“You never heard a football player ask to play less football games.”
That is a comment that has been uttered multiple times by Paxton-Buckley-Loda High School head football coach Josh Pritchard, whose school was one of 33 to sponsor a proposal for an expansion of the IHSA football playoffs.
The proposal, which was put together at Roxana High School last fall, passed through an all-school ballot by IHSA member schools during the annual by-law referendum process that concluded on Dec. 15, 2025. The voting was independently certified on the morning of Dec. 16.
As a result of the vote, the playoffs will expand from 256 qualifying teams to 384, with the number of qualifiers in each class expanding from 32 to 48.
“We thought that was something that needed to happen. We’re happy it passed,” Pritchard said. “They always want to play more. I think anytime you can give kids the chance to play more games in high school in a sport that most of them never play afterwards is a huge benefit.”
The expansion will likely allow teams that finished with 3-6 or 2-7 records to qualify for the playoffs. In the past system, six wins clinches a playoff berth and teams with five wins are eligible.
Pritchard said his team will aim for better records in the coming years.
“We’re still going to try to get to nine wins in the regular season, and we’ll see how the bracket falls from there,” Pritchard said. “We want to go into every season and win as many games as possible.”
Under the new playoff system, classes 1A-6A will be split into North and South brackets, seeded 1-24. The top eight teams in each bracket will receive a first-round bye.
“I think that bye is big,” Pritchard said. “I know some people don’t like it, but I think it can be beneficial to a team late in the year.”
The PBL school district is one of 377 that voted yes on the proposal while 252 voted no and 96 had no opinion.
“Sixty percent of the schools in the state thought it was a good thing,” Pritchard said. “I know change is something that a lot of people don’t like, but sometimes change is good. This was a change that we feel would be a benefit to our program here at PBL, and that’s why we voted yes on it.”
Last fall, PBL went 4-5, missing the playoffs for the first time since 2013.
As of Dec. 17, PBL’s lone scheduled game outside of the Illini Prairie Conference is a home game against Gibson City-Melvin-Sibley, which finished with an 8-3 record last fall. If the schedule stays as is, it will be the first time the two Ford County schools will face each other since 2019.
“It’s obviously going to be a tough competition we’ll looking forward to next year,” Pritchard said. “Maybe it changes our schedule. Our schedule’s tough, but it’s nothing we’re going to hide from. We don’t back down from anybody. We still have some tough teams.”
There are no changes to the number of playoff classes in football, which remains at eight. The season start date remains the same (Aug. 10, 2026), but the first regular-season games will be played one week earlier (Aug. 20, 2026), eliminating the Week 0 scrimmage.
“Too often throughout the years, football decisions have negatively impacted other sports at IHSA schools,” said IHSA Executive Director Craig Anderson. “We are hopeful that this football playoff expansion will provide intended relief to our schools by stabilizing conference movement and eliminating the difficulty of scheduling football games that many of our schools face each year. It may create some short-term complications for some schools, conferences, and coaches, but we remain optimistic it will create long-term stability in football and beyond.”
The IHSA member schools approved all 12 amendment proposals that appeared on the all-school ballot.
Other significant changes include the IHSA Board of Directors expanding from 11 elected members to 15 elected members, with four new seats being created specifically for superintendents (or presidents, heads of school, etc.). Cooperative sports teams made-up of 3,500 students or more will no longer be eligible to compete for IHSA State Series team awards, while the IHSA’s no-contact period in the summer will be moved from early August to the week of the Fourth of July beginning this summer.
Another passed proposal provides students with the ability to compete in two non-school competitions in that sport during the high school season. A third non-school competition is also allowed if the competition is sanctioned by the national governing body of that sport.
Another passed proposal allowed each school to participate in one football combine that is free of charge to attendees. Schools may organize and transport up to 20 students to attend the combine.
A proposal to move the start of softball season up one week was also passed. Practices may now begin on Feb. 23, 2026, with contests being allowed to start on March 9.
Another passed proposal moved the start and end of the girls wrestling season up multiple week. This proposal will go into effect for the 2026-27 season.
Another passed proposal modifies the suspension for ejection by players in tackle football for flagrant contact to have a video review process to clarify the accuracy of the judgment call. IHSA staff will review video sent by a school and make a recommendation to the executive director to affirm the call on the field or overturn and return a student to their next contest.
More than 90 percent of the IHSA’s 802 member high schools took part in the 2025 voting process.