McCaravan said:

There have been some great and competitive games between Public and Private this playoff season. LWE/LA, MC/Normal, Fenwick/DGN, DePaul/Coal City, all were one possession games that went down to the end and I'm probably missing a couple more games . Due to the seeding though these games happened in bracket play and seeding teams better would help that....I mean Whitney Young, who got destroyed by Iggy in the Prep Bowl, was the 7A #1 seed.....only reason they moved on to round 2 was because they played fellow CPS, a 4-5 Kenwood, in round 1. But how do we do this? Kenwood was the only 9-0 team. You have to start factoring in Strength of Schedule. I'm sure we will own moan over that too but it's will better divide teams forced to play early on.

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Byron/Montini literally came down to inches at the buzzer.

crazylegs777 said:

Love it. 47-8 final. One of the few things I’d change about the Prep Bowl is have it the week after State on a Friday. Only game in town bigger crowds maybe. Morgan Park would have been a better rep but doubt they beat St.Ignatius but then if you have it a week after state Fenwick or St.Laurence might have been the Catholic rep or possibly Marist. The byes were stupid. St Ignatius should have played 2 games instead of having byes all those weeks in a row then that way finish off 8-6 instead of 6-6. King,South Shore & a few other good teams deserved to be in the City Playoffs.

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I heard Mike Clark say on “Between The Lines” podcast that they’re talking about moving it to the Wednesday before Thanksgiving next year.

Congratulations to former Montini assistant @KylePetros1, & @DePaulPrepFB on the 4a State Championship!!

Dave Brody said:

Yep. Kids getting little time at an 8A school are more than welcome to continue to develop for a smaller private school anytime. The door is always open and if you have a kid who is passionate about a sport (football, baseball, basketball) and is not getting a clear look due to the shear volumes of other kids competing, privates are the way to go.

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Very true. Many of our football players play multiple sports at Chicago Christian. It's one of many advantages of a small school. Incidentally, most of our 9 players that played both ways are legacy students where either Mom, Dad or both had previously attended CC

By the way, when I went for a hot chocolate in the middle of the game, the lady ringing me out at concessions was all over the public/private debate. And I didn’t even ask. “$5 please. This is ridiculous. Public can’t compete with privates. This is going to be another blowout.” It was 21-0 in the first quarter at the time. I had to chuckle to myself. I said yea, we shouldn’t be in 3A and kept it moving.

I agree something needs to be done. But It’s not like Byron and Montini were seeded 1-2 in the north. Montini was the 14 seed overall in 3A this year. 1 to 32 seeding would’ve worked out in this case, but only by luck. A Montini team with 2 losses can just as easily be a 16 seed…. Then they still have Byron in round 2.

Montini really travelled once this playoff, to Princeton. And for me, it sucked. It’s the one playoff game I missed because of family stuff. That’s not even far either. I can’t imagine Round 1 in Litchfield (home of the Fightin’ Gorowski’s) and then round 2 in Cahokia or something like that.

I’m not sure there’s a good answer without getting Montini out of there. But as people pointed out earlier, it’s not like the Sages would’ve given Byron a game either.

rjjtwest said:

Absolutely….. lmao

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That 8a playoff team didn’t beat a single good team to make the playoffs althoff know what they did cherry picking their schedule

RPG24 said:

You mean to tell me that schools that pay the tuitions of elite players beat regular old public school handily ? Shocked

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Every public school player gets free tuition.

The 18th best CCL team running clocked the 2nd best CPS team

Love it. 47-8 final. One of the few things I’d change about the Prep Bowl is have it the week after State on a Friday. Only game in town bigger crowds maybe. Morgan Park would have been a better rep but doubt they beat St.Ignatius but then if you have it a week after state Fenwick or St.Laurence might have been the Catholic rep or possibly Marist. The byes were stupid. St Ignatius should have played 2 games instead of having byes all those weeks in a row then that way finish off 8-6 instead of 6-6. King,South Shore & a few other good teams deserved to be in the City Playoffs.

doctor_d said:

Which game will will be the best?

Which one(s) will be a running clock?

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So far..
1. None
2. All

The game that many (including myself) thought could be the closest with the most likely non 6A public champ was the biggest margin at 47.

5-6 St.Ignatius(6-6) 47 Whitney Young 8 who was 12-1 coming into the Prep Bowl

In between taking care of my mom on her long journey I must throw in the fact 5-6 St.Ignatius destroyed 12-1 Whitney Young 47-8 in the Prep Bowl

Nevada Dude said:

Actually…5-0

Point is this….. should it be separated?

My vote is no. Football is a priority… period!

Public schools need to go against the political grain and have a set of manhood that mirrors the private schools.

Take a look at superintendents and principals. York is there because of their principal who hired not only good teachers… but good coaches.

Private schools have more Latitude..:: and that should change with public schools… like York did.

York/Loyola will tell us all a lot. I’m a big fan of both!

Just watch…..

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What does this even mean? Especially your part about latitude?
Also the part about hiring good coaches?
The coaches that took 2nd in 1A-3A have numerous state championships. Like 12 between the 3 of them.

Alexander32 said:

Yes, but then every year the semifinals of all classes 3A and above will look like 5A this year (and 5A last year).

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No.

AmbroseBlack said:

193-28 point differential in four championship games is wild to me

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Le-Win would’ve beat Maroa, Monticello, and Mt. Zion. I feel like the best teams from the south got beat 2A-4A. The playoff still needs adjustments though.

1-32 1A-8A is a must

Chicago Christian and DePaul are true outliers though because they have never been in that position. But if it’s that easy to gather talent quickly, the Central/south won’t win a 5A or below title for a long time.

AmbroseBlack said:

193-28 point differential in four championship games is wild to me

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olderbytheminute said:

The 5-0 reference was to private schools winning the first 5 title games at ISU and public schools winning 0.
You are obviously referring to the fact that after 5?games are played that private schools will have a 5-1 record.
Two things csn be true at the same time.

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Actually…5-0

Point is this….. should it be separated?

My vote is no. Football is a priority… period!

Public schools need to go against the political grain and have a set of manhood that mirrors the private schools.

Take a look at superintendents and principals. York is there because of their principal who hired not only good teachers… but good coaches.

Private schools have more Latitude..:: and that should change with public schools… like York did.

York/Loyola will tell us all a lot. I’m a big fan of both!

Just watch…..

gobucsgo said:

Shouldn’t it be 5 and 1.

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The 5-0 reference was to private schools winning the first 5 title games at ISU and public schools winning 0.
You are obviously referring to the fact that after 5?games are played that private schools will have a 5-1 record.
Two things csn be true at the same time.

MCCaravan6410 said:

If Catholic and public schools were separated for playoffs, can Catholic schools leave the IHSA and form their own governance?

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Of course they can. Being an IHSA member school is voluntary. If enough private schools left, they could certainly form their own organization.
In fact, it’s been discussed here for years. Do a search on NIPL.

A separate private playoff would be awful. I believe that every CCL/ESCC team should have to play 6A and up. They have the resources and talent rich areas. I think that is more than reasonable. I can see an argument for Marmion, DLS, Leo to be lower.

If Catholic and public schools were separated for playoffs, can Catholic schools leave the IHSA and form their own governance?

You mean to tell me that schools that pay the tuitions of elite players beat regular old public school handily ? Shocked

I’d venture to say Hill told the coach- don’t take me out. This is my last high school game. Let’s go out with a bang! The kid is pretty amazing. It’s been 34 years since Althoff took home the hardware. Let them boys enjoy it.

Brin22 said:

Good strategy. Grab some kids who might be second string at a 8A school and turn them into state champs

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Yep. Kids getting little time at an 8A school are more than welcome to continue to develop for a smaller private school anytime. The door is always open and if you have a kid who is passionate about a sport (football, baseball, basketball) and is not getting a clear look due to the shear volumes of other kids competing, privates are the way to go.