More IHSAA changes up for vote

[Muda69]

https://www.indystar.com/story/sports/high-school/2025/04/21/transfers-emerging-sports-process-co-ops-up-for-vote-for-ihsaa-board-indiana-high-school-changes/83188581007/

I'll highlight the ones that may affect tackle football, primarily Cooperative agreements:

Quote

Provisional membership

There is a proposal to raise the standard of what it means to be a provisional IHSAA member to “a minimum of five students participating in an individual sport for each gender during the sport season.” Previously, a provisional member (a school in transition to become a full member) might have had only one male and one female athlete in a sport like cross-country or swimming and still reach the standard. GEO Next Generation, Mooresville Christian and Seven Oaks Classical were provisional members for the 2024-25 school year.

...

Cooperative agreements

This is one of the more intriguing proposals, submitted by Union principal Ryan Chiddister. This proposal would allow two member schools to cooperatively sponsor a sport. The IHSAA board of directors could approve the establishment of a cooperative agreement if both member schools can demonstrate a need, including:

• Insufficient enrollment numbers;
• Insufficient staff;
• Lack of a program at one or both schools;
• Lack of facilities.

The stipulation is only a school with an enrollment of fewer than 300 can form a cooperative agreement, provided the combined enrollment of the participating member schools does not exceed 750. If the combined enrollment exceeds the limit, the application will be denied.

The co-op would only apply to team sports and would run concurrently with the two-year reclassification cycle for team sports. If this proposal passes, the soonest a co-op team could participate is the fall of 2026. The schools in the co-op must be proximate or adjacent to form an agreement.

An example of this could be two smaller schools in the same district that do not offer soccer but wanted to form a team. Several states in the Midwest do offer co-op opportunities.

....

Oxygen and intravenous fluid use in contests prohibited

Neidig submitted this proposal on behalf of the Sports Medicine Advisory Committee. This proposal would allow IV fluids to be administered only in emergency situations to prevent or treat cardiovascular collapse, severe heat-induced illness, severe hypertension and shock, or other life-threatening conditions that would benefit from intravascular fluid treatment.

Leasing of facilities for practice or contests

This proposal would allow member schools to lease facilities for practices or contests provided the IHSAA has a copy of the lease agreement, the agreement states the facility is being used by the school’s teams and a few other stipulations, including:

• School and non-school teams may not be combined for any activities at the leased facility;
• The school’s coaching staff must provide all instruction and coaching;

There are a few other stipulations here, including the IHSAA reserving the right to reject any facility lease agreement it believes does not comply with the spirit of the rule.

Participation

If a student uses a member school’s gym, playing field or other school facility without a coach present, it shall not constitute a violation by the member school of limited contact program. This proposal would apply to team and individual sports.

Eligibility and transfer

This is the first-time transfer proposal that was adopted as a temporary regulation in February.

Here is how the proposal is written:

“a. Students who transfer between member schools for the first time during the first six semesters after their initial high school enrollment will have full eligibility, provided:

• The transfer occurs on or before the start of practice date of the sports season in which the transfer occurs and …
• The transfer is not the result of undue influence.

b. Students who transfer during the first six semesters, having had the opportunity to participate in three seasons of eligibility of a sport, will be subject to a 30-day non-competition period or half the maximum number of contests, whichever is less, in each sport in which they participated during or after their third year of eligibility, during the 365 days preceding the transfer.”

After a second transfer, the student would be subject to the IHSAA transfer rules as currently applied — limited, full or ineligible. Students whose second transfer involves a return to the member school where they established initial eligibility will retain full eligibility.

Students who transfer after the start of practice will have to sit out 30 days or half of the maximum number of contacts, whichever is less.

Senior transfers will be handled as transfers are currently determined, though an exception has been added to the original proposal. When a student’s parents make a bona fide change of residence to a new district, the student may transfer and attempt to obtain full eligibility at any public, private or charter school which does not serve the student’s area of residence but is located within a 20-mile radius of the new residence of the parent/guardian when the bona fide change of residence involved a move of more than 75 miles, and is the student’s first time enrolling in the school.

There is a proposal for eligibility when a student transfers from a non-member school to a member school without a change of residence.

Past link

This proposal would establish past link to mean a transfer student would have had to work directly with a coach, manager, trainer, volunteer or employee who was a coach, manager, trainer, volunteer or employee at the receiving school during a 12-month period prior to the student’s enrollment or 90 days after.

Here's hoping the Co-Op agreement passes.  It would be nice to see a no-football program Rossville (enroll. 283) co-oping with either Clinton Central (enroll. 249!!!) or Clinton Prairie (enroll. 334).

 

[wabashalwaysfights]

1 hour ago, Muda69 said:

https://www.indystar.com/story/sports/high-school/2025/04/21/transfers-emerging-sports-process-co-ops-up-for-vote-for-ihsaa-board-indiana-high-school-changes/83188581007/

I'll highlight the ones that may affect tackle football, primarily Cooperative agreements:

Here's hoping the Co-Op agreement passes.  It would be nice to see a no-football program Rossville (enroll. 283) co-oping with either Clinton Central (enroll. 249!!!) or Clinton Prairie (enroll. 334).

 

I do feel like Co-op programs is the one thing that Illinois has gotten right in a good long time.

[whiteshoes]

17 minutes ago, wabashalwaysfights said:

I do feel like Co-op programs is the one thing that Illinois has gotten right in a good long time.

Many states have coop programs.   I have been pushing this idea for several years and am very happy to see that it may finally come to fruition.

[Donnie Baker]

34 minutes ago, wabashalwaysfights said:

I do feel like Co-op programs is the one thing that Illinois has gotten right in a good long time.

And weed. State Law😎

[wabashalwaysfights]

On 4/21/2025 at 10:22 AM, Donnie Baker said:

And weed. State Law😎

That one I am less enthralled with, but to each his own.  I'm not sure this was made clear or not, but if I understand correctly the co-oping schools would agree to play under the name of one of the schools correct?  

[JQWL]

How is enrollment figured with a co-op program? Is it the combined enrollment of the two schools? Does the number of receiving players factor into it? Such as, you're adjacent to a non-football school. 5 kids want to play. Is there something where each kid, would bump your enrollment number 10 students?

[wabashalwaysfights]

1 hour ago, JQWL said:

How is enrollment figured with a co-op program? Is it the combined enrollment of the two schools? Does the number of receiving players factor into it? Such as, you're adjacent to a non-football school. 5 kids want to play. Is there something where each kid, would bump your enrollment number 10 students?

Based on the rules for combining (individual schools must have less than 300 students, total enrollment cannot exceed 700) I would imagine that classification would be based on total enrollment, but that is just a guess.  If so, that could cause some hesitancy among schools not wanting to avoid class jumps based on enrollment.  To use Muda's example: Rossville would only be allowed to co-op with Clinton Central (as both of their enrollments are below 300), and their total enrollment would be 532.  I don't have the numbers in front of me, but I'm guessing that would easily put them in 2A and I don't know that Clinton Central would want to avoid that, but they might.

[JQWL]

I was thinking about Orleans who is right next to us and do not have a program. Let's say we agree to do a co-op. That would include their 260 and our 374 (current 8-11 enrollment) to be 634. We'd become a small 3A and would probably add 5 kids to our program. 10 at the most. I wonder how many would go the co-op route that are currently fielding a team.

[Donnie Baker]

10 hours ago, wabashalwaysfights said:

That one I am less enthralled with, but to each his own.  I'm not sure this was made clear or not, but if I understand correctly the co-oping schools would agree to play under the name of one of the schools correct?  

In Illinois the schools are hymenated. Georgetown- Ridge Farms

[Muda69]

18 hours ago, wabashalwaysfights said:

Based on the rules for combining (individual schools must have less than 300 students, total enrollment cannot exceed 700) I would imagine that classification would be based on total enrollment, but that is just a guess.  If so, that could cause some hesitancy among schools not wanting to avoid class jumps based on enrollment.  To use Muda's example: Rossville would only be allowed to co-op with Clinton Central (as both of their enrollments are below 300), and their total enrollment would be 532.  I don't have the numbers in front of me, but I'm guessing that would easily put them in 2A and I don't know that Clinton Central would want to avoid that, but they might.

Based on this statement from the article I thought that only one of the schools had to have a enrollment under 300, hence the total of 750 cap:

Quote

The stipulation is only a school with an enrollment of fewer than 300 can form a cooperative agreement, provided the combined enrollment of the participating member schools does not exceed 750.

Or does this mean that 3 schools, each with an enrollment of 250, could form a co-op?

[wabashalwaysfights]

1 hour ago, Muda69 said:

Based on this statement from the article I thought that only one of the schools had to have a enrollment under 300, hence the total of 750 cap:

Or does this mean that 3 schools, each with an enrollment of 250, could form a co-op?

This is the way I read it.  So you could have a Rossville-Clinton Central co-op with a total enrollment figure of 532 (Rossville's 283 + Clinton Central's 249) or an Attica-Frontier-Indianapolis Tindley (I just picked the three schools with the lowest enrollment at the last re-class, I realize that geographically this is not feasible) with a total enrollment figure of 507 (Attica's 158 + Frontier's 171 + Indianapolis Tindley's 178).  Again, just the way I read it, I could be mistaken.

[US31]

20 hours ago, JQWL said:

I was thinking about Orleans who is right next to us and do not have a program. Let's say we agree to do a co-op. That would include their 260 and our 374 (current 8-11 enrollment) to be 634. We'd become a small 3A and would probably add 5 kids to our program. 10 at the most. I wonder how many would go the co-op route that are currently fielding a team.

Maybe one of those kids is an absolute stud?😇

In reality, I think the co-op thing will be much more attractive when BOTH schools currently don't have football and would co-op to start a program.  I don't see many established progreams of any size wanting to co-op with another school (whether the other school has football or not).  Might be proved wrong though.  

They way this is written probably shrinks the number of schools that might take advantage of it....How many small, adjacent districts BOTH are non-football and want to start a co-op?  I literally have no idea.

[Muda69]

28 minutes ago, US31 said:

Maybe one of those kids is an absolute stud?😇

In reality, I think the co-op thing will be much more attractive when BOTH schools currently don't have football and would co-op to start a program.  I don't see many established progreams of any size wanting to co-op with another school (whether the other school has football or not).  Might be proved wrong though.  

They way this is written probably shrinks the number of schools that might take advantage of it....How many small, adjacent districts BOTH are non-football and want to start a co-op?  I literally have no idea.

The small town in Illinois where I have family has a high school with a proud small-school football tradition.  Lots of winning seasons, tournament success, etc.  But over the years they continued to have decline in enrollment that obviously affected participation in, and success of,  the football program.  So it seemed possible solutions were:

1) Eliminate the football program entirely. 

2) Consolidate the high school with another neighboring high school.

3) Co-op with a neighboring small high school in similar circumstances.

They obviously chose option #3.  The football program hasn't reached the heights it was in previous decades, but it is competitive.  And those increased numbers are keeping it that way for now. It seems to be a compromise that has worked well for both communities.

 

 

[whiteshoes]

On 4/23/2025 at 12:05 PM, wabashalwaysfights said:

That one I am less enthralled with, but to each his own.  I'm not sure this was made clear or not, but if I understand correctly the co-oping schools would agree to play under the name of one of the schools correct?  

Some states have coop teams with as many as four schools and they use a / between each.  Iowa has a good Class 2A program that is listed as Central Lyon/Georgetown/Little Rock.   I guess it comes down to what way the schools involved want to be identified as.

[US31]

15 hours ago, whiteshoes said:

Some states have coop teams with as many as four schools and they use a / between each.  Iowa has a good Class 2A program that is listed as Central Lyon/Georgetown/Little Rock.   I guess it comes down to what way the schools involved want to be identified as.

"RockTown Central" has a nice ring to it

Edited April 25 by US31

[rob]

So, do you co-op, or do you play 8 man ball?  There's always that choice.

[JustRules]

21 hours ago, rob said:

So, do you co-op, or do you play 8 man ball?  There's always that choice.

Some states have co-ops for 8/9 man football!

[whiteshoes]

It appears that the progressive IHSAA has voted this down by a 12-6 vote.

[jets]

"

Oxygen and intravenous fluid use in contests prohibited

Neidig submitted this proposal on behalf of the Sports Medicine Advisory Committee. This proposal would allow IV fluids to be administered only in emergency situations to prevent or treat cardiovascular collapse, severe heat-induced illness, severe hypertension and shock, or other life-threatening conditions that would benefit from intravascular fluid treatment.

Can't believe this didn't get more attention....

[Bobref]

2 hours ago, jets said:

"

Oxygen and intravenous fluid use in contests prohibited

Neidig submitted this proposal on behalf of the Sports Medicine Advisory Committee. This proposal would allow IV fluids to be administered only in emergency situations to prevent or treat cardiovascular collapse, severe heat-induced illness, severe hypertension and shock, or other life-threatening conditions that would benefit from intravascular fluid treatment.

Can't believe this didn't get more attention....

Poor drafting. The bolded language is totally superfluous.

[Basementbias]

Would the co-op idea have more backing if they put wording that it must be 2 schools that do not offer football joining up? They can handle the big transfer portal idea but I'm guessing the co-op would have made that a bigger problem. Thus why it most likely failed. I'll just call it a win getting girls flag football as an emerging sport. I won't talk about the fumbling on the other issues. Another example of coming up short on 4th down and you have no timeouts left near the end of the game for the IHSAA. 

[HoopsCoach]

9 hours ago, Basementbias said:

Would the co-op idea have more backing if they put wording that it must be 2 schools that do not offer football joining up? They can handle the big transfer portal idea but I'm guessing the co-op would have made that a bigger problem. Thus why it most likely failed. I'll just call it a win getting girls flag football as an emerging sport. I won't talk about the fumbling on the other issues. Another example of coming up short on 4th down and you have no timeouts left near the end of the game for the IHSAA. 

I think they would need to make the co-op rule for all sports, not specific to football.  Football would probably see the largest number of co-op programs, but other sports could form co-op teams as well.  I agree with the requirement that co-op teams can only be formed by two schools that do not already have a sport, or reduce the total number of students at each school to less than 300.  What schools do you think may have an interest in a co-op football team?

[Basementbias]

12 hours ago, HoopsCoach said:

I think they would need to make the co-op rule for all sports, not specific to football.  Football would probably see the largest number of co-op programs, but other sports could form co-op teams as well.  I agree with the requirement that co-op teams can only be formed by two schools that do not already have a sport, or reduce the total number of students at each school to less than 300.  What schools do you think may have an interest in a co-op football team?

I'm going out on a limb and say Union of Modoc (believe they presented it while they're still a school) & Randolph Southern would be 2 wanting to become a co-op. I'd think you may have a few in Southern Indiana that were basketball only or possibly just starting 8 man. 

[Muda69]

On 5/6/2025 at 1:54 PM, Basementbias said:

Would the co-op idea have more backing if they put wording that it must be 2 schools that do not offer football joining up? 

Wouldn't that put some non-football playing schools that are basically surrounded by football playing schools,  like Rossville, in a no-win situation?  

Edited May 7 by Muda69

[Basementbias]

1 hour ago, Muda69 said:

Wouldn't that put some non-football playing schools that are basically surrounded by football playing schools,  like Rossville, in a no-win situation?  

Unfortunately yes. I'm just guessing that the issue of non football doing co-op with football is determining enrollment. Also, do they already allow kids from school A without sport play for school B with sport of ADs sign off on it? Just throwing it out there but maybe they are wanting to go 8 man route and hopefully those become 11 man. I don't like that thinking based on the spread of most 8 man programs. Oh well I guess as I'm usually on the opposite end of thought when it comes to these things vs IHSAA/OHSAA.