Proposed changes coming to IHSAA

FORT WAYNE, Ind. (WANE) - For the last 12 years, the IHSAA has been keeping an eye on an issue that isn't going away.  If anything, it has become more and more prevalent especially after what happened at this year's football tournament - the dominance of private schools.

Since there are no private schools competing in Class 5A, the issue lies in classes 1A-4A.

There are only 22 private schools that compete amongst 315 schools in football.  That's only 11.5% of the membership.  However, the private schools account for 41.8% of the total football championships won (61 of 146).  Bishop Luers just won its 10th state football championship - second most all-time in Indiana history.  Indianapolis Chatard, another private school, owns the record for most state titles with 11.

The Indiana Football Coaches Association will present a proposal Friday to the IHSAA that will hopefull create a more competitive balance in football.  Snider head coach Kurt Tippmann is the Region 3 Director for the IFCA and has been an active part of the committee formed to help create the proposal.

There are three parts to the proposal.  The first part would be the creation of a sixth class.  That class would essentially separate the mega schools in 5A which have dominated (Ben Davis, Carmel, etc.) from the rest of the large schools in the state.

The second part would be a point system that would force tradition-rich schools to move up a class if they continuously make deep playoff runs.  The point system would be spanned across four years.  If a team would reach 10 points in that time, they would be bumped up a class.  Teams would get 5 points for a state championship, 3 for a semi-state title, 2 for a regional crown and 1 for a sectional title.  The points would be revisited every two years.  If after those two years the team hasn't accumulated 10 points, they could drop back down to their original class.

The third part would be seeding the top two teams in sectional play.  By seeding the top two teams, it creates a better possibility that they could meet for the championship game resulting in a bigger fan base would could produce more revenue for the event.

Obviously these are just proposals coming from the IFCA.  Ultimately, the IHSAA has the final decision.  According to Robert Faulkens - Assistant IHSAA Commissioner - if changes are to be made, they would most likely be made across the board, not just to football.  But this is not a new issue for them.  Proposals have been made in the past, but the IHSAA has yet to see a proposal that doesn't have holes in it.  Any changes that would be made would only take effect with the next realignment in the fall of 2013.

One solution that won't happen - the creation of a special class just for private schools.

A special private school class would violate the IHSAA by-laws which could result in possible litigation.