In high school sports throughout the country, one recurring problem is the advantage that private schools have over public schools. This is due to a variety of reasons, and there are statistics that verify that advantage. For that reason, some states, such as Maryland and Texas, have created separate playoffs for private and public schools.
In Illinois, there is one playoff for all high schools in the state. There are divisions based on enrollment sizes, but there is no separation of public and private schools. The only rule put into place by the Illinois High School Association (IHSA) bylaws is that there is an enrollment multiplier of 1.65 for any unboundaried school. This means that if a private school has 1,000 students enrolled, their classification is based on an enrollment of 1,650 students.
While that rule helps in some instances, it has become apparent that this rule is not enough to level the playing field. According to the IHSA database, in the past three seasons, 17 of 24 IHSA football championships have been won by private schools. In the IHSA, there are over 800 schools and of that total, 114 are private schools, of which 87 are non-boundaried. So while private schools only make up about 14 percent of IHSA member schools, they won over 70 percent of the football state titles in the past three years.
Although the issue of private versus public is most prominent in football, there are many other sports where there is a clear advantage for private schools.
Boys and girls soccer coach Scott Parillo is one who has seen this difference firsthand.
“We have lost many times to private schools in the playoffs,” Parillo said. “It can get frustrating when you have a very good team and lose to a private school. Many of our playoff losses to private schools have been to eventual State champions or runners-up.”
This frustration is shared among both athletes and coaches at the high school level. One athlete who has seen this problem through various sports is junior Jake Buckley. Buckley competes in three varsity sports at Kaneland: football, basketball and track and field.
“Private schools should have their own division in State tournaments,” Buckley said. “In the 2024 football playoffs, seven of eight schools who won a State title were private schools who are able to recruit. Making a separate division between public and private schools would allow for more opportunities for other schools to win State titles.”
While the IHSA has implemented the multiplier to try to lessen the advantages that private schools have, it has not proven to not be enough. As long as private schools are non-boundaried and able to recruit, they will have a clear advantage over public schools that cannot be evened out by a multiplier.
“Boundaries give private schools an advantage,” Parillo said. “Only students who live in the Kaneland school district can participate in sports at Kaneland. Private schools do not have that limitation. They can have students from school districts surrounding them play sports at their school.”
Truly, there isn’t much of an argument in favor of public schools and private schools competing in the same division. It’s difficult to argue that private schools do not have an advantage, which makes it unfair to have public schools face them in the same playoff.
