other densely populated areas, have significantly more resources and access to students and athletes than those in more rural areas," Nichols said.
He pointed to Newman and IC Catholic in Elmhurst as examples of schools with similar enrollments but substantially different opportunities to attract students and athletes.
Under Geneseo's proposal, the multiplier would have increased progressively as the surrounding population density increased.
Nichols said the district continues to believe non-boundary schools have access to larger potential student populations than traditional public schools, although the appropriate solution remains uncertain.
"We remain of the opinion all non-boundaried schools have a larger pool of possible students and athletes to access and would like to see changes to address that," Nichols said.
A separate track that may not need a vote
There is also a second, separate route to a similar outcome, and it may not require a vote of member schools at all.
The IHSA's Competitive Balance Committee is recommending a policy change that would place all non-boundaried schools in each classification into their own quadrant of the State Series bracket, so that only one private school could advance to the state semifinals in each class, while public and private schools still compete for the same single state championship. That is according to IHSA Executive Director Craig Anderson, speaking to Stateline Sports Network in October.
Because that change would be a board policy, not a by-law amendment, the IHSA Board of Directors could approve it without a member referendum. If approved, it would take effect for the 2027–28 school year and would cover football, boys and girls basketball, volleyball, baseball, softball, and boys and girls soccer.
Anderson told Stateline Sports Network that the committee did not want to completely divide public and private schools into separate tournaments, in part because fully separate tournaments could push private schools to question staying in the association. The concern driving the proposal, he said, is the early rounds: a public school that has not won a regional or sectional in years puts together its best team in a decade, then draws a non-boundaried school that is seen — whether it is fact or perception — as having advantages.
The Chicago Sun-Times' Michael O'Brien has reported there has been "some talk" that the IHSA board could push Proposal 15 through without a referendum vote, according to the State Journal-Register.
Why now
Private schools make up about 12% of IHSA membership, according to Stateline Sports Network, yet seven of the eight 2024 state football champions were private schools — all seven winning by 20 points or more.
The IHSA has already tightened its multiplier waivers sharply in recent years, from around 200 granted in some sports down to roughly 40, according to the same report.
But Nichols cautioned that changing the playoff structure could introduce new competitive disadvantages for public schools.
For example, separating private schools into their own classifications could change the enrollment ranges used to determine where public schools compete.
Geneseo currently competes in Class 3A in several sports with four-class systems. Nichols questioned whether removing private schools from those classifications could push Geneseo into a larger class, potentially placing it against public schools with substantially higher enrollments.
"While the private schools have an advantage so do those schools with 3000+ enrollments," Nichols said.
He said Geneseo needs more information about how classifications would be structured before determining whether the proposed changes would ultimately benefit its student-athletes.
What it would mean for Geneseo
Geneseo is a public, boundary school. Under Proposal 8, the Green Machine would compete in a public-only football playoff. Under Proposal 15, or under the Competitive Balance Committee's quadrant plan, Geneseo would still compete for the same state championship as private schools, but would not meet one until the semifinals at the earliest.
That distinction matters here. Geneseo's football season ended Saturday, Oct. 31, with a 35–12 playoff loss at Lombard Montini, a private school. Montini is now ranked among the state's top 15 teams.
The proposals would also reach beyond football. The quadrant plan, if adopted, would cover boys and girls basketball, volleyball, baseball, softball, and boys and girls soccer — sports in which Geneseo teams regularly meet non-boundary schools in the postseason.
Nichols said the changes could substantially alter the postseason experience for Geneseo athletes, but the effects would depend on the final structure of each proposal.
Under the plans that separate postseason brackets until the semifinals, Geneseo would not encounter a non-boundary opponent until that stage. Under a fully separate system, the teams would not meet in postseason competition.
However, Nichols emphasized that the possibility of moving into higher enrollment classifications must also be considered.
Football Playoff Debate Extends Beyond the Postseason
Proposal 16 would return football to a 32-team playoff field in each class, reversing the expansion to 48 teams that began this fall.
Nichols said the debate over football playoff qualification has consequences extending far beyond the sport itself.
Over the years, he said, schools have changed conferences or left established arrangements because of concerns about their ability to compete in football. Those decisions can affect every other athletic program, sometimes requiring schools to compete against much larger opponents or travel greater distances.
"In some cases it has indirectly punished the schools who have had good success in football by putting them on the outside of conferences that would be better fits for their location and other sports due to schools not wanting to play them in football any longer," Nichols said.
He also expressed concerns about the implementation of the expanded playoff system, including subsequent calendar changes and uncertainty surrounding how the changes would work.
Some schools, he said, favor returning to the previous format while developing a more comprehensive solution. Regardless of the outcome, Nichols said Geneseo's competitive expectations will remain unchanged.
"Our opinion is we will play in whatever system is there and have the same expectations of competing at the highest level possible."
What Happens Next
Nichols emphasized that the public release of a proposal does not guarantee it will appear on the final ballot.
During the town meetings, representatives participate in informal straw polls indicating their level of support. Those results help inform further review. Proposals are also examined for legal concerns and implementation challenges before the IHSA Board of Directors determines which will advance to a membership vote. Nichols said legal considerations are particularly important when proposals would treat private schools differently from public schools. He also noted that IHSA staff members oversee the process, while member schools ultimately determine which proposed bylaws are adopted.
The upcoming schedule includes:
Nov. 5–18: IHSA town meetings for school personnel. Geneseo will attend a meeting in Sterling next week.
Monday, Nov. 23: The IHSA Legislative Commission reconvenes to consider which proposals advance.
Dec. 1–15: Member schools vote on proposals placed on the ballot, with results expected Dec. 16.
2027–28 school year: The earliest the proposed board-policy quadrant change could take effect, if approved.
Nichols said the challenge is developing rules that fairly serve an association encompassing schools with dramatically different enrollments, resources, and communities. He cited large private institutions such as Loyola Academy, Chicago Public Schools, and small rural districts such as Cairo as examples of the wide range of circumstances the IHSA must consider.
"These are extremely different schools that have different needs and making policies that fit all of them is nearly impossible," Nichols said.
For now, Geneseo officials plan to study the proposals and their potential consequences before taking a position.
Nothing has been adopted. The proposals remain under consideration, and the current postseason format remains in place for the 2026–27 school year.
