Benefit or detriment? Central Illinois football coaches weigh in on recently-expanded playoffs

Metamora's Nick Delinski coaches from the sidelines. Photo provided.

The state of high school football in Illinois flipped upside down on Dec. 16 and has set off a wide-spanning chain of reactions. 

Beginning in the 2026 season, the playoff fields in all eight classes will be expanded from 32 to 48 teams, which will allow nearly all teams that finish 4-5 and many others that finished 3-6 or 2-7 to qualify. 

Among the other changes voted on by representatives of member schools during the IHSA’s referendum process are eliminating the “Week 0” scrimmages while keeping the official first day of practice the same and changing the dead period, where no official practices are allowed, from August to the week of July 4 each year. 

Despite the vote passing by a 377-252 margin, with 96 schools voting “no opinion”, the widespread public reception to the upcoming changes have not been positive.

Dee-Mack head coach Cody Myers is in that camp. 

“We're a school that beats their chest over the consistency of the tradition for so long,” Myers said. “You're going to have to win the play-in game to get the notoriety and respect.”

However, others see it as a welcome pathway for teams who play in strong conferences to prove themselves in the postseason and notch an elusive playoff berth. Sam Durley, in his second season at East Peoria, a team that has finished 4-5 in back-to-back seasons and hasn’t made the playoffs since 2012, spoke in favor of it. 

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