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Here's an idea: Let's allow almost everybody into the football playoffs.

Like it? Those who are in favor are very much in favor.

The idea solves several problems, said Dave Mattio, the Marian Catholic athletic director and football coach. He's drafted, and submitted to the IHSA, a proposal to double the tournament's size.

Mattio said it would ease scheduling for teams in conferences with an odd number of teams. He believes it would alleviate the pressure of hurrying someone back from an injury for a must-win game. And the necessity of a team losing its first four games and needing to win out to become playoff-eligible disappears.

Plus, he said, it gives slow-starting teams a second chance.

"If this goes through, a team like Nazareth Academy, which was 3-6 this year, would fare pretty well," Mattio said, referencing one of the East Suburban Catholic Conference's squads. "And look at the DuPage Valley Conference. Some 4-5 teams would be formidable opponents."

Dislike it? Mattio said "the purists" would be against it.

He's right. There are several reasons why the proposal, however well-meaning, doesn't work.

First, 32 schools statewide would play only eight games instead of nine. Doubling the playoffs from 256 to 512 teams, and using the current ninth regular-season week to play the expanded first round, leaves the last 32 schools of the 544 playing football without a game. For players, that's one fewer chance to play. For schools, that's one fewer chance to bring in money to support athletic programs - and football, at schools small and large, supports programs that bring in little or no revenue.

Second, allowing virtually everyone into the playoffs rewards mediocrity - with first-rank first-round mismatches. Or is it a good idea for a 1-7 team to tee it up against an 8-0 team? That happens occasionally in league play, just the way the schedule falls. We don't need it to be legislated into the playoffs.

Third, scheduling problems for conferences with five or seven teams will still exist. One team will still need a nonconference foe each week. Perhaps they won't have to travel to Muskegon, Mich., for a game, as Joliet Catholic Academy did this year, but holes will remain in the schedule.

Mattio, who has coached Marian Catholic for 35 years, said expanding the playoffs to virtually all schools "has been discussed, from when I was a pup in this business, back when there were five classes."

The original format had five classes, 16 teams in each class. Conference champions qualified, plus a handful of at-large teams. That cut eventually was judged to be too severe. Marian Catholic in 1981 and Marist in 1982 each went 8-1 but didn't qualify, losing ESCC showdowns to 9-0 Joliet Catholic. They weren't alone.

The playoffs expanded to six classes, then eight, and each class eventually was doubled to 32 teams.

Today, any six-win team is a lock. Plenty of 5-4 schools squeeze in. This year, 17 teams at 5-4 didn't qualify, including Rich Central, Rich South, Evergreen Park, Argo and St. Laurence.

The Vikings are in the Catholic League playoffs with the Prep Bowl carrot to chase, so they play on. The other four schools do not.

Rich Central's Oliver Speller calls the proposal "a great idea." The Olympians last made the playoffs in 2005, and last won a playoff game in '02.

Rich South's Bret Tucker was in favor of expansion, with one caveat: "As long as it doesn't become (like) Indiana, where you're in at 0-9."

It would have happened this year. Thirty-four teams in Illinois went 0-9 in 2010. With a 32-team trim, two winless teams would qualify.

Illinois would go from the best of the best making the cut to letting in teams with no business being there and no chance of advancing.

Mattio said he didn't expect instant acceptance. There are several hurdles remaining, the first of which is discussion at town meetings next month. The IHSA's legislative commission will vote Nov. 22 on whether the proposal would be submitted to the membership. If so, then schools would vote yea or nay.

The vote here is nay. The football playoff, like the NCAA basketball tournament, is the proper size. Quality is rewarded and upsets are possible in every round. To dilute a winning formula would be a mistake.