Proposal Season

Here is a look at some of the more interesting proposals getting brought up for this upcoming legislature.

Proposal 8 Summary

• First Transfer: Full eligibility after 30 days if transferring during the school year.

• Additional Transfers: Up to 365 days ineligible, except when returning to home public school or private-to-private before junior year.

• Exception: If no lower-level teams exist, student can play varsity (but no state series).

Goal:

• Allows one-time free transfer without residence change.

• Limits eligibility for multiple transfers.

• Preserves integrity of transfer rules while giving options for schools without lower-level teams.

Proposal 9 Summary

• Eligibility Change: Allows transfer eligibility when a student moves from one parent’s home to the other without requiring legal custody change, if:

  • The new parent has lived in the school’s attendance area (or district for non-boundaried public schools, or within 30 miles for non-public schools) for at least 6 months prior to the move.

Goal:

• Reduces burden on families lacking formal custody documents.

• Addresses disproportionate impact on low-income and minoritized families.

• Still limits choice to two schools (original and new parent’s school) and prevents “school shopping.”

Proposal 14 Summary

• Change: Increase the enrollment multiplier for nonboundaried schools from 1.65 → 2.5.

• Purpose:

  • Addresses competitive balance issues in multi-class sports.

  • Original multiplier was set during two-class era and hasn’t been updated for expanded classifications and population changes.

  • Ensures fairness by accounting for larger recruiting areas of nonboundaried schools.

• Transparency: Schools can view projected classifications before voting.

Proposal 15 Summary

• Change: Introduces a tiered multiplier for non-boundaried schools based on population within a 30-mile radius:

  • Tier 1: 1.50 → Population under 200,000

  • Tier 2: 1.75 → Population 200,000–999,999

  • Tier 3: 2.00 → Population 1,000,000+

Goal:

• Addresses competitive advantage of non-boundaried schools.

• Larger metro areas = more students/resources → higher multiplier.

• Creates equity by linking multiplier to population access.

Proposal 17 Summary

• Change: No pre-set regional host. All regional games played at higher seed’s home.

  • If higher seed can’t host → opponent hosts.

  • If neither can host → closest regional site to higher seed.

Goals & Benefits:

• Rewards Regular Season: Higher seeds earn home advantage.

• Less Travel: Reduces distance, improves safety, saves money.

• Higher Revenue: More home games = more fans, concessions, and gate share.

• Better Bracketing: Seeding matters more; hosting is earned, not assigned.

Proposal 18 Summary

• Change: Start fall sports earlier:

  • Practice begins: Wednesday of Week 5 (instead of Monday of Week 6).

  • First contest: Thursday of Week 7 (instead of Week 8).

Goal:

• Aligns with SMAC health & safety guidelines for acclimatization.

• Provides 12-day acclimation period before first game.

• Allows flexibility for missed practices while meeting minimum requirements.

• Ensures safer, structured preseason and competitive readiness.

Proposal 19 Summary

• Start Date: Football practice remains Monday of Week 6.

• Season End: Still Saturday of Week 21.

• Week 0 → Week 1:

  • Varsity games on Thu/Fri/Sat of Week 0 become official Week 1 games.

  • Lower-level football may start Saturday for two extra practices.

• Regular Season: Still 9 weeks.

• Playoffs:

  • Begin one week earlier (Week 16).

  • Brackets expand:

    • From 256 → 384 teams (48 per class).

    • Classes 1A–6A split into North/South, seeded 1–24; top 8 get byes.

    • Classes 7A–8A seeded 1–48; top 16 get byes.

• Eliminates “Drive for 5” (5 wins for playoff eligibility).

Rationale:

• Aligns with SMAC safety guidelines while adjusting timeline.

• Adds flexibility for acclimatization and competitive fairness.

• Comparative state data shows Illinois is stricter than most states.

Proposal 20 Summary

• Change:

  • Moves football season start earlier.

  • Adds 16 more schools per class to playoffs with first-round byes for top seeds.

  • Introduces Flexed Regional Football System for scheduling instead of fixed conferences:

    • Schools schedule up to 4 games themselves; rest determined regionally.

Goal:

• Fix long-standing scheduling issues.

• Maintain rivalries while creating fairer playoff access.

• Regionalization reduces travel and stabilizes all sports programs, not just football.