This is the current IHSA rule on what they call "emerging sports."
Guidelines for Adding and Deleting State Series Programs
1. The Board will entertain proposals to add a new state series when ten percent of the member schools engage in regularly scheduled competition in the sport or activity.
This year, I believe 528 teams played varsity football ... around 500 in 11-man eligible for playoffs, plus 25 Chicago Public League Blue Division teams, and 28 in 8-man.
10 percent of 553 is 55.
8-man football participation: 2023) 28, 2022) 27, 2021) 24, 2020 (covid), 2019) 16, 2018) 6, 2017) 5.
In the IHSA standings today, I unofficially counted 42 schools playing 11-man football as a "coop" team.
Obviously, if the 42-coop teams split into individual 8-man football teams, you will then have more than 100 total teams poised to play the 8-man game and it can be part of the IHSA playoff series.
in 2022, the IHSA listed 41 teams as coop teams.
Should the IHSA consider a "coop" division state playoff? I mean, if each of the 28 8-man schools hooked up with a nearby 11-man football school for a coop team, you'd then easily crack the 10 percent threshhold for the IHSA.
The coop division could replace 1A. Then, the other teams in the state would be divided into 7 classes of 32 teams each. You would still have 256 teams playing for one of 8 state titles, just divided differently. And coop-ing would get the 8-man schools that currently are a long way away from becoming a ninth IHSA playoff class into the 8-class mainstream.
Guidelines for Adding and Deleting State Series Programs
1. The Board will entertain proposals to add a new state series when ten percent of the member schools engage in regularly scheduled competition in the sport or activity.
This year, I believe 528 teams played varsity football ... around 500 in 11-man eligible for playoffs, plus 25 Chicago Public League Blue Division teams, and 28 in 8-man.
10 percent of 553 is 55.
8-man football participation: 2023) 28, 2022) 27, 2021) 24, 2020 (covid), 2019) 16, 2018) 6, 2017) 5.
In the IHSA standings today, I unofficially counted 42 schools playing 11-man football as a "coop" team.
Obviously, if the 42-coop teams split into individual 8-man football teams, you will then have more than 100 total teams poised to play the 8-man game and it can be part of the IHSA playoff series.
in 2022, the IHSA listed 41 teams as coop teams.
Should the IHSA consider a "coop" division state playoff? I mean, if each of the 28 8-man schools hooked up with a nearby 11-man football school for a coop team, you'd then easily crack the 10 percent threshhold for the IHSA.
The coop division could replace 1A. Then, the other teams in the state would be divided into 7 classes of 32 teams each. You would still have 256 teams playing for one of 8 state titles, just divided differently. And coop-ing would get the 8-man schools that currently are a long way away from becoming a ninth IHSA playoff class into the 8-class mainstream.
