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Private schools won seven of Illinois' eight state football championships last fall. Six times they went head-to-head vs. public schools. They won all six by the 40-point mercy rule.
The smallest four champions — Belleville Althoff in 1A, Chicago Christian in 2A, Lombard Montini in 3A and Chicago DePaul in 4A — all played in a smaller class after getting an automatic waiver from the IHSA's 1.65 attendance multiplier for non-boundary schools.
"When I first started, we could line up and compete evenly with teams that are multiplied," said Stillman Valley coach Mike Lalor, who has not gotten past the second round of the playoffs since winning his fifth state title 11 years ago. "Now public schools are fighting just not to be 40-pointed. The gap has grown exponentially."
The IHSA is trying to close that gap. The state has tinkered often with its multiplier rule, usually making it more lenient. Its latest change brings it back to more like it was when Rockford Lutheran — a Class 1A girls basketball team the last two years — played in Class 3A for eight years.
More: Illinois high school basketball playoffs are not always fair. Here are 5 reasons why
More: 'Everybody should live by the multiplier'
The IHSA made minor changes in two other classification rules for the 2025-26 school year.
The success factor has been tweaked to a rolling three-year period, with private schools moving up a class regardless of their enrollment if they have won two state trophies in that span. And classes now have a predetermined cutoff: 300 for Class 1A, 700 for 2A and 1,600 for 3A in basketball, baseball, softball and girls volleyball.
“Everyone just wants to see an equitable situation here and see competitive games in the state playoffs,” Byron football coach Jeff Boyer said. “They realized the balance is out of whack and are trying to get that back in order."
But the big change is putting more teeth into the multiplier. That rule had been weakened, almost from its start. Illinois first voted to adopt the multiplier in 2005, but 37 private schools sued and were granted a court injunction.
When the rule later passed, the state's 130 private schools and open-enrollment public schools had every 100 of their students count as 165. But they could apply for a waiver for any sport that had not won three regional titles in the previous six years. That soon changed to an automatic waiver. And you basically had to be a top-10 team in the state to get hit with the multiplier.
The time period to get moved up due to pass success then dropped from six years to four years. Then two years.
The latest standard for an automatic waiver had been not winning a state trophy in the previous two years, or a sectional title (final eight in state) in one of those years and a regional in the other. In football, you needed to win three playoff games in two years, but not not until the end of that two-year period. That's how Lombard Montini could avoid the multiplier and beat Byron in a 3A playoff rematch after losing to Byron in the 2023 state semifinals.
Now the window is one year. Teams are not eligible if they won a sectional semifinal — one game less than before. And applying for a waiver doesn't necessarily mean getting it.
Montini, which reached the state title game eight times in 10 years in 5A and 6A, may have been able to move down to 3A after three losing seasons. But maybe not. The Broncos would have had to pitch their case to the IHSA. The same is true of Boylan's basketball teams, with Boylan now well under the 700 cutoff for Class 2A.
IHSA executive director Craig Anderson said member schools were "nearly unanimous" in being unhappy with nearly 90 percent of private school teams getting waivers. He said "this new two-tier process" will make things more equal.
“It’s a step in the right direction,” Lalor said. “I am not sure why they took the multiplier away. I am glad to have it back. I would like to see it applied full time. It’s pretty obvious that it is needed. The football finals were hard to watch. When you see the public schools get handled the way they got handled, something is definitely wrong.”
Local coaches are almost unanimous in saying this will make the playing field more level in Illinois.
"But there is still more work to be done," Pecatonica boys basketball coach Bobby Heisler said.
"Illinois is about 12 percent private schools," Boyer said. "If the average number of state champions reflected that percentage, we would have balance. To me that's pretty simple. That's the way it should look."
While former changes made it harder for Rockford-area public schools like Byron and Lena-Winslow to win football titles, this move will make it harder for Rockford Lutheran to win in girls basketball. After most of her best teams were in 3A, Joni Carlson saw the Crusaders drop to 1A the last two years. They return virtually their entire team from a squad that had a chance to take the lead against eventual state champion Pecatonica in the final two minutes of the sectional final.
But its sectional semifinal win two days earlier under the new rules bumps Lutheran back to 2A next year.
“We could have made a really good run," Carlson said. "It's almost comical how the stars have never aligned for us. But I don’t think I am entitled to anything. I’ve been here 22 years and the last two years were the only years we were ever in 1A. It’s not like we ever got used to it. I just want to know what it will be. I never would have guessed that one sectional win would get us.”
Carlson isn't the only one who wants to finally have continuity with the multiplier.
“Just do the multiplier and let it alone,” said Orangeville girls basketball coach Jay Doyle. “It’s better now than it was, but there will be another change in two years because of the pushback they will get from this one. It’s like they are the step parent and are trying to make every kid happy.
“If you just did the multiplier, it solves everything. Every school and every kid would know where they are at every year. It is what it is and it’s the rules you play by.”
Matt Trowbridge is a Rockford Register Star sports reporter. Email him at [email protected]. Follow him on X, formerly Twitter, at @MattTrowbridge.
This article originally appeared on Rockford Register Star: Rockford coaches like 2025-26 IHSA changes on private school multiplier
Continue reading...
The smallest four champions — Belleville Althoff in 1A, Chicago Christian in 2A, Lombard Montini in 3A and Chicago DePaul in 4A — all played in a smaller class after getting an automatic waiver from the IHSA's 1.65 attendance multiplier for non-boundary schools.
"When I first started, we could line up and compete evenly with teams that are multiplied," said Stillman Valley coach Mike Lalor, who has not gotten past the second round of the playoffs since winning his fifth state title 11 years ago. "Now public schools are fighting just not to be 40-pointed. The gap has grown exponentially."
The IHSA is trying to close that gap. The state has tinkered often with its multiplier rule, usually making it more lenient. Its latest change brings it back to more like it was when Rockford Lutheran — a Class 1A girls basketball team the last two years — played in Class 3A for eight years.
More: Illinois high school basketball playoffs are not always fair. Here are 5 reasons why
More: 'Everybody should live by the multiplier'
The IHSA made minor changes in two other classification rules for the 2025-26 school year.
The success factor has been tweaked to a rolling three-year period, with private schools moving up a class regardless of their enrollment if they have won two state trophies in that span. And classes now have a predetermined cutoff: 300 for Class 1A, 700 for 2A and 1,600 for 3A in basketball, baseball, softball and girls volleyball.
“Everyone just wants to see an equitable situation here and see competitive games in the state playoffs,” Byron football coach Jeff Boyer said. “They realized the balance is out of whack and are trying to get that back in order."
IHSA restoring the intent of multiplier rules?
But the big change is putting more teeth into the multiplier. That rule had been weakened, almost from its start. Illinois first voted to adopt the multiplier in 2005, but 37 private schools sued and were granted a court injunction.
When the rule later passed, the state's 130 private schools and open-enrollment public schools had every 100 of their students count as 165. But they could apply for a waiver for any sport that had not won three regional titles in the previous six years. That soon changed to an automatic waiver. And you basically had to be a top-10 team in the state to get hit with the multiplier.
The time period to get moved up due to pass success then dropped from six years to four years. Then two years.
The latest standard for an automatic waiver had been not winning a state trophy in the previous two years, or a sectional title (final eight in state) in one of those years and a regional in the other. In football, you needed to win three playoff games in two years, but not not until the end of that two-year period. That's how Lombard Montini could avoid the multiplier and beat Byron in a 3A playoff rematch after losing to Byron in the 2023 state semifinals.
Now the window is one year. Teams are not eligible if they won a sectional semifinal — one game less than before. And applying for a waiver doesn't necessarily mean getting it.
Montini, which reached the state title game eight times in 10 years in 5A and 6A, may have been able to move down to 3A after three losing seasons. But maybe not. The Broncos would have had to pitch their case to the IHSA. The same is true of Boylan's basketball teams, with Boylan now well under the 700 cutoff for Class 2A.
IHSA executive director Craig Anderson said member schools were "nearly unanimous" in being unhappy with nearly 90 percent of private school teams getting waivers. He said "this new two-tier process" will make things more equal.
“It’s a step in the right direction,” Lalor said. “I am not sure why they took the multiplier away. I am glad to have it back. I would like to see it applied full time. It’s pretty obvious that it is needed. The football finals were hard to watch. When you see the public schools get handled the way they got handled, something is definitely wrong.”
How Northern Illinois high school coaches see public vs. private classifications
Local coaches are almost unanimous in saying this will make the playing field more level in Illinois.
"But there is still more work to be done," Pecatonica boys basketball coach Bobby Heisler said.
"Illinois is about 12 percent private schools," Boyer said. "If the average number of state champions reflected that percentage, we would have balance. To me that's pretty simple. That's the way it should look."
While former changes made it harder for Rockford-area public schools like Byron and Lena-Winslow to win football titles, this move will make it harder for Rockford Lutheran to win in girls basketball. After most of her best teams were in 3A, Joni Carlson saw the Crusaders drop to 1A the last two years. They return virtually their entire team from a squad that had a chance to take the lead against eventual state champion Pecatonica in the final two minutes of the sectional final.
But its sectional semifinal win two days earlier under the new rules bumps Lutheran back to 2A next year.
“We could have made a really good run," Carlson said. "It's almost comical how the stars have never aligned for us. But I don’t think I am entitled to anything. I’ve been here 22 years and the last two years were the only years we were ever in 1A. It’s not like we ever got used to it. I just want to know what it will be. I never would have guessed that one sectional win would get us.”
Carlson isn't the only one who wants to finally have continuity with the multiplier.
“Just do the multiplier and let it alone,” said Orangeville girls basketball coach Jay Doyle. “It’s better now than it was, but there will be another change in two years because of the pushback they will get from this one. It’s like they are the step parent and are trying to make every kid happy.
“If you just did the multiplier, it solves everything. Every school and every kid would know where they are at every year. It is what it is and it’s the rules you play by.”
Matt Trowbridge is a Rockford Register Star sports reporter. Email him at [email protected]. Follow him on X, formerly Twitter, at @MattTrowbridge.
This article originally appeared on Rockford Register Star: Rockford coaches like 2025-26 IHSA changes on private school multiplier
Continue reading...
