The Illinois High School Association ruled Tuesday that Decatur Eisenhower must forfeit the first six games of the season because it used an ineligible player. The Panthers handed BHS its only loss of the year in their fifth game and snapped a 38-game regular season winning streak by the Purple Raiders.

Eisenhower has appealed the ruling and will present its case to the IHSA Board of Directors this morning via a conference call. The Board of Directors will make its ruling this afternoon.

"I don't really want to respond until the ruling on the appeal is final," said BHS coach Rigo Schmelzer.

Should the appeal be denied, BHS would receive a forfeit victory and its season record would be adjusted to 8-0, which would have a significant impact on the Purple Raiders' seeding in the state playoffs series.

It would also move BHS into sole possession of first place in the Big 12 Conference standings with a 7-0 record. Heading into the appeal, the Purple Raiders were tied with Normal Community and Mattoon for the league lead with 6-1 records.

"Obviously, we have to take care of business and win our game Friday (at Urbana)," said Schmelzer. "If we are able to do that, then it certainly helps us as far as seedings for the playoffs go.

"If we finished 7-1, we would probably be a three or four seed. If we are undefeated, it could certainly help us be a top seed in our quadrant."

Eisenhower notified the IHSA no later than Friday of last week of a possible violation. However, IHSA executive director Marty Hickman was out of the office at a conference and didn't see the information until Tuesday.

The eligibility violation stems from not complying with what Hickman called the "principal's concurrence rule" as it applied to transfer students.

The rule states that "in all transfer cases both the principal of the school from which the student transfers and the school to which the student transfers must approve of the transfer and execute a form provided by the IHSA office."

A student is not eligible to participate in an interscholastic contest until the transfer form, fully executed by both principals, is on file in the offices of the school to which the student transfers.

Hickman said that process was not followed. He told the Decatur Herald & Review that he had three options on the ruling -- forfeiture of games, the student being ruled ineligible for a further period and placing the school on probation.

"What we look at is, has the athlete in question been a significant contributor," Hickman told the Herald & Review. "They sent us the information and it was clear to me that young person was a significant contributor. Once we determined that, forfeiture was the usual sanction in a case like that."

If the appeal is denied, BHS will be gunning for its 43rd straight regular-season win at Urbana. And how does Schmelzer feel about that?

"To be honest, I look at it as we played a game against Eisenhower and lost," said Schmelzer of the 20-14 loss. "We were not ready to play that night.

"Eisenhower drove the ball on us in the fourth quarter and scored when they had to. We did not stop them and they beat us."