| Another Confusing Cody Column |
The Multiplier at 5
Five years ago this past March the Illinois High School
Association established a number in an attempt to even out
the playing field. The number was in the form of a multiplier,
aimed to inflate private school enrollment numbers. After five
years, has it worked? ...
Association established a number in an attempt to even out
the playing field. The number was in the form of a multiplier,
aimed to inflate private school enrollment numbers. After five
years, has it worked? ...
C o d y' s
o
r
n
e
r
C o l u m n s
o
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n
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r
C o l u m n s
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Families in Illinois can choose what school they can send their children to – either
the public school or the private school.
The two types of schools actively compete against each other in high school
sports. Each school has it's advantages, and private schools have several
opportunities that public schools do not have.
It's led to a debate about “leveling the playing field.”
The edge that private schools had in athletic competition became noticeable
during the turn of this century. On March 19, 2005 the Illinois High School
Association Board of Directors approved a fixed multiplier for private schools in an
effort to balance high school competition in Illinois. The move bumped some
private schools up a class in competition.
The Multiplier applied to “any private school, charter school, lab school, magnet
school, residential school, and any public school in a multi-high school district that
does not accept students from a fixed portion of the district,” according to IHSA By-
law 3.170.
Eight high schools in the area, all private, religious institutions, are subject to the
IHSA's enrollment Multiplier of 1.65 in some way.
So how have the past five years been for these schools?
Freeport Aquin, Fulton Unity and Keith Country Day, all very small schools, have
not been effected by the Multiplier.
Ottawa Marquette has always been effected in football (since 2006), and was
effected in all four-class sports from 2007-08 before its enrollment dropped.
Rockford Boylan, Newman, Rockford Christian Life, and St. Bede have always
been effected in football (since 2006, Boylan since 2005), and has always been
effected in all four-class sports since 2007.
Rockford Christian has always been effected in football (since 2006), and was
effected in all four-class sports in 2008 after an enrollment drop, but has since
fallen back into place. In fact, its football team jumped up from 1A to 3A in 2006.
Rockford Lutheran has always been effected in football (since 2006), and was
effected in all sports in 2007 - which was the first year of general class expansion,
but has since fallen back into the small school percentile.
Alleman has always been effected in football (since 2005), and was effected in all
sports from 2005-2009 - but has since fallen back into the small school percentile.
The lone exception was the 2005 volleyball team, which was granted a waiver for
postseason competition for that year because their record was .500 or below.
Alleman is the most notable school out of the eight that has seen strings of
postseason success be cut off because of the bump up to the higher class.
Alleman's baseball team saw a string of three straight regionals won snapped with
their first season in Class AA. They won a regional last year in their first season
back in the small school classes. The boys basketball team won a Class 2A
regional this past season by going 8-21 this past season. Could they have won a
regional in their normal class from 2006 to 2009, when they had similar win-loss
records? The boys cross country team saw a string of seven straight regionals
won snapped with their first season in Class AA, after winning the Class A State
Championship in 2004.
“Personally, I used to get angry with the multiplier,” said Alleman distance runner
Tim Hird, who graduated in 2009. “I think it cost my school a few state titles, along
with costing some of my teammates the chance to run at state, or even be all-
state. Its easy to look back and get frustrated but its something that's out of my
and my teammates control. The best we can do is deal with it, and go out everyday
trying to improve ourselves and do the best we can in whatever field of play we are
put in.”
Even girls sports felt the effect. The girls basketball team won four sectionals in
five seasons prior to the multiplier. They haven't won any since. The softball team
had won nine regionals in the past 12 years prior to the multiplier. They have only
won one regional since.
What If ...
The “What if” question regarding the Multiplier can also be applied to several other
teams in Illinois.
Would Benet Academy have won the Class 3A State Championship in volleyball in
2008, instead of finishing runner-up in Class 4A? Would Breese Mater Dei have
won the Class 2A State Championship in volleyball in 2009, instead of finishing
runner-up in Class 3A? Would Edwardsville Metro East Lutheran have won the
Class 1A State Championship in baseball in 2009, instead of finishing runner-up in
Class 2A? Would Belleville Althoff have won the Class A girls basketball state
championship in 2006, instead of finishing runner-up in Class AA?
The list goes on further than just runner-up scenarios. The answer to these
questions regarding team sports is up in the air. However, when it comes to
performance in the individual state meet events, the answer is a bit more clear.
Just compare the times and the performances across the classification barrier.
There are 15 different scenarios, since 2008, in which track and field athletes or
relay teams would have been state champions had their school not been subject to
a multiplier.
These accomplishments are: Martin Grady (Oak Park Fenwick) – fourth in 2010
Class 3A 3200, Andrew Larsen (Aurora Marmion) – fourth in 2009 Class 3A 3200,
Hird (Alleman) - 16th in 2008 Class 2A 3200; Emily Clay (Normal U-High) – second
in 2010 Class 2A pole vault and fourth in 2008 Class 2A pole vault, Shamier Little
(Chicago Lindblom) – fourth in 2010 Class 2A 200, Lisle Benet's 4x800 – sixth in
2010 Class 3A, Chicago St. Ignatius's 4x800 – 10th in 2009 Class 3A, Mundelein
Carmel's 4x400 – third in 2009 Class 3A and fifth in 2010 Class 3A, McKinzie
Schultz (Benet) – second in both 2009 and 2010 Class 3A 1600, Rebekah
Johnson (U-High) – fourth in 2008 Class 2A 100 dash, and Megan Manning
(Alleman) – second in 2007 Class AA shot put and fourth in 2006 Class AA shot
put.
Should these individuals who made these performances be subject to a multiplier?
Of these people, Hird and Larsen had similar scenarios in cross country. Hird was
the 2008 Class 2A individual champion, but would have won Class 1A if Alleman
had not been multiplied. He would have also finished fourth instead of sixth in
2007. Larsen finished eighth in the 2008 Class 3A meet with a time that would
have been tops over Hird's in Class 2A.
Hird and Manning, both from Alleman, are the only two athletes in the area to date
to have such a distinction. Hird's 2008 two-mile run time of 9:31.51 would have
beaten the Class 1A state championship time by 1.06 seconds.
Even a year-and-a-half after graduating from Alleman, Hird still has a dislike
toward the Multiplier.
“The multiplier has affected me as a runner in many different ways, each at a
different time throughout high school,” Hird said. “I am strongly against it and am
still very strong against it although not as much anymore since it does not affect
my former high school anymore.”
Football, Football, Football
While the Multiplier has hindered several private schools and its athletes of
postseason successes, how has it effected the public schools?
According to Chicago University High athletics director David Ribbens, in an article
for the Tinley Park-based Southtown Star, the number of state titles won by public
schools and private schools in the past five years hasn't really changed since the
five years prior to the Multiplier. That means not much has changed with the
Multiplier.
Also included in the article was a result from Ribbens' research of the fact that
private schools finished first or second 25 percent of the time during the Multiplier
years, compared to 23.5 percent in the five years before.
Invert these statistics to reflect that of public schools, and that means the public
schools are not gaining any ground in the five years of the Multiplier era.
But to say that the Multiplier hasn't had any effect contradicts with the
aforementioned track performances.
The Multiplier was an idea first formed based on the successes of private high
school football teams. The statistics in football show an advantage toward public
schools after the start of the multiplier. In the past four years since the start of the
Multiplier, public schools have won 22 of 32 state championships. In the four years
prior to the Multiplier, public schools have won 17 of 32.
Last year saw seven of the eight state football championships be won by public
schools. Lombard Montini was the only private school state champion, in Class 5A.
The last year a private school had only won one state football championship was
1998.
Metamora, a football school that has seen four seasons end at Champaign to the
hands of private schools, won state championships in Class 4A last year and Class
5A in 2007. Their 2007 championship broke a streak of nine straight
championships in that class won by private schools. Their 2009 championship
broke a streak of 10 straight championships in that class won by private schools.
The 2009 Class 4A tilt between the Redbirds and Geneseo was the first time since
Belvidere's win over Morris in 1994 that no private school was involved in a 4A title
game.
The schools that Metamora lost to in the 1996, 1997, 1999 and 2000 state
championships were Providence and Joliet Catholic. These two schools, along with
Chicago Mt. Carmel, make up what prep football experts call the “Big Three.” From
1995 to 2004, these schools combined to win win 16 of a possible 29 state
championships. Since 2005, the Big Three only has one championship between
them: Joliet Catholic's 2007 Class 6A championship.
While the Big Three isn't winning the number of championships they had been
winning prior to the Multiplier (along with the recent closing of Addison Driscoll and
its seven straight championships), there is a new breed of private schools that
have entered the state spotlight. Sacred Heart-Griffin has won three
championships in the Multiplier era. Bloomington Central Catholic, Chicago St.
Rita, Montini and Wheaton St. Francis have also won state championships in the
Multiplier era.
The Big Three may have slowed down a lot, but the championship percentages for
private schools isn't slowing down as much.
What Can Be Done?
Ever since the beginning of the Multiplier in March 2005, private schools have tried
to eliminate it through lawsuits and state legislation.
An obstacle toward the removal of the multiplier became a reality on January 12.
The schools voted 255-175 in favor of the establishment of a multiplier waiver in
which private schools can appeal to have their original enrollment used for IHSA
classification. Only one school, Chicago Agricultural Science, has been granted a
waiver for this school year.
The waiver proposal had been on the ballot since 2007. After being rejected by
the IHSA Legislative Commision in 2007 and 2008, it was finally brought to the
schools in 2009. The schools rejected the proposal 197-218.
The waiver was one of the initial compromises during the first year of the Multiplier.
Most private schools applied for a waiver, and most were denied. Alleman was one
of the schools that applied.
“I remember distinctly my freshman year, when we petitioned the IHSA to be
reinstated back into Class A, one of their reasonings behind keeping us AA was
because we had a high student-athlete percent (I believe at the time, it was around
70 percent of the students at Alleman did sports),” Hird said. “How is that a bad
thing?”
Also factoring into the decision was the athletic success Alleman had in 2004-05,
dubbed by many as the “Year of the Pioneer.” Alleman won state championships in
boys cross country and girls basketball, was runner-up in wrestling, fifth in boys
golf, went to state in both baseball and softball, was a football quarterfinalist and
won a regional and had a 20+ win season in boys basketball.
If a Multiplier waiver can slowly earn approval from the member schools, perhaps a
proposal to eliminate the Multiplier altogether could. That's what Ribbens plans on
proposing to the member schools this winter, according to the Southtown article.
Amendment proposals are due to the IHSA in October.
For now, athletes and teams will have to deal with having a weight attached to their
enrollment figure.
“For those kids still affected by it, I would say for them to use this roadblock as a
means to become greater than they previously would,” Hird said. “Focus on being
all-state in whatever class they're in, rise to become greater then they would've if
they had stayed Class A, or Class AA.”
Cody Cutter is the Publisher of Northern Illinois Sports Beat, and writes columns
about Illinois high school sports. He can be reached at
Northernillinoissportsbeat@yahoo.com. --- Talk about what's written on our
Message Boards!
the public school or the private school.
The two types of schools actively compete against each other in high school
sports. Each school has it's advantages, and private schools have several
opportunities that public schools do not have.
It's led to a debate about “leveling the playing field.”
The edge that private schools had in athletic competition became noticeable
during the turn of this century. On March 19, 2005 the Illinois High School
Association Board of Directors approved a fixed multiplier for private schools in an
effort to balance high school competition in Illinois. The move bumped some
private schools up a class in competition.
The Multiplier applied to “any private school, charter school, lab school, magnet
school, residential school, and any public school in a multi-high school district that
does not accept students from a fixed portion of the district,” according to IHSA By-
law 3.170.
Eight high schools in the area, all private, religious institutions, are subject to the
IHSA's enrollment Multiplier of 1.65 in some way.
So how have the past five years been for these schools?
Freeport Aquin, Fulton Unity and Keith Country Day, all very small schools, have
not been effected by the Multiplier.
Ottawa Marquette has always been effected in football (since 2006), and was
effected in all four-class sports from 2007-08 before its enrollment dropped.
Rockford Boylan, Newman, Rockford Christian Life, and St. Bede have always
been effected in football (since 2006, Boylan since 2005), and has always been
effected in all four-class sports since 2007.
Rockford Christian has always been effected in football (since 2006), and was
effected in all four-class sports in 2008 after an enrollment drop, but has since
fallen back into place. In fact, its football team jumped up from 1A to 3A in 2006.
Rockford Lutheran has always been effected in football (since 2006), and was
effected in all sports in 2007 - which was the first year of general class expansion,
but has since fallen back into the small school percentile.
Alleman has always been effected in football (since 2005), and was effected in all
sports from 2005-2009 - but has since fallen back into the small school percentile.
The lone exception was the 2005 volleyball team, which was granted a waiver for
postseason competition for that year because their record was .500 or below.
Alleman is the most notable school out of the eight that has seen strings of
postseason success be cut off because of the bump up to the higher class.
Alleman's baseball team saw a string of three straight regionals won snapped with
their first season in Class AA. They won a regional last year in their first season
back in the small school classes. The boys basketball team won a Class 2A
regional this past season by going 8-21 this past season. Could they have won a
regional in their normal class from 2006 to 2009, when they had similar win-loss
records? The boys cross country team saw a string of seven straight regionals
won snapped with their first season in Class AA, after winning the Class A State
Championship in 2004.
“Personally, I used to get angry with the multiplier,” said Alleman distance runner
Tim Hird, who graduated in 2009. “I think it cost my school a few state titles, along
with costing some of my teammates the chance to run at state, or even be all-
state. Its easy to look back and get frustrated but its something that's out of my
and my teammates control. The best we can do is deal with it, and go out everyday
trying to improve ourselves and do the best we can in whatever field of play we are
put in.”
Even girls sports felt the effect. The girls basketball team won four sectionals in
five seasons prior to the multiplier. They haven't won any since. The softball team
had won nine regionals in the past 12 years prior to the multiplier. They have only
won one regional since.
What If ...
The “What if” question regarding the Multiplier can also be applied to several other
teams in Illinois.
Would Benet Academy have won the Class 3A State Championship in volleyball in
2008, instead of finishing runner-up in Class 4A? Would Breese Mater Dei have
won the Class 2A State Championship in volleyball in 2009, instead of finishing
runner-up in Class 3A? Would Edwardsville Metro East Lutheran have won the
Class 1A State Championship in baseball in 2009, instead of finishing runner-up in
Class 2A? Would Belleville Althoff have won the Class A girls basketball state
championship in 2006, instead of finishing runner-up in Class AA?
The list goes on further than just runner-up scenarios. The answer to these
questions regarding team sports is up in the air. However, when it comes to
performance in the individual state meet events, the answer is a bit more clear.
Just compare the times and the performances across the classification barrier.
There are 15 different scenarios, since 2008, in which track and field athletes or
relay teams would have been state champions had their school not been subject to
a multiplier.
These accomplishments are: Martin Grady (Oak Park Fenwick) – fourth in 2010
Class 3A 3200, Andrew Larsen (Aurora Marmion) – fourth in 2009 Class 3A 3200,
Hird (Alleman) - 16th in 2008 Class 2A 3200; Emily Clay (Normal U-High) – second
in 2010 Class 2A pole vault and fourth in 2008 Class 2A pole vault, Shamier Little
(Chicago Lindblom) – fourth in 2010 Class 2A 200, Lisle Benet's 4x800 – sixth in
2010 Class 3A, Chicago St. Ignatius's 4x800 – 10th in 2009 Class 3A, Mundelein
Carmel's 4x400 – third in 2009 Class 3A and fifth in 2010 Class 3A, McKinzie
Schultz (Benet) – second in both 2009 and 2010 Class 3A 1600, Rebekah
Johnson (U-High) – fourth in 2008 Class 2A 100 dash, and Megan Manning
(Alleman) – second in 2007 Class AA shot put and fourth in 2006 Class AA shot
put.
Should these individuals who made these performances be subject to a multiplier?
Of these people, Hird and Larsen had similar scenarios in cross country. Hird was
the 2008 Class 2A individual champion, but would have won Class 1A if Alleman
had not been multiplied. He would have also finished fourth instead of sixth in
2007. Larsen finished eighth in the 2008 Class 3A meet with a time that would
have been tops over Hird's in Class 2A.
Hird and Manning, both from Alleman, are the only two athletes in the area to date
to have such a distinction. Hird's 2008 two-mile run time of 9:31.51 would have
beaten the Class 1A state championship time by 1.06 seconds.
Even a year-and-a-half after graduating from Alleman, Hird still has a dislike
toward the Multiplier.
“The multiplier has affected me as a runner in many different ways, each at a
different time throughout high school,” Hird said. “I am strongly against it and am
still very strong against it although not as much anymore since it does not affect
my former high school anymore.”
Football, Football, Football
While the Multiplier has hindered several private schools and its athletes of
postseason successes, how has it effected the public schools?
According to Chicago University High athletics director David Ribbens, in an article
for the Tinley Park-based Southtown Star, the number of state titles won by public
schools and private schools in the past five years hasn't really changed since the
five years prior to the Multiplier. That means not much has changed with the
Multiplier.
Also included in the article was a result from Ribbens' research of the fact that
private schools finished first or second 25 percent of the time during the Multiplier
years, compared to 23.5 percent in the five years before.
Invert these statistics to reflect that of public schools, and that means the public
schools are not gaining any ground in the five years of the Multiplier era.
But to say that the Multiplier hasn't had any effect contradicts with the
aforementioned track performances.
The Multiplier was an idea first formed based on the successes of private high
school football teams. The statistics in football show an advantage toward public
schools after the start of the multiplier. In the past four years since the start of the
Multiplier, public schools have won 22 of 32 state championships. In the four years
prior to the Multiplier, public schools have won 17 of 32.
Last year saw seven of the eight state football championships be won by public
schools. Lombard Montini was the only private school state champion, in Class 5A.
The last year a private school had only won one state football championship was
1998.
Metamora, a football school that has seen four seasons end at Champaign to the
hands of private schools, won state championships in Class 4A last year and Class
5A in 2007. Their 2007 championship broke a streak of nine straight
championships in that class won by private schools. Their 2009 championship
broke a streak of 10 straight championships in that class won by private schools.
The 2009 Class 4A tilt between the Redbirds and Geneseo was the first time since
Belvidere's win over Morris in 1994 that no private school was involved in a 4A title
game.
The schools that Metamora lost to in the 1996, 1997, 1999 and 2000 state
championships were Providence and Joliet Catholic. These two schools, along with
Chicago Mt. Carmel, make up what prep football experts call the “Big Three.” From
1995 to 2004, these schools combined to win win 16 of a possible 29 state
championships. Since 2005, the Big Three only has one championship between
them: Joliet Catholic's 2007 Class 6A championship.
While the Big Three isn't winning the number of championships they had been
winning prior to the Multiplier (along with the recent closing of Addison Driscoll and
its seven straight championships), there is a new breed of private schools that
have entered the state spotlight. Sacred Heart-Griffin has won three
championships in the Multiplier era. Bloomington Central Catholic, Chicago St.
Rita, Montini and Wheaton St. Francis have also won state championships in the
Multiplier era.
The Big Three may have slowed down a lot, but the championship percentages for
private schools isn't slowing down as much.
What Can Be Done?
Ever since the beginning of the Multiplier in March 2005, private schools have tried
to eliminate it through lawsuits and state legislation.
An obstacle toward the removal of the multiplier became a reality on January 12.
The schools voted 255-175 in favor of the establishment of a multiplier waiver in
which private schools can appeal to have their original enrollment used for IHSA
classification. Only one school, Chicago Agricultural Science, has been granted a
waiver for this school year.
The waiver proposal had been on the ballot since 2007. After being rejected by
the IHSA Legislative Commision in 2007 and 2008, it was finally brought to the
schools in 2009. The schools rejected the proposal 197-218.
The waiver was one of the initial compromises during the first year of the Multiplier.
Most private schools applied for a waiver, and most were denied. Alleman was one
of the schools that applied.
“I remember distinctly my freshman year, when we petitioned the IHSA to be
reinstated back into Class A, one of their reasonings behind keeping us AA was
because we had a high student-athlete percent (I believe at the time, it was around
70 percent of the students at Alleman did sports),” Hird said. “How is that a bad
thing?”
Also factoring into the decision was the athletic success Alleman had in 2004-05,
dubbed by many as the “Year of the Pioneer.” Alleman won state championships in
boys cross country and girls basketball, was runner-up in wrestling, fifth in boys
golf, went to state in both baseball and softball, was a football quarterfinalist and
won a regional and had a 20+ win season in boys basketball.
If a Multiplier waiver can slowly earn approval from the member schools, perhaps a
proposal to eliminate the Multiplier altogether could. That's what Ribbens plans on
proposing to the member schools this winter, according to the Southtown article.
Amendment proposals are due to the IHSA in October.
For now, athletes and teams will have to deal with having a weight attached to their
enrollment figure.
“For those kids still affected by it, I would say for them to use this roadblock as a
means to become greater than they previously would,” Hird said. “Focus on being
all-state in whatever class they're in, rise to become greater then they would've if
they had stayed Class A, or Class AA.”
Cody Cutter is the Publisher of Northern Illinois Sports Beat, and writes columns
about Illinois high school sports. He can be reached at
Northernillinoissportsbeat@yahoo.com. --- Talk about what's written on our
Message Boards!