A few days ago I posted Part I of my suggestions to fix the high school sports system and that was to eliminate half of the classes. So for Illinois high school football there would be four instead of eight and all other sports would have two. However, as much as I wish that would happen, I don't think it will anytime soon and that brings me to Part II of how to fix the system. If the IHSA wants more classes then I propose that they go to three classes and make two for public schools and one for private schools. They could make a small school division and a large school division and then the private schools could be grouped together in a third class. It makes perfect sense and I would have no arguments to that change.
As it is now, the IHSA has struggled mightily with what to with private schools. They have based their class solely on enrollment but for a short time private schools were placed in the class system by the multiplier rule. That meant that the IHSA looked at the average enrollment of their opponents and place them accordingly. That's a good way to do it but it's not the best. The best way is to separate the public and private schools completely when it comes playoff time because of the recruiting factor. Private schools have the ability to recruit players to their school and it doesn't matter where your address is. Public schools don't have that benefit and that can make the differences of the rosters very glaring.
If the high school heads separate the private schools it would level the playing field. Now I understand that public schools bring in a higher enrollment typically but the ability to "recruit" kids to their school is such a greater advantage. Think about the talent some of these schools can bring in and it's much easier to build a powerhouse program that way. I am not naive enough to think that some public schools aren't bringing in a few kids from out of the district but there are consequences for that. Separation is the best thing.
Or is it?
What about changing the rules so that all schools can recruit kids who live within 30 miles of their school? That seems fair and it would surely balance it all out. However, I can not see this happening any time soon. I do think it would be a positive move for high school sports but perhaps it opens up more cheating. I don't know and we can't know until they try it out. Yet, it seems this would be a great move.
As I stated at the very beginning of this discussion I loved high school sports and I think they are great, but I think there are a few things that could change for the better. If half of the classes were eliminated and public and private schools were separated in the playoffs then that would make all high school sports better. I doubt either of these things will happen because separating the public and private schools is too much work and eliminating classes would mean loss of money. Still, it seems to be best for sport and shouldn't that be what matters most?
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