CARBONDALE - Competition's classroom begins this fall for prep programs across the state, as the Illinois High School Association's enrollment multiplier for non-boundaried schools enters its first trial run.

The IHSA's executive director announced the move to a 1.65 enrollment multiplier for non-boundaried schools with enrollments of 450 and above during the Class AA Boys Basketball State Tournament in Peoria. Marty Hickman said the move was a monumental step in the association's history, and driven by private schools' persistent success against the percentages at the state tournament. It could end up becoming a precursor to a multiple-class system beginning in 2006.

"Based on analysis of the past 10 years, it is evident that, on average, non-boundaried schools with an enrollment of 450 or higher have achieved far greater success in postseason play than boundaried schools of similar size," Hickman said. "We wanted this to be a data-driven proposal, and we believe what we have will support that."

In the last five years, non-boundaried schools, which includes private, charter, residential, lab and magnet schools, have captured over a third of the state championships even though they make up less than 20 percent of the IHSA's 752-school membership. In a study presented at the press conference in Peoria March 19, the IHSA computed an elite eight for Class A and AA using a point system that rewarded schools for winning regional, sectional, super-sectional and state tournament games. Five of the top eight point totals in Class A were from private schools, including the top two - Harrisburg came in No. 3 -- while Class AA had only one in the top eight.

"I don't know if I'm for or against it, I just think if you're playing for the same prize, you should play by the same rules," Murphysboro Athletic Director Len Novara said. "And private schools aren't playing by the same rules."

With the same point system, the IHSA revealed that in the state's six most popular sports, football, volleyball, boys and girls basketball, baseball and softball, four of the top eight successful schools were non-boundaried. Three of the top eight in Class AA were also private, including the top two, just like in Class A. In order to try to level the playing field, the IHSA capped nearly a year of statistical investigation with a unanimous vote for the multiplier. While the move probably won't drastically alter sports under the two-class system, it could level the playing field for football, one of the fiercest issues facing the association.

Jeff Roper, Benton's baseball and football coach and a member of the IHSA's football advisory committee, said the multiplier might have been higher.

"Football is the sport that gets all the publicity because of the private schools, but volleyball has been dominated by private schools, baseball, etc.," he said. "Something had to be done, and this is just one avenue that the committee put a lot of time and effort into, and thought was a compromise. From a football standpoint, we were looking at 1.75. I think it was more than what actually went through."

Five of last year's eight football state champions were private, or non-boundaried schools.

"It's going to be like anything else," Roper said. "Anytime you have change, it's an adjustment period. You might have some schools trying to stay under the standard enrollment of 450. It's gotta help. It's a step in the right direction. Hopefully, it will equal the playing field. When you have eight football champions, and five of them are private schools, something's gotta change."

Carbondale Athletic Director Rick Moss, a former boys basketball coach at Centralia, said the multiplier probably wouldn't impact the biggest tournament of the year for the IHSA.

"Right now, in a two-class system, it's not going to matter, as far as basketball," Moss said. "I think it'll be a big difference in football."

Moss alluded to the future of the IHSA's state playoffs after the multiplier's initial year. Hickman talked openly about the association looking at a multiple-class system that could be implemented as soon as 2006. Every member school will see some sort of proposal for a three or four-class classification in certain or all sports in its annual ballot later this year.

"In basketball, you just have A and AA, but if they go to four divisions, now you better start watching," Moss said. "Carbondale might be a Division II or a Division III. How would Du Quoin mind being inthe same class as Carbondale?"

Hickman said 56 percent of the respondents in last year's ballot to all member schools said they had an interest in a multiple-class system.

"Following our town meetings next year, we'll come back and present more information to the board," Hickman said. "There seems to be more momentum for a multiple-class system in our larger sports. Right now, we probably have the largest single-class tournament in the country with our Class A basketball tournament.

"We like the system, we like the two-class system, but I think we could become accustomed to a four-class system down the road."

Herrin Athletic Director Rod Sherrill, a former assistant coach at Southern Illinois University, dusted off the bottom line of competition regardless of the multiplier's implications.

"I think those same schools are going to win, it'll just be at a higher level," Sherrill said. "But you never know."

todd.hefferman@thesouthern.com

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