2025 IHSA Football Playoffs

Ryllini · Oct 25, 2025

The selection show is tonight. I think some of these brackets have a chance to be really good. 8a and 6a specifically.

I wonder what half of the bracket LWE will fall in 8a. Do those 2 straight losses put them in the Mount Carmel side?

7a seems wide open to me.

Who will challenge ESTL in 6a? They won't be the 1 seed overall, so in theory a tougher road. A few more schools with a bunch of talent are in 6a. I'm pulling for Naz in they bracket.

I think Montini will repeat, but will have more challenges than just the 1 they had in 3a. Speaking of that challenge, does Byron just run through or do they get challenged by anyone.

Pikeillinifan · Oct 25, 2025

Lincoln-Way East should have both Jonas Williams and Jacob Alexander back (they missed the last two games where they lost), It would suck to have them on the same side as MC. At full strength, those are the two best teams by a long shot in 8a.

I’ve seen a few East games this year, and with Williams and Alexander, they are a juggernaut. They made Kankakee look like a JV team and crushed Maine South in Park Ridge. My concern is, can they both step back in and play at that same high level, or has the team chemistry/confidence taken a hit?

That said, take away Williams and Alexander, and they would be out in the first round. I’ve never seen that kind of drop off from one of the best HS teams I've seen play, to one that looks pedestrian.

Ryllini · Oct 25, 2025

Pikeillinifan said:
Lincoln-Way East should have both Jonas Williams and Jacob Alexander back (they missed the last two games where they lost), It would suck to have them on the same side as MC. At full strength, those are the two best teams by a long shot in 8a.

I’ve seen a few East games this year, and with Williams and Alexander, they are a juggernaut. They made Kankakee look like a JV team and crushed Maine South in Park Ridge. My concern is, can they both step back in and play at that same high level, or has the team chemistry/confidence taken a hit?

That said, take away Williams and Alexander, and they would be out in the first round. I’ve never seen that kind of drop off from one of the best HS teams I've seen play, to one that looks pedestrian.

Would be unfornute, but not uncommon for these playoffs to have the the best teams on the same side.
Why was the LWE game on Thursday this week?

Pikeillinifan · Oct 25, 2025

Ryllini said:
Would be unfornute, but not uncommon for these playoffs to have the the best teams on the same side.
Why was the LWE game on Thursday this week?

That is unclear to me. My daughter is on the East dance team and was not sure why it was Thursday either. From the East side, I guess it's better to let them get an extra day of rest/practice before the playoffs. I bet they end up getting MC in the third round, assuming they can pull things back together.

These last two games have been odd. East is usually a run-first team, but they built a new offense around Williams, which is 60-70% throwing the ball. They have few great receivers, including LaVista who is a Washington commit, and Williams (USC) is incredibly mobile with a great arm.

East played their backup sr. quarterback vs. Naperville North, and he isn't able to throw the ball and is only 5'9", so he is not a great threat to run either. They do also have a RB who is really good and is going to Navy to play football, so its not like they have no run game. Against Naperville North, they moved the ball but totally stalled out in the red zone, and instead of trying to get some field goals, inexplicably kept going for it on fourth down.

Against Sandburg, they called up the sophomore QB for his first varsity playing time. The kid is much better and about 6'1" with a solid arm, but he threw a couple of picks in his first time playing varsity (he only practiced with the sophomore team prior to that start), so it's not unexpected. They also missed a couple of field goals and were in a position to win, but again stalled out on fourth a few times.

Mt Carmel has such great athletes; if they played East without Williams and Alexander, they'd win by 25+, but if those two are actually back for East, it could be a great game.

IlliniFaninHoosierLand · Oct 25, 2025

Gonna be fun to see my high school alma mater back in the playoffs for the first time since 2013. Program had really been down in recent years. Back in 2019, they had about 20-25 kids out for football. This year, they had 62 kids come out and it has helped quite a bit. They're a 3A school for football do to co-ops though they would likely be a 1A school based on what current enrollment of the school is.

For those wanting to watch the pairings show tonight, here's a link that will show what stations it will air on around the state: https://www.ihsa.org/news-media/art...yoff-pairing-show-live-on-saturday-october-25

IlliniFaninHoosierLand · Oct 25, 2025

Ryllini said:
I wonder what half of the bracket LWE will fall in 8a. Do those 2 straight losses put them in the Mount Carmel side?

In Soucie's projection this morning, he had them as a 9 seed and on the same side of the bracket as Mount Carmel. He had LWE facing Lockport with the winner getting Whitney Young or Stevenson.

Ryllini · Oct 25, 2025

IlliniFaninHoosierLand said:
In Soucie's projection this morning, he had them as a 9 seed and on the same side of the bracket as Mount Carmel. He had LWE facing Lockport with the winner getting Whitney Young or Stevenson.

Another note about 8a is Loyola. I know they aren't what they were, but they could be the last seeded team. MC vs Loyola in the first round doesn't seem right.

I really feel teams in 6a are about to be served some injustice. ESTL will probably be anywhere from a 6-9 seed because they lost to some national powers.

I really wish the IHSA would use their heads a little bit more while seeding these things.

You seem to still live in this area, but who is good out of the old Big 12. I really miss that conference being good for central Illinois.

IlliniFaninHoosierLand · Oct 25, 2025

Ryllini said:
I really feel teams in 6a are about to be served some injustice. ESTL will probably be anywhere from a 6-9 seed because they lost to some national powers.

You seem to still live in this area, but who is good out of the old Big 12. I really miss that conference being good for central Illinois.

Soucie has ESL as an 8 seed facing Plainfield East. Winner gets Glenwood/JCA winner in the 2nd round.

I'm located more in the Springfield area so I don't really follow the Big 12 that much. From what I've found, Normal Community and Peoria Central were the top two teams in the conference this season with the Lions winning last night to clinch the regular season title. Normal West, PND, and Bloomington have all clinched playoff spots with Centennial having the 5 wins to make them playoff eligible, and it sounds like they'll get in.

One large school from the Springfield area that I could potentially see making a run (assuming the bracket breaks right for them) is Glenwood. They are a senior laden team and a lot of folks in Chatham have looked at this team as having one of their best shots in years at making a deep run in the playoffs. Would be a shame if Soucie's projection is right and they'd have to face JCA and ESL the first 2 rounds.

IlliniUnited · Oct 25, 2025

Ryllini said:
Why was the LWE game on Thursday this week?

I heard the ongoing ref shortage. Probably helps get an extra days rest before the playoffs.

Pikeillinifan · Oct 25, 2025

IlliniUnited said:
I heard the ongoing ref shortage. Probably helps get an extra days rest before the playoffs.

I bet you are right, there was a radio show there and one of the topics was the ref shortage and they were trying to encourage people to try out.

IlliniUnited · Oct 25, 2025

Pikeillinifan said:
I bet you are right, there was a radio show there and one of the topics was the ref shortage and they were trying to encourage people to try out.

It is really not worth the abuse. Starting at 2nd grade tackle games, uneducated spectators are shouting at you all game.

IlliniFaninHoosierLand · Oct 25, 2025

Pikeillinifan said:
I bet you are right, there was a radio show there and one of the topics was the ref shortage and they were trying to encourage people to try out.

On one of the game broadcasts here locally last night, they said that IHSA is trying to encourage as many schools as they can to host 1st round games on Friday night, even though it's Halloween, in part because of the ref shortage.

IlliniUnited · Oct 25, 2025

IlliniFaninHoosierLand said:
On one of the game broadcasts here locally last night, they said that IHSA is trying to encourage as many schools as they can to host 1st round games on Friday night, even though it's Halloween, in part because of the ref shortage.

What is odd about that is there should be 1/2 of the varsity games that you would normally have plus no lower level games so you would think more refs would be available. Maybe they go with a bigger crew for the playoffs.

IlliniFaninHoosierLand · Oct 25, 2025

IlliniUnited said:
What is odd about that is there should be 1/2 of the varsity games that you would normally have plus no lower level games so you would think more refs would be available. Maybe they go with a bigger crew for the playoffs.

I think the reasoning with the IHSA may have been more related to families taking kids out trick-or-treating on Friday and not wanting schools to move all the playoff games to Saturday because of it.