Football district proposal fails
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The proposal to eliminate conferences and form districts for football scheduling and play-off purposes failed by a vote of 272-379.
Illinois High School member schools passed 12 of 14 amendment proposals. The only other proposal that did not pass would decrease the number of allowable summer contact days between coaches and student-athletes.
“The IHSA board of directors has already had discussions about the potential of forming an ad-hoc committee in 2024 in the event that the district proposal failed to pass,” Craig Anderson, IHSA executive director, said.”They want to be proactive in trying to address the issues that are at at the root of different football proposals seemingly being brought fourth each year. They recognize the myriad issues in IHSA football are unique and can be based on geography, school size conference affiliation and the traditional success of a program, which is why no recent proposals have garnered enough support to pass. There is likely no singular answer to these issues, but the board wants to explore the idea that a large and diverse group from around the state might be able to find some solutions that the high school community in the state would support.”
The 2023 legislative process brought out the largest vote in over a decade as 89 percent of the membership participated in the vote.
The other proposal to fail was limited the number of summer contact days from 25 to 18 days.
Some of the proposals that did pass:
• Allows coaches to conduct out-of-season strength and conditioning workouts more more than four days a week, 90 minutes per session. No skill coaching.
• Allows students to meet the residence requirement when their parent is full at time staff member at a school in a district the student does not reside.
• Modifies the all-star participation to include all sports.
• Creates the opportunity for football teams to conduct a pre-season scrimmage game with another school. Specific scrimmage imitations include: the use of IHSA officials, 4 separate, 12 play segments, no special teams, 48 plays per player, no live contact or thud practice the day before or after the scrimmage, Scrimmage to be held Friday or Saturday for players who have participated in eight different days of practice.
