On Sportsline this week, Ty Taylor and Jim Taylor are joined by Glen Cook and Bill Breeden for our annual holiday show.

Happy holidays!

Ty Taylor is joined by IHSA Assistant Executive Director Sam Knox, who oversees football, to discuss this week's announcement of the IHSA football playoffs expanding and the season moving up a week.

They discuss what the addition of 128 teams to the postseason aims to fix, if it will be successful in doing so, why the proposal passed, the feedback the IHSA has initially received, the impact the Sports Advisory Committee (SMAC's) non-endorsement had on the propsal still being able to be voted on, if this is a step to all schools qualifying for the playoffs in the future, the possibility of doing away with a north/south split in the playoff brackets, if there will be change to the postseason seeding procedure, and more.

On Sportsline this week, Ty Taylor and Jim Taylor were joined in-studio by Sherrard boys basketball coach Alex Johnson and Mike Hutchins Holiday Classic Tournament Director Eric Hutchins to preview this year's field and reveal the bracket for the 2025 event.

Then, Ty talks with Byron boys basketball coach Matt Huels (44:23), Princeton boys basketball coach Jason Smith (55;19), and Annawan boys basketball coach Alex Coppejans (1:02:50).

Ty and Jim close the show by looking ahead to the tournament and reacting to the local boys and girls basketball sub-sectional assignments, which were released this week. (1:15:16)

On Sportsline this week, Ty Taylor and Jim Taylor (appearing from Chicago), opened the show recapping the first night of TRAC West boys basketball on Friday and discussed longtime Orion High School football coach Chip Filler's decision to step away from the program.

Then, Filler joins the show in a conversation recorded Friday night just a few hours after he made the decision to resign (30:52).

Later in the program, Ty looks ahead at the 2025-26 wrestling season with Rockridge head coach Lucas Smith (43:05), Sherrard head coach Jeff Garrett (58:50), and Mercer County head coach Jeremy Finch (1:09:19).

On Sportsline this week Ty Taylor and Jim Taylor open the show recapping the 1A-4A IHSA football state championship games and the opening week of local boys high school basketball.

Then, talk through the 12 by-law amendment proposals that IHSA member schools will be voting on this month (49:46).

Orion High School assistant boys basketball coach Travis Anderson, a 2011 graduate of the school, joins the show this week to speak about the meaning of the 10 & 32 Tip-Off Classic, which is named after his late teammates and friends Danny DeBacker and Andy Adams. (1:32:44).

On Sportsline this week, Ty Taylor and Jim Taylor open the show discussing the IHSA football semifinals and react to the first week of the local girls basketball season.

Then, they dive into a preview of the TRAC West boys basketball season.

Guests this week:

• Orion boys basketball coach Larry Anderson (1:04:52)
• Rockridge boys basketball coach Jordan Harris (1:22:28)
• Mercer County boys basketball coach Tim Sedam (1:36:34)
• Sherrard boys basketball coach Alex Johnson (1:48:22)

On Sportsline this week, Ty Taylor and Jim Taylor open the show by looking back at Rockridge's season-ending second-round playoff loss to Tri-Valley last week and previewing the Class 1A-3A quarterfinals.

Then, they discuss Sherrard football coach Dan McGuire retiring and Sherrard girls track and field coach Todd Volkert earning a selection into the ITCCCA Hall of Fame.

Ty and Jim close the opening segment by previewing the local girls basketball season.

This week, Rockridge girls basketball coach Kyle Chandler (47:10), Sherrard girls basketball coach Doug Swanson (56:54), Mercer County girls basketball coach (1:09:48) join the show.

On Sportsline this week, Ty Taylor and Jim Taylor open the show by previewing Saturday's IHSA 2A second-round playoff match-up between Rockridge and Tri-Valley, before looking around at the rest of the 2A and local matchups.

They then discuss Riverdale's wild sectional championship volleyball win on Thursday, which saw the Rams win the second and third sets after two coaches were ejected. They close the opening segment by covering Annawan's decision to cancel its 2025-26 girls basketball season.

Then, El Paso-Gridley football coach Tanner Benedict joins the show to help preview the Rockridge-Tri-Valley game. (1:02:27)