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Follow along as this weekend’s results shape and then reshape the field of 256 teams that qualify for the IHSA playoffs.
Saturday updates
10:23 a.m.: 251 playoff eligible teams have five victories. With four 4-4 teams playing Saturday (Marmion, Perspectives Leadership, Westinghouse, Noble/Bulls) the maximum number of teams that can reach five wins in 255.
Breaking some ties that I wasn’t able to get to last night.
Some slight seed adjustments made to bracket.
Note: Glenbard East and Naperville Central along with Fremd and Stevenson will remain tied after traditional tie breakers and will be ultimately decided by random number generator.
New 8A bracket below.
10:58 a.m.: Some tiebreakers fixed in Class 7A.
Some switch-ups largely affected the middle of the draw.
11:16 a.m.: Tiebreakers adjusted. It appears East St. Louis has moved to the No. 1 line in 6A South.
11:32 a.m.: No adjustments made to 5A bracket from last evening. Biggest shift could come there if Simeon were to defeat Morgan Park.
11:43 a.m.: Minor adjustment to 4A North bracket
11:54 a.m.: Minor adjustment to 3A North bracket
12:04 p.m.: Minor adjustments to 2A bracket, both sides.
Friday updates
7:28 p.m.: King’s surprising decision to forfeit to Goode on Friday afternoon led to a bit of a shock wave to the field. King was 6-2 entering the game and Goode was 4-4 so that created a reversal from the projection and moved Goode to the 5-win plateau.
That meant a spot in the field had to be created for Goode (in the Class 5A field), while Glenbard West was moved off the field bubble and to spot 257 currently. Goode’s inclusion in the 5A field pushed Dunlap to 6A and Willowbrook to 7A.
Another CPL shift came from the first final of the day. Amundsen defeated Lane to earn its fifth win. Lane was the only 3-5 team projected to beat a 4-4 team this week, so that also led to another shift.
Lane was removed from the projected 8A field with Edwardsville sliding into the 8A field to fill that vacancy, while Guilford moved down to the 7A field and Amundsen slotted into 6A.
These events led to bracket changes of some sort either in seeds and/or teams in field for 3A, 5A, 6A, 7A and 8A.
2:31 a.m.: We entered Friday believing that four four-win teams would need to be added to the field to fill the field of 256.
But over the course of the evening, six 4-4 teams (Prairie Central, Chicago Goode, Genoa-Kingston, Collinsville, Marengo and Clifton Central) earned wins on the field other than Goode who earned a forfeit win defeating opponents that had a record that was better than 4-4.
Conversely, three 4-4 teams (Plainfield North, Homewood-Flossmoor and Wheaton North) all lost to teams that had a record worse than 4-4.
Since three spots needed to be created in the field after those two groups were considered the list of teams with 4-wins to fill the field was paired down to just one.
But of course there’s a variable to that. The team that sits on top of the list of teams that could finish 4-5 is Kenwood. But Kenwood must beat Phillips on Saturday to get that fourth victory. If they don’t get the win then Plainfield North steps to the front of that line and would claim the 256th spot.
Three other 4-4 teams still need to lock in the fifth win for qualification. 4-4 Marmion plays 1-7 Leo; 4-4 Westinghouse plays 2-6 Clark, 4-4 Noble Bulls/Prep plays 0-8 Hyde Park. Losses by any of those 4-4 teams will require additional 4-5 teams to be placed in the field.
Thursday updates
9:07 p.m.: Illini West defeats Tuscola 12-7. Both teams entered the game at 5-3 and were already somewhat locked in the field. But the projection had the game result reversed resulting in a seed improvement for Illini West in the Class 2A field, and a seed drop for Tuscola in 1A.
10:32 p.m.: There were a pair of CPL Week 9 games that effectively served as play-in games for the IHSA playoffs. The projection only correctly projected one of those two games, with Clemente’s win over Phoenix leading to changes in the Class 3A and Class 4A bracket. Clemente is a projected 4A school, so space had to be made in that draw for them which bumped South Shore down to Class 3A to take the spot of the projected winner Phoenix. The seed stacks changed in both 3A north and 4A north. Point of order despite having five wins on the season the losers of these two games (Noble/Comer and Phoenix) are not IHSA playoff eligible.
Revised brackets for all eight classes can be found below