What we learned in Week 4: Has parity reached IHSA football?

Has parity arrived in high school football in Illinois?

Evidence seems to point to it, considering the number of power programs that aren’t finding their regular season path to be nearly as smooth as usual.

The numbers tend to agree as well.

Consider this: 120 of the playoff eligible teams enter Week 5 with two victories in the bank. Nearly 25% of the playoff eligible teams find themselves there.

And while the pool of undefeated teams remains stable at 77, the pool of 3-1 teams is significantly smaller.

Those numbers are important for several reasons.

Teams with two wins right now need to go at least 3-2 to reach the standard of 5-wins traditionally needed for playoff qualification. Obviously, that isn’t going to happen for all of them, probably at least half, but there’s no guarantee of that either. There are multiple conferences where there are three teams sitting at 2-2 (DuKane, Illini Prairie, Mid-Suburban East, Northwest Upstate Illini) and one that almost inexplicably has six in the Kishwaukee River.

That matters because many of those teams still have to play one another and then beyond that many still have to play teams with records better than 2-2. That creates many more paths to teams ending up with more than four losses than the reverse.

Some conferences flexing their muscles

The Mid-Suburban West continues to be the surprise story of the early portion of the season, wrapping up the nonconference portion of the season with four teams (Fremd, Barrington, Hoffman Estates and Schaumburg) still undefeated.

Collectively the league is 19-5 and sets up a situation where the league will have multiple marquee matchups per week the rest of the season.

The Lincoln Prairie, Sangamo, Vermilion Valley and West Suburban Silver all have three undefeated teams, which again makes it difficult for teams trying to scratch their way back from an average or below average start.

There are multiple leagues that don’t have any undefeated teams. Perhaps most surprising among that bunch is the CCL/ESCC Blue, where Mount Carmel is the only team above .500 with a 3-1 record and the collective record of the group is just 8-8.

The dominant league in the CCL/ESCC through four weeks is surprisingly the Purple Division where it is the only league that has two remaining unbeatens in Benet and DePaul Prep and the collective record of the division is 13-3.

Teams with work to do

There are over 100 teams in the state that opened up the season with a 1-3 record, several of which are in uncommon territory to what those programs are used to.

Teams like Willowbrook, South Elgin, Hillcrest, Lake Zurich, Maine South, Brother Rice and Hope Academy all find themselves in this particular bind.

Every game isn’t a must win for these teams, but it is pretty close to being the case.

Scoreboard operators work overtime

Offensive play was way up in Week 4.

A whopping 49 teams posted 50 or more points in wins in Week 4. The list was topped not surprisingly by Peoria, who scored 86 points in their victory and now lead the state in points scored. Two more teams joined that group of 50-point scorers, but it wasn’t enough to net them a win.

Byron needed only a quarter to reach that 50-pint benchmark in its win, while Coal City managed eight first half touchdowns in their victory.

If you lower the bar to 40 points, another 76 teams are added to that list. So over 25% of the playoff eligible teams netted at least 40 points in games this weekend.

Even so, defense still had its day in some places as 40 shutouts were recorded across the state.