The final week of the football regular season has arrived and many of the best matchups in the area have been saved for last.
Headlining Week 9's slate of games in Central Illinois is Class 5A No. 4 Peoria High facing off with Class 7A No. 7 Normal Community at Dick Tharp Field in Normal with the Big 12 Conference championship on the line.
Other notable games include an important battle for playoff seeding between Metamora and Dunlap, plus Peoria Notre Dame, Morton and Dee-Mack all looking to win in order to secure their respective playoff berths.
Forecasting the brackets: IHSA football Bracketology: Projecting fields, seeds for all eight classes ahead of Week 9
Week 9 is also an important week for teams who won't be making the playoffs to build momentum going into next year as Canton and Limestone face each other looking for their first wins of the season and 1-7 Fieldcrest faces 2-6 Heyworth.
Our WMBD Game of the Week features 4-4 Morton taking on 6-2 Washington with the Potters looking to reach the playoffs for the second season in a row and the Panthers aiming to win back-to-back outright Mid-Illini Conference titles. You can watch that game live and for free on ciproud.com with pregame coverage starting at 7:10 p.m. and kickoff at 7:30.
Our Small Town Throwdown audio broadcasts heads to Dee-Mack as the Chiefs eye a win to get their 31st playoff berth in program history against Ridgeview/Lexington in Heart of Illinois (Large) Conference action. Listen to that game live and for free on clutchsporsil.com with pregame coverage starting at 6:45 p.m. and kickoff at 7.
The top teams in the area: Central Illinois football power rankings: Oct. 22, 2024
Our staff has made their picks and comments for 10 of the best games in the Central Illinois area this week, along with their season records listed below. Broadcasters for our broadcasted games are ineligible to pick winners for the games that they are broadcasting and will pick the winner of an 11th game instead.