2025 IHSA Football Playoffs

Status
Not open for further replies.
#126      
IlliniUnited
therealmiket86 said:
The west suburban gold is horrible but they only had 2 teams qualify. The cps has a lot of teams in the playoffs. Look at the 5a bracket st Francis basically has a bye this week
Click to expand...
Downers South, Addison Trail and Willowbrook were all in. In previous years Hinsdale South and Leyden have snuck in.

The biggest issue with the IHSA is how they seed the teams. In all other sports, those CPS teams would be the 14-16 seeded team and never play each other but in the IHSA system for football, you end up with them playing each other and ESL seeded as a 8-9 game because they had some losses to national ranked teams.
 
#127      
therealmiket86
IlliniUnited said:
Downers South, Addison Trail and Willowbrook were all in. In previous years Hinsdale South and Leyden have snuck in.

The biggest issue with the IHSA is how they seed the teams. In all other sports, those CPS teams would be the 14-16 seeded team and never play each other but in the IHSA system for football, you end up with them playing each other and ESL seeded as a 8-9 game because they had some losses to national ranked teams.
Click to expand...

Willowbrook had a competitive program recently and were winning playoff games. I don’t think Leyden has made the playoffs over 10 years. Hinsdale south last made the playoffs in 2018
 
#128      
Battle89
IlliniUnited said:
Downers South, Addison Trail and Willowbrook were all in. In previous years Hinsdale South and Leyden have snuck in.

The biggest issue with the IHSA is how they seed the teams. In all other sports, those CPS teams would be the 14-16 seeded team and never play each other but in the IHSA system for football, you end up with them playing each other and ESL seeded as a 8-9 game because they had some losses to national ranked teams.
Click to expand...
Well they did seed St. Patrick 14th but then they went out and won their opening game. Which led to a round 2 game vs. CG and a blowout.

Bottom half of the 5A bracket is almost perfect by seed: 1,2,3,5
Top half is all over the place: 2,6,9,13
 
Last edited:
#129      
IlliniFaninHoosierLand
Quarterfinal match-ups involving central Illinois teams:

Carrollton at Brown County
Tri-Valley at Wilmington
Farmington at El Paso-Gridley
Flora at Maroa-Forsyth
ALAH at Westville
Tolono Unity at Williamsville
Vandalia at SJO
SHG at Rochester
Washington at Providence Catholic
Oak Forest at Peoria Central
St. Laurence at Dunlap
 
#131      
therealmiket86
Battle89 said:
Well they did seed St. Patrick 14th but then they went out and won their opening game. Which led to a round 2 game vs. CG and a blowout.

Bottom half of the 5A bracket is almost perfect by seed: 1,2,3,5
Top half is all over the place: 2,6,9,13
Click to expand...

St pats isn’t a public league team
 
#133      
Second place is 1st loser
This is High School, not college or pro. One of the main reasons for the change was to allow some of these KIDS to have the playoff experience. For 99% of these 17 year olds, it'll be the last snap they'll ever take until they're playing with their own kids in their backyards.

If we really want to get rough on high school kids, there probably shouldn't even be class 1A or 2A. People living in the state have NO clue where these towns of 50 are.

Big picture here fellas, big picture.
 
#134      
therealmiket86
Battle89 said:
Yes I know, was lumping them into that small private category (in other words not as good) like CPS schools.
Click to expand...

Pats is an average 5a team. They got beat up by a CG program that’s been a perennial 6a contender. I would imagine CG would destroy majority of the 5a bracket like that
 
#135      
IlliniUnited
Battle89 said:
Yes I know, was lumping them into that small private category (in other words not as good) like CPS schools.
Click to expand...
St. Pats is a private school that plays in the Catholic League. Vastly different than a CPS team. They were a 14 seed because of the stupid IHSA system. They likely would be closer to the middle of the pack if football was seeded by the coaches like all other IHSA sports.
 
#136      
fuddrules
Im just happy elitism isn't part of the IHSA philosophy for the football playoffs. For too many fans, it is part of the equation.
 
#137      
Battle89
Not sure what nerve I struck here but there was no intent. I started by asking why CG was in 5A, and that would seem to be the same as supporting the statements above that CG vs St Pats was not a ‘fair’ fight by seeding.

I’m not anti-St Pats or any other school, nor elitist. Good luck to all.
 
#138      
Illini92and96
therealmiket86 said:
You can reduce it to 6 classes. That’ll never happen they are pushing for a playoff expansion
Click to expand...
More classes or more teams? Do you know roughly what % of the teams make the playoffs today? ChatGPT didn’t have it. If .500 team are making it, seems like it is approaching 50% today
 
#139      
therealmiket86
Illini92and96 said:
More classes or more teams? Do you know roughly what % of the teams make the playoffs today? ChatGPT didn’t have it. If .500 team are making it, seems like it is approaching 50% today
Click to expand...

More teams. Definitely something we don’t need. Don’t be surprised if eventually everyone makes the playoffs
 
#140      
fuddrules
Illini92and96 said:
More classes or more teams? Do you know roughly what % of the teams make the playoffs today? ChatGPT didn’t have it. If .500 team are making it, seems like it is approaching 50% today
Click to expand...
It's the Roxana, IL proposal. It's regional play with playoff expansion. It'll never pass.
 
#143      
Bleedorangeandblue44
therealmiket86 said:
More teams. Definitely something we don’t need. Don’t be surprised if eventually everyone makes the playoffs
Click to expand...
I've spent 30 years covering high school sports in the dying media industry, there's nothing I hate more than first round football playoff games. (well, maybe the IHSA starting volleyball, soccer, 8A football, 4A basketball, etc state championship games around 9 p.m. -- like how is it possible to get that in the paper the next day) -- but anyway, yes, I am all for fewer teams in the football playoffs (which like you said will never happen) It's just a joke the first round games and running clock games. Make it stop, please. We need fewer teams to make the playoffs, not more. And I also liked the football playoffs much more with 6 classes than 8, not everybody needs to win a state championship. It's OK if you wind up making the semifinals in 6A or whatever and losing, you still had a great season and lost to a great team, you have a lot to be proud of if you don't make it to state in a watered-down field.
 
#144      
Piotyr
Illini92and96 said:
More classes or more teams? Do you know roughly what % of the teams make the playoffs today? ChatGPT didn’t have it. If .500 team are making it, seems like it is approaching 50% today
Click to expand...
According to MaxPreps, 516 Illinois high schools played enough games to count in their rankings (3). 256 teams make the playoffs (8 classes of 32 teams), so just under 50%.

Honestly, overall, it feels about right. Every other sport has 100% of the teams in the playoffs, and the first round or two is typically just as lopsided across the baord. Most of the problems in football playoffs are caused by the combination of class allocation, seeding, and home field allotment, where you are effectively rewarded if you're a low seed matched up against a high-enrollment CPS team that is overmatched in their class, and as a result you get a home game second round against a high quality high seed team.

Assuming the home allotment pattern remains the same (which is an effort to bring competitive balance to a potentially flawed seeding system), some of the easiest ways to fix the problem:

- For seeding, factor in average enrollment of opponents. 7-2 against a bunch of 5a schools is a completely different beast than 7-2 against a bunch of 1a schools.
- For CPS schools, maybe factor in an enrollment divider of some type so they can get put in a bracket of teams more on their level of skill. Nobody benefits when Curie or Lane or Whitney Young get in the 8a bracket because their school enrollment is technically 2500+ even though their realistic football enrollment is probably closer to half that.
 
#145      
Ryllini
Bleedorangeandblue44 said:
I've spent 30 years covering high school sports in the dying media industry, there's nothing I hate more than first round football playoff games. (well, maybe the IHSA starting volleyball, soccer, 8A football, 4A basketball, etc state championship games around 9 p.m. -- like how is it possible to get that in the paper the next day) -- but anyway, yes, I am all for fewer teams in the football playoffs (which like you said will never happen) It's just a joke the first round games and running clock games. Make it stop, please. We need fewer teams to make the playoffs, not more. And I also liked the football playoffs much more with 6 classes than 8, not everybody needs to win a state championship. It's OK if you wind up making the semifinals in 6A or whatever and losing, you still had a great season and lost to a great team, you have a lot to be proud of if you don't make it to state in a watered-down field.
Click to expand...
Unfortunately in this case, expansion does seem likely. I loved the 6 classes for football and 2 for basketball. Those were the days for me.
How many schools/conferences only play each other in regular season play or 8 of the 9 are conference games? I wonder if and when expansion comes, will the drive for 5 become less of a thing and some of these schools will start to schedule a little tougher in the regular season.

There also seems to me that something could be done with these conferences. There is a 3 class spread with some of these teams within conference.
 
#146      
Curbelo Fanboy
And the real elephant in the room with IHSA football (especially) is the disparity of private/non boundaried schools that win titles. Last year I believe 7 of the 8 classes were won by those schools & the other class was East St Louis who appears to recruit with the best of them.

Playoff expansion is utter absurdity in my opinion. The first round is littered with 56-7 type of scores already. No need to add 90-7 scores to the mix as well. As mentioned previously, 6 classes was better than 8 but nothing will be worse than what they did on the hoops side going from 2 to 4. The state finals is a blip on the radar these days compared to what March Madness was prior to the 4 class move.
 
#147      
therealmiket86
Curbelo Fanboy said:
And the real elephant in the room with IHSA football (especially) is the disparity of private/non boundaried schools that win titles. Last year I believe 7 of the 8 classes were won by those schools & the other class was East St Louis who appears to recruit with the best of them.

Playoff expansion is utter absurdity in my opinion. The first round is littered with 56-7 type of scores already. No need to add 90-7 scores to the mix as well. As mentioned previously, 6 classes was better than 8 but nothing will be worse than what they did on the hoops side going from 2 to 4. The state finals is a blip on the radar these days compared to what March Madness was prior to the 4 class move.
Click to expand...

Last year was the only time private schools dominated like that. Part of that reason was the new rule thay private schools lose their multiplier if they haven’t won a playoff game in a couple years. By doing that Montini fell to 3a and DePaul prep in 4a. Multiple them and the results could be different.

People like to pretend it doesn’t happen but public schools are also recruiting a lot. Glenbard west added a lot of transfers right before the season started from ccl teams. Obviously LWE has had several high profile transfers. When kids are moving around like this is created a few really good teams snd and a bunch of bad teams
 
#148      
Curbelo Fanboy
therealmiket86 said:
Last year was the only time private schools dominated like that. Part of that reason was the new rule thay private schools lose their multiplier if they haven’t won a playoff game in a couple years. By doing that Montini fell to 3a and DePaul prep in 4a. Multiple them and the results could be different.

People like to pretend it doesn’t happen but public schools are also recruiting a lot. Glenbard west added a lot of transfers right before the season started from ccl teams. Obviously LWE has had several high profile transfers. When kids are moving around like this is created a few really good teams snd and a bunch of bad teams
Click to expand...
Oh I don't disagree on the publics. As mentioned by my skepticism of the legitimacy of the East St Louis residency of their roster. If they are legit that means they are churning out 1 D1 football player for about every 1800 residents in the town & have done so for a number of years. That seems preposterous on its face.

But TBH, it is near impossible for the IHSA to administer that. They don't have the manpower to validate every address of every athlete in the state. Or even just the questionable ones. The only real solution is some kind of separate classification for the privates/non boundaried & then if the publics are caught cheating, they are DQ'd from playoffs for a long time as punishment.

I'm originally from the Quincy area & Quincy High basketball got caught in a residency issue back in the 90's which led to a coach ultimately leaving. They also had a long run of exchange students that were all 6'6" & could play hoops at a high level. Not to mention allegations from surrounding towns that a certain business in Quincy was giving jobs to parents of good players such that they would move to Quincy. So the cheating been around a long time. And I love Quincy High basketball. It's just a reality of how it is.
 
#149      
Pikeillinifan
therealmiket86 said:
Last year was the only time private schools dominated like that. Part of that reason was the new rule thay private schools lose their multiplier if they haven’t won a playoff game in a couple years. By doing that Montini fell to 3a and DePaul prep in 4a. Multiple them and the results could be different.

People like to pretend it doesn’t happen but public schools are also recruiting a lot. Glenbard west added a lot of transfers right before the season started from ccl teams. Obviously LWE has had several high profile transfers. When kids are moving around like this is created a few really good teams snd and a bunch of bad teams
Click to expand...
Glenbard West and LWE did have a few big-time transfers, but in fairness, for kids to transfer public schools, families have to relocate, so it's not as easy as switching to a private school - unless they live in the district.

For LWE, Blaise LaVista moved from Libertyville, Jayden Cawthon from Plainfield, and Jonas Williams (a couple of years ago) from Bolingbrook.
 
#150      
therealmiket86
Pikeillinifan said:
Glenbard West and LWE did have a few big-time transfers, but in fairness, for kids to transfer public schools, families have to relocate, so it's not as easy as switching to a private school - unless they live in the district.

For LWE, Blaise LaVista moved from Libertyville, Jayden Cawthon from Plainfield, and Jonas Williams (a couple of years ago) from Bolingbrook.
Click to expand...

I hate the break it to you but not everyone is relocating. Look at what was going on with OPRF’s wrestling program. They had a booster who was letting families use addresses at aprartments he owned. I also know of several transfers or kids that lived out of district and never had and issue.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back