CSM Pick 'Em: Playoffs First Round, 2026
The playoff football field was trimmed to its previously normal size of 256 last week and the field will be cut in half this week.
The First Round of the playoffs — last week was called the “Opening Round — will feature 13 area teams ranging from Class 1A to Class 7A.
Many of those teams are coming off Opening Round byes, including Pekin, Dunlap, Normal Community, Normal West, Morton, Bloomington Central Catholic, El Paso-Gridley, Tri-Valley and Heyworth. Each of those teams will host their playoff game this weekend.
One twist to this weekend is three area games are regular season rematches. Washington will take on Troy Triad in Class 5A after falling to Triad 27-21 back in Week 2. Bloomington Central Catholic will also look to flip the script against Tolono Unity in Class 3A after the Rockets won 27-19 in Week 3. Normal West aims to beat Chatham Glenwood in Class 6A for the second time this season after scoring a 35-26 win back in Week 1.
Clutch Sports Media will be providing free, live broadcasts of three games around Central Illinois this weekend. Pekin takes on Harvey Thornton in our WMBD Game of the Week on Friday at 7 p.m., which can be watched at centralillinoisproud.com/games/. On Saturday, CSM will have audio-only broadcasts of Dunlap vs. LaGrange Park Nazareth Academy (1:30 PM) and Bloomington Central Catholic vs. Tolono Unity (1 PM) on clutchsportsil.com. Saturday’s game are audio-only due to NFHS Network restrictions.
Six CSM staff members have made their picks for each playoff game around the area this week in our CSM Pick ‘Em below. Broadcasters of our broadcasted games are ineligible to pick winners of games they are broadcasting and will pick the winner of an extra game instead.
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