District football vote: Either you’re all in, don’t like it, or not sure

When it comes to the IHSA district football proposal, you were either all in, didn’t like it or just not sure.

Those that were in favor said it would have alleviated scheduling concerns and stabilized conferences.

Those that opposed it did not like the many unknowns that came with the proposal, including travel and opponents.

Mercer County athletic director Dustin Murray summed up those sentiments best, saying “The uncertainty of what the district would look like was the ultimate factor. We are not going to buy a car without at least looking it over. I could not vote for districts without having a proposal of what our district would be.”

It was announced Tuesday that Proposal 18, a submission that would have instituted an IHSA district football scheduling and playoff system that would replace the current conference-based system, was voted down after an IHSA-membership vote of 379-272. There were 76 schools who did not vote.

Of the 20 schools who responded to the BCR poll, 11 voted against the proposal and nine voted in favor of it.

We are not going to buy a car without at least looking it over. I could not vote for districts without having a proposal of what our district would be.”

—  Dustin Murray, Aledo Mercer County AD

Here are area schools who voted yes and their reasons why:

Bureau Valley - “Districts are what we have needed at BV for awhile now,” Storm coach Mat Pistole said. “It simplifies the changing landscape with the emergence of 8-man football. It’s getting too hard to keep travel down while also playing schools your own size. Districts also take the politics out of the whole conference thing and can allow other sports to keep alliances that make sense for all sports besides football.”

Erie - “I believe it will help stabilize conferences,” Erie AD Brian Howell said.

Kewanee - “The rationale of the proposal was to help stabilize conferences,” Kewanee AD Tim Atwell said. “With having districts, schools would no longer need to switch conferences to be chasing the fifth win to get into the playoffs. The (Three Rivers Conference) has struggled with schools leaving. If the proposal passes, the hope would be that the conference would become more stable.”

LaSalle-Peru - “I am all for it,” La Salle-Peru coach Jose Medina said. “Districts would eliminate the issue of teams jumping from conference to conference, makes scheduling easier and schools would play schools of equal size.”

Marquette - “We voted for districts. It’s too hard to get games,” AD Todd Hopkins said.

Mendota - “It could help calm down the constant conference realignment issues,” Mendota coach Keegan Hill said. “The current uncertainty from year to year makes things difficult for administration, coaches and athletic programs as a whole.”

Ottawa - “It’s very difficult for us to fill games and not travel 3-plus hours to play,” Ottawa coach Mike Cooper said. “Nobody wants in our conference for the other 20 sports we have because nobody wants to play football with our conference teams. Hopefully, with districts it will allow us to get back to stabilizing conferences and stop with all of the movement.”

Rockridge - “We’d be able to play like enrollment-sized/numbered schools,” Rockets coach Sam Graves said. “I’m guessing ones that won’t want it to pass are the bigger schools in our conference who like playing smaller schools. It’s driving out all of the smaller-sized schools in our conference.”

St. Bede - “We hoped it would happen. Too much conference moving and uncertainty statewide,” St. Bede coach Jim Eustice said.

Here area area schools who voted no and reasons why:

Dixon - “At this point, we have a closed conference (10 teams) and do not have any issues with scheduling. In addition, our travel is not an issue in our conference and there are fears that if we move to districts our travel will increase,” Dixon principal Jared Shaner said.

Geneseo - Geneseo AD Joe Nichols said there are many reasons the Maple Leafs voted against it, including: “It puts a great deal of pressure on the IHSA to run and develop and I don’t believe they are capable of taking this on, plus there are many factors that could change things; local schools have control of their regular season in all sports across the state - this essentially makes the postseason your entire season and will ruin certain schools experiences without them having any control over it; and it does not directly address the issue of why schools drive for five (wins). We could simply eliminate the drive for five (or four and add all schools to the postseason like every single sport in the IHSA) rather than completely blow up a system that has been pretty special for many years ... Also, there are not enough football playing schools to field a 512-team system as this by-law dictates. Do we not think that certain 1A schools will see their district and then declare to be 8 man? This doesn’t even address the issue of what levels do we offer and when or the oversight a conference has on gamely services and expectations. It’s a solution for a problem that is 6 inches in front of our face without looking further down the road.”

Mercer County - “The uncertainty of what the district would look like was the ultimate factor. We are not going to buy a car without at least looking it over. I could not vote for districts without having a proposal of what our district would be,” said Mercer County AD Dustin Murray, whose Golden Eagles will join the Three Rivers next year.

Monmouth-Roseville - “I’m not against the idea at all, but it likely will not be better for us to travel wise or competition level, which led to our (no vote),” Mon-Rose coach/AD Jeremy Adolphson said.

Morrison - “We voted no due to our schedule already being set for the next two years and not wanting to break a newly made contract,” Mustangs coach Nathan Vandermyde said. “We in essence districted ourselves moving to the NUIC. The proposal was vague on how districts would be made since there is not a perfect number for IHSA to split into even districts. There was no explanation on how that would be addressed.”

Princeton - “Honestly, I don’t like all of the unknowns that come with this proposal,” PHS coach Ryan Pearson said. “If I knew exactly who would be in our district, what our travel would be, how many nonconference games we would be allowed, etc., I would be more inclined to vote for it. Until those questions are answered, my vote would be no.”

Sherrard - “We voted against districts. Too many unknowns. I really think we should be able to see the finished product to know exactly what we are voting on,” Sherrard coach Brandon Johnston said. “For us, we would likely lose our three most important local rivals and only have those two open weeks to try to schedule those three teams. Looking at a few of the projections, the travel for us would likely be terrible, and especially having to do that on a Monday night for a F/S game is not in the best interest of our kids, our school, our parents, community members, etc. I’m not necessarily opposed to the idea of districts, but I’m not a fan of this particular proposal and how it would likely look for us. I just really think it’s silly that we vote on something that we don’t really know what it looks like. And probably more important than anything, it’s important in my opinion to play those local rivals. It’s good for kids, schools, communities, etc.”

Stark County - “We like our current situation, think this proposal leaves too many questions unanswered and we’re not in favor of giving the state so much control over our schedule,” Stark County coach Jade Noard said.

Wethersfield - “It doesn’t have any substance on the proposal that gives us a clear understanding of what districts will look like,” Wethersfield AD Tom McGunnigal said. “The proposal as it is written puts everything onto the IHSA and we have no clear definition of who we may be playing. Almost 16 CPS schools have to agree to join the playoffs and that doesn’t seem plausible. It doesn’t account for multiplier or success rearranging the districts they create one year. The proposal claims to take out the ‘winnable games to get to the playoffs making it seem like the district is the only way to go to the playoffs, but clearly they account all nine games as the proposal is written.”

Note: Wethersfield’s co-op partner, Annawan, also voted no. Hall and Rock Falls declined comment. Sterling and Newman did not respond.