IHSA’s Geographic Nonsense

If you don’t know, I am from Georgia. In that state, the high school baseball playoffs are much better.

First, not every team makes the playoffs. Second, each round is a three-game series that better guarantees the best team advancing.

That’s not my beef this time. What confuses and confounds me this time is a supersectional venue chosen by the IHSA. Specifically, the Rockford Supersectional, which matches up teams from the Barrington and Niles West sectionals.

Why Rockford was picked for this is beyond my level of understanding. By my estimation, of all the sectional teams, Barrington is the closest to Rockford at 60 miles away.

So when Maine South plays Glenbrook South and Warren plays Stevenson on Saturday for the right to advance to the supersectional, schools that are from the Chicago area have to travel 90 miles to play one another Monday.

Am I wrong to wonder how or why this happened? Volleyball expert Phil Brozynski also makes a case about the IHSA’s broken playoff system.