I have said my peace many times about this issue. The best one can do with the current rules is to give the higher seed the option of hosting round one.
Why not make the higher seed the host all the time? Why reward a team in a weak conference playing a weak schedule. The IHSA would have to create a formula accounting for strength of schedule, historical data, non-transitive score comparisons and then subject that formula to endless debates because it will never be right.
The current situation in Illinois HS Football has schools manipulating their non-con schedule and manipulating their conference alignments just to get to the Magic 5-4 playoff number or the guaranteed spot with a 6-3 record. Athletic Directors have a tough enough time getting non-conference games in this environment. Now everyone wants to add higher seeds always hosting. There are not enough cream puffs to go around.
Bottom line, since 1974, has there ever been a non-deserving State Champion. You can talk about some teams that got a bad draw or woulda coulda shouldas all day long but at the end of the day, the once 5, then 6, and then 8 teams that stand on the podium at the end of the season deserve to be Champions for running the 5 game gauntlet with whatever set of rules are in place at that time. I do not want to hear this team or that team should have been state champions, all the schools we cheer for have that one team that screwed over. Tell me instead, of the list of champions, who does not belong?