Different schools, one team, a big change. In December 2025, the Illinois High School Association (IHSA) approved a new policy that impacts cooperative (co-op) athletic teams for the 2026-2027 school year: When two or more schools combine together to make a single joint team, and those schools have a combined enrollment of 3,500 students or more, that co-op team cannot compete in any postseason competitions or events.
The purpose of this new policy is to keep sports fair and competitive, preventing schools with a larger enrollment from creating a dominant “superteam” with their top athletes…