IHSA football bracketology: Full bracket projections for all eight classes prior to Week 8
There’s always anticipation for how IHSA football brackets will shake out and for who will end up making a deep run in the playoffs.
However, there’s a renewed sense of anticipation this year as the IHSA debuts its 384-team field, a 128-team increase from past seasons.
IHSA schools voted to expand the playoffs following the 2025 season to 48 schools per class, giving the top 16 teams in each class a bye while the other 32 teams play in what is being called the Opening Round.
The heavily-expanded field has made it more difficult than usual to project the field and seedings. All 4-5 teams are confidently projected to make the field, all 3-6 teams are nearly ensured to be in as well, and a number of 2-7 teams with high numbers of opponents wins (a.k.a playoff points) will also join the field.
Because of this, essentially every team is still eligible for the playoffs heading into Week 8 of the regular season. According to these projections, the last team in the field is Romeoville, who is projected to finish 2-7 and currently has 32 opponents wins. Paxton-Buckley-Loda and Ridgeview/Lexington are also projected to finish 2-7 and currently have 32 opponents wins, but are not projected to have as many defeated opponents wins as Romeoville, thus losing the tiebreaker.
These bracket projections below are not an indication of a “if the season ended today” type of scenario. They can and are almost guaranteed to change slightly as teams will inevitably gain unexpected wins or suffer unexpected losses over Week 8 and Week 9. However, these projections should give an idea of where each team would be seeded, who they would play and what class they will be in. These projections will also be updated heading into Week 9.
These projections will also have breakdowns for each team in the Clutch Sports Media coverage area. Currently, 25 teams in the CSM coverage area are projected to make the playoffs, including Washington, Dee-Mack, Canton and IVC who are all right on the cusp.
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