Last week’s lopsided IHSA state football championship games, which saw private schools win seven of the eight titles and outscore public school opponents 283-76 in six head-to-head blowouts, has brought the association’s non-boundaried enrollment multiplier to the forefront of conversation.
Currently, private schools’ enrollments are multiplied by 1.65 if the school has won more than three playoff games in the previous two seasons. If a parochial school has won less than three postseason games over the previous two years, the multiplier is waived and it competes in the classification that its true enrollment puts them in.
The 1A-4A state championships were all won by schools competing without the multiplier. Althoff beat Lena-Winslow 57-14 in 1A, Chicago Christian blanked Maroa-Forsyth 47-0 in 2A, Montini hammered Monticello 49-8 in 3A, and DePaul Prep crushed Mt. Zion 40-6 in 4A.
IHSA Executive Director Craig Anderson told WRMJ the association’s Board of Directors will discuss the football multiplier waiver at this month’s meeting. He says an update to the process could be implemented as soon as next school year, with 2025-26 marking the start of a new enrollment cycle.
Anderson hopes the IHSA never implements a separate state series for public and private schools.
Anderson will be a guest on WRMJ’s Sportsline program Saturday at 9 a.m., to dive deeper into the debate.