New Sectional Proposals a Reality after IHSA Board of Executive approval

By Michael Newman

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The IHSA Board of Executives approved on Monday the Consent Items that the Cross Country Advisory Committee approved in their annual meeting in January.

IHSA ANNOUNCEMENT

The main change in the 2020-21 IHSA Cross Country Season is the reduction of Class 2A & 3A Sectionals from five qualifying sectionals to four qualifying sectionals. The first seven teams in each of the sectionals will qualify for the state meet. The top 10 individuals not on a state qualifying team will make it to the state meet as individual qualifiers.

The Class 1A Sectional configuration will stay the same at five sectionals. Six teams will now qualify for the state meet with the first 10 individuals not on a qualifying team will also qualify.

In some ways, this change is good. In some other ways, the coaches and athletic directors dropped the ball not looking at the big picture on how this could hurt the sport. It was something that this group of seven coaches and athletic directors failed to recognize.

IHSA XC ADVISORY COMMITTEE PAGE

The Regional meets have been a problem for a number of years. I am glad that Kraig Garber, the IHSA Assistant Executive Director in charge of Cross Country, stressed that to the committee when they met. In some cases, only a handful of runners would be eliminated from the regional meets. Coaches and others would question the good or bad of why regional meets were even held.

Cost has been an issue in finding hosts for the regional and sectional meets where schools would have to dig into their own pockets to finance the meets. The elimination of one sectional in each of the two larger classes along with the elimination of three regionals in those classes will help cut down those losses.

There is a larger problem that these seven members of the advisory committee refused or did not even think about when pushing their agenda through.

The big idea of this new concept was that we would have more teams competing at the IHSA State Meet at Detweiller Park in Peoria. We would add three more teams in Class 2A and Class 3A. There would be five more teams that would be running in Class 1A. 50 more runners will now be competing in the Class 1A meet. 27 more runners will be competing in the Class 2A and 3A Meets.

What was failed to be recognized in all of this was nothing was changed in the regional meets in Class 2A and Class 3A. There will be three regional meets per sectional complex. The number of qualifiers from those regional meets did not change. Six teams qualify, five individuals that are not on a qualifying team will also advance to their sectional meet.

What this means is this:

In the two higher classifications (Class 2A and Class 3A), there will be more runners competing in the state meet. When it comes from advancing from the regional meets to the sectional meets, there will be 20% less runners (on the average from 141-145) that will not advance to run another week. Their season will end earlier than expected.

That is the main thing that some coaches and fans (and the advisory committee) failed to realize after the notes for their meeting were published.

What this all means is that this action hinders our sport at the regional level. It shows from these actions that the Advisory Committee did not fully look at the big picture, not thinking out the entire qualifying process and the numbers of these changes would affect the sport. Making changes just to say you made changes is not good when it is not thought out. Such is the case here.

The seven teams out of the sectional works. I know that Garber will do a great job in making sure that the maps are balanced using the IHSA rules that he has to work with.

There is nothing we can do about the regional qualifiers this season. For the 2021 Cross Country Season, what should be suggested is that seven (7) regional teams qualify out of the Class 2A & 3A meets to sectionals with six (6) individual qualifiers coming out instead of five. This would reduce the number from 145 less runners down to 109 less runners or approximately 15%. It is still a dramatic drop, but that number is a little more workable in my view.

WHAT DOES ALL OF THIS MEAN?

For the coaches and fans that wanted more competitive regional meets, here you go.

I have developed and looked at different versions on how the sectional assignments will look like. The purpose is looking at the big picture of how this will turn out to be when the IHSA releases their assignments in September.

Throw out the configurations that we have seen in the five sectional set-up over the past number of years. That just won’t happen with four sectionals especially in the Chicago area.

In Class 3A, there will have to be teams shifted from the suburban Chicago area down south. That will mean more travel costs. That could also mean that we do not see teams from the southern most 3A regional make it to the state meet. That is just my early analysis.

Most regional sizes in Class 2A to 3A will be between 11 to 12 schools with only six advancing out. Keeping the balance of power through the four sectionals now will be something to keep an eye on in September.

In Class 2A, most of the complaints that I have heard is from schools and coaches from the northern most sectional in that classification. Well, it is just going to get even tougher now with the elimination of one of the “Chicago-Area Sectionals”. There is no room to think out of the box especially with the IHSA and their regional representation rules in the state series competitions.

That is a good thing in my view. It is just like that in the other state organizations across the United States.

And the one Eastern 2A regional that focuses in the Chicago area, your sectional just got tougher still. Be careful what you wish for. You just got it.

The same holds true in the North. The smaller “2A” schools back then pushed heavily for three classes.

There were proposals set to the committee asking for eight sectionals, five qualifiers, and no regionals; or eliminating regionals down to two. Now, in some regionals, it will even be tougher to get out.

You wanted more competitive regionals? You just got them but super-sized.

The idea of four sectionals / seven team qualifiers will be something that it will take a little time to get used to, but it is something that I can approve of. It won’t be like when we went from two classes to three and some termed sectionals “Sectionals of Death”. IF the changes can be made with the teams advancing out of the regionals, this in the long run will be better for our sport.

There will be people that will complain especially on how tough regionals will be. Fixing the number of teams getting out of regionals won’t happen this year, but if you suggest to the advisory committee, they could get that idea passed. It will just be that this 2020 Cross Country Season will be even more interesting to watch than in past seasons.

And remember, there will be another change in the two-year classes beginning in the 2021-2022 season. The maps will have to be drawn out again.

A little bit of change and grumbling can be good if done right. In this case, this just did not happen thanks to the committee.