It felt like most of Antioch turned out for the football game on Saturday. The undefeated Sequoits play in the heart of the village and rank high in the hearts of the residents.
It was a family event, with little kids watching their heroes compete in the second round of the Illinois High School Association’s state playoffs. Those heroes got crushed.
The game against Carmel, a private school from Mundelein, wasn’t competitive. The Corsairs won 50-7. It was 21-0 after one quarter and there was a running clock in the second half.
Hours after the game the Antioch football program tweeted out some statistics. Private schools have a record of 866-394 against public schools in the playoffs since 2001. The rate is fairly consistent across the classes. The private school winning percentage is 70% in Class 8A, 69% in 7A, 71% in 6A, 80% in 5A, 67% in 4A, 62% in 3A, 69% in 2A and 50% in 1A.
Antioch, like all public schools, draws students from a specified border. Private schools are allowed to admit students who reside within a 30-mile radius. One of Carmel’s star players told reporters after the game that he lives in Wisconsin. That’s within the rules, but would likely grate on the Antioch faithful.
The IHSA has certain policies that attempt to level the playing field. Private schools are subject to an enrollment multiplier and a success adjustment. Both factors could elevate a school into a larger class.
Size of the problem
Last season private schools won six of the eight state titles in football. In 2022 and 2021 private schools only won two titles.
If you look at the list of total state championships, three of the top four schools (Joliet Catholic, Mount Carmel, Providence) are private. East St. Louis is the only public school to win double-digit state championships.
It’s undoubtedly easier to maintain a high-level program at a private school. On the flip side, just keeping a private school alive is difficult. Football success couldn’t save Driscoll.
The bad guy
Fans, coaches and pretty much everyone enjoys piling on the IHSA for perceived slights and unfairness and all sorts of things.
But it is important to remember that the IHSA, as it regularly reminds everyone, is a member-run organization. The schools themselves wrote and voted on every single rule. The IHSA isn’t sitting in its office in Bloomington scheming on ways to cheat towns out of state titles.
There are 569 schools in the state playing 11-man football. Only 49 of those are private schools. It doesn’t take a math genius to figure out that if public schools banded together they could pass any rule they wanted.
