Crim: QND’s Connell says IHSA changes to address ‘competitive equity’ unfairly penalizes all private schools

QUINCY – The public-private debate is as old as high school athletics itself.

It reached a fever pitch last fall in Illinois when private schools won seven of the eight state football championships.

While insisting that was not the tipping point, the Illinois High School Association Board of Directors has since voted to implement three changes to address what it calls “competitive equity” and to simplify the postseason classification process.

“Lights shine brightly on football, but this is not just a football issue,” IHSA Assistant Executive Director Sam Knox said. “Our schools have felt for several years that changes needed to happen.

“This is not just an Illinois topic. When we talk with other directors, every state in the country is having similar discussions. There isn’t a simple and perfect solution to the classification issue. If there was, that decision would have been made years ago.”

Classes will have predetermined classification cutoffs

Beginning this fall, IHSA sports and activities with multiple classes will return to predetermined classification cutoffs used during the two-class era from 1971 to 2007. It replaces a percentage-based formula created with the move to four classes before the 2007-08 school year that the board believed was creating equity issues in certain sports and activities.

Moreover, classifications will be determined annually rather than over a two-year period. The cutoffs were determined by taking the average cutoff from the past four years, then rounding up or down to the nearest 50 or 100.

The 2025-26 classification information is listed here.

Waiver process for private, non-boundaried schools tightened

Second, the automatic waiver of the 1.65 multiplier applied to the classification enrollment of private or non-boundaried schools is being replaced by an annual waiver process that includes an IHSA staff review.

The multiplier was implemented in 2005. For example, a private school of 1,000 students would count as 1,650 students for classification purposes. However, schools that did not hit certain benchmarks for postseason success could have the multiplier waived.

“Many schools felt like the process was too simplified and that private and non-boundaried schools should have multiplied more than they were,” Knox said.

Now, a private school cannot apply for a waiver if it meets certain benchmarks that vary by sport or activity. For instance, a program that has won a sectional semifinal game in volleyball, baseball, softball or boys and girls basketball and soccer over the course of three years will not be eligible to apply for a waiver.

Neither will a football program that won at least one playoff game in that timeframe.

Success factor adjusted to three-year period

Third, the IHSA is changing its success adjustment policy implemented in 2014 for private schools. The IHSA initially looked at state finals success over a four-year period, then adjusted it to two years. Now, a private school team will move up one class if it wins two state finals trophies over a rolling three-year period.

Of the 804 IHSA member schools, 214 – or 27 percent – are private.

“In a perfect world, our schools would like to see more of a balance between public schools in the state finals and private schools in the state finals,” Knox said. “But we don’t live in a perfect world and teams that win advance, and you can’t control that.

“I don’t think the plan going into next year is a finished product. You can’t look at one year’s numbers to see if it was a successful change or not a successful change. You have to give it time to grow and see how the whole process plays out. I can see it continuing to evolve.”

‘If there are bad apples, penalize those people’

Quincy Notre Dame is the only private/non-boundaried school in this area. Athletic Director Bill Connell, who has spent 33 years at the school, believes all private schools are being unfairly lumped together in search of a solution to a problem created by a few.

“We feel like we’re a valued member of the Illinois High School Association,” he said. “We feel like we represent them well. We follow the rules and regulations to a T. We strive every day of the week to get things right at this school.

“If there are bad apples, whether public or private, penalize those people. Do it across the board, not just one group of people. I don’t understand why Quincy Notre Dame in the middle of nowhere in West-Central Illinois is being penalized.”

Many of the rules put in place before and now have been meant to address the recruitment of student-athletes, although that practice is far more prevalent in metropolitan areas – in terms of both public and private schools – than it is in more remote places like Quincy.

QND has achieved considerable success across its athletic programs in the past 70 years but has done so with predominantly homegrown talent that came through the city’s parochial elementary schools.

Look through the rosters over the years, and you’ll find many of the same names – fathers and sons, mothers and daughters, aunts and uncles, grandparents and grandchildren. The tradition built by dozens of coaches has meant success has largely endured generation to generation.

“Quincy is different,” Connell said. “If we start driving the streets recruiting kids, we’re going to start hearing it from Quincy Senior High.

“We have 400 kids here most school years. We work extremely hard to have success. You want to win. You want to have success. We’re not going to apologize for that.”

Some QND sports to get bumped up one class, others won’t

QND has 399 students for classification purposes for the next school year, only 50 more than Pittsfield High School, the next largest small school in the area. But with the multiplier, QND will have a classification enrollment of 658 students – twice that of Pittsfield.

That means with the new classification cutoffs this fall, the boys golf and both cross-country teams will be bumped up from Class 1A to 2A, while boys soccer will remain in 1A. Those sports have only three classes.

Meanwhile, girls volleyball will stay in Class 2A and girls golf, with just two classes, will remain in Class 1A.

“Look over the history of the Quincy Notre Dame cross-country program and tell me why we’re getting bumped up a class,” Connell said. “There are no state trophies from cross-country in our trophy case.”

Football classifications are not settled until the regular season is complete. The smallest 32 playoff eligible teams are classified as 1A, the next 32 as 2A, and so on until all eight brackets are filled.

QND has made the playoffs and won at least one game in each of the previous two seasons in Class 2A, which means the Raiders will likely be bumped to either Class 3A or Class 4A should they qualify this fall, competing against schools with much higher enrollments.

QND reached the state football playoffs 21 times in Connell’s 26 seasons as head coach before he stepped down following the 2017 season. The Raiders were in Class 2A twice, Class 3A four times and Class 4A for all the rest.

“Speaking as a guy who wore that hat for a long time, going from a 3A football game to a 4A football game is dramatically different,” Connell said. “Once you get to 4A playoff football, teams roll out 11 dudes who play offense and another 11 dudes who play defense.

“We also offer soccer, cross-country and golf (in the fall), so our male athletes are spread a little thinner than most schools with 400 students.”

The QND girls basketball team has won nine state trophies, including four titles, since the 2007-08 school year – five in Class 2A and four in Class 3A. With three trophies in the past four years, the Raiders will remain in 3A next season against schools with enrollments of between 700 and 1,600, even though the boys team will be in 2A.

“I do understand why we’re in 3A because we had recent success,” Connell said. “I don’t agree with it, but I understand why. They call it the success factor. We’ve earned the opportunity to get that.”

The QND girls soccer program has won seven state trophies since 2010, including six titles, with the last coming in 2022. The boys team has won four trophies (and three championships) since 2011, the most recent also in 2022.

“What do I think is fair? I think all schools should be treated equally,” Connell said. “If you’re going to penalize private schools for winning too much, then penalize public schools for winning too much. I don’t agree with penalizing all programs and schools in one category because some can’t get it right.

“There has been a lot of listening on the public side and I’m not sure there has been a lot of listening on the private side. But we can’t dwell on the things we have been talking about. We have to work hard to compete and compete within the rules that have been handed down.”