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Prep football playoffs: Who's up, who's out, proposed changes

Still chewing over those playoff football pairings?

So are we. So's the entire state.

It's an interesting set of brackets the IHSA unveiled Saturday. This week's Eyes on Five does a little dissecting.

Look to the West:

No shift in the brackets created more of a stir than Glenbard West's bump up to Class 8A from its traditional place in 7A. After seven straight years in 7A, this marks the Hilltoppers' first appearance in 8A.

Other than Benet, also making its first 8A appearance, Glenbard West is the smallest school in the 8A field.

That one move transfers the balance of power from 7A to 8A. A look at the northern bracket of 8A shows the immense impact a single team can make.

All three unbeaten teams in 8A — Glenbard West, Maine South and Stevenson — are in the northern 16-team bracket. That's in addition to Loyola and Oak Park, two teams that spent the bulk of the season in the state rankings.

Among the factors causing the shift was the disappointing season in the DuPage Valley Conference. Glenbard North and Naperville North, in particular, have been mainstays in the 8A bracket. Their absence helped push up Glenbard West.

How will the move affect the Hilltoppers' run at a third championship? Time will tell as Glenbard West faces a minefield littered with some of the state's top teams.

Tough end:

I feel horribly for Lake Park and Wheaton Academy, the two DuPage County teams missing the playoffs despite 5-4 records. A total of 22 five-win teams wound up on the wrong side of the bubble because of a shortage of tiebreaking playoff points.

Both teams eyed their first playoff appearance since 2009, but instead they'll have to wait til next year.

Lake Park, in its second season in the DuPage Valley Conference, boasted one of the league's top defenses but struggled to find offensive consistency. The Lancers lost all four games by only a touchdown, but with 38 playoff points they were 2 points shy of locking up a playoff berth.

The DVC's nonconference struggles and playing only one nonconference team with a winning record combined to keep Lake Park on the outside looking in.

Wheaton Academy's situation was far more heartbreaking. The Warriors were the first team out — Team No. 257 in a field of 256.

Aurora Christian secured the final playoff spot despite having the same 5-4 record and the same number of playoff points (39) as Wheaton Academy. The IHSA had to go deep into the tiebreakers to choose Aurora Christian based on the Eagles playing one more team that made the playoffs than the Warriors.

Losing four of five games to close the season obviously hurt Wheaton Academy, as well as a nonconference slate of teams with only one winning record.

Five wins is always a scary proposition this time of year. It also can be devastating.

Submit:

On Tuesday the IHSA released the 16 bylaw amendment proposals submitted by principals throughout the state. If voted for by the majority of member schools, some would have a major impact on football.

We'll dig deeper into the proposals in the coming weeks, but here's a brief recap of the heavy hitters:

• Proposal No. 9, submitted by Sycamore principal Tim Carlson, tasks the IHSA at dividing the state into regions of eight, nine and 10 schools apiece for only football. It'd help eliminate the conference jumping that's occurred the last handful of years and put football scheduling in the hands of the IHSA.

• Proposal No. 6, submitted by Willowbrook principal Dan Krause on behalf of the West Suburban Conference, eliminates the bylaw that multiplies the enrollment of non-boundaried schools for the purpose of playoff classification. All schools would be classified by actual enrollment.

— Proposal No. 7, also submitted by Krause, is potentially earth-shattering. It creates separate state competition series in all sports for public and non-boundaried schools. Public schools no longer would face private schools in the playoffs.

After the IHSA Legislative Commission discusses the proposals at its Nov. 3 meeting, town meetings will be held throughout the state Nov. 6-Nov. 19. The commission meets again Nov. 24 to decide which proposals to submit for a vote among the IHSA general membership, and voting takes place Dec. 1-Dec. 30.

What's missing?:

As of Saturday's football pairings announcement by the IHSA, it was expected that a proposal to change the seeding procedure for the playoffs was going to be included in Tuesday's announcement. But it wasn't there.

Between 1996 and 2001, each football class was seeded 1-to-32 or 1-to-16 depending on geography. Between 2002 and 2005 the brackets were divided into quadrants of eight to reduce travel, but since 2006 some classes have been divided 1-to-16.

The anticipated proposal would have returned the brackets to straight 1-to-32 seeding in each class. According to the IHSA, though, the proposal was withdrawn.

It's an interesting turn of events because returning to 1-to-32 seeding is a mighty popular idea north of Interstate 80.

Of all the proposals, it may have had the best chance of being voted in by the member schools.

Stat time:

In its fifth year as a varsity program, Metea Valley is one of four schools in the state making its first playoff appearance. The Mustangs join Joliet West, Solorio Academy and Bowen as postseason first-timers.

At the other end of the spectrum, seven football teams extended streaks of consecutive appearances dating back at least 20 years. The list includes Mt. Carmel (29 straight appearances), Stevenson (26), St. Joseph-Ogden (24), Bolingbrook (23), Maine South (23), Montini (22) and Tolono Unity (21).

Follow Kevin on Twitter @kevin_schmit

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