IHSA football playoffs: Guide to Illinois high school bracket picks

On Saturday night, the 256 high school football teams in the 2024 Illinois state playoffs — 68 conference champions and 188 at-large teams — will know who and where they play to open the postseason.

But you have questions.

We have answers.

Here is a look at some of the frequently asked questions about the Illinois High School Association playoffs and how the eight-class field is set.

Looking for the brackets? You can find them here on Saturday night

Heading into Week 9, there are 221 eligible teams with five or more wins and another 58 with four wins. Officially, as of Friday morning, a total of 143 teams have earned berths via conference championships or by winning six or more games. The final 113 playoff teams will be those who win their sixth game this weekend and the remaining five-win teams with the highest playoff points. If there are still open spots after five-win teams are in, the four-win teams with the highest number of playoff points complete the field.

Add the number of victories by the nine teams on your schedule: those are your playoff points. The higher the number, the tougher the schedule and the more likely a team with fewer than six wins makes the field. For playoff teams with the same number of victories, playoff points also help determine seeding within a class.

Behind the scenes:The not-so-secret formula behind the Illinois football playoff process

Playoff points are becoming less important for qualification. The last two seasons, every eligible team with five wins has made the playoffs. In 2022, one four-win team made the field, and last season six four-win teams made the playoffs. Four-win teams need a very high playoff point total to qualify. The four-win teams to make the field in 2023 had between 49 and 56 playoff points.

Yep. Last season, for just the second time since the IHSA expanded to eight classes in 2001, the field of 256 included at-large teams with four wins. This is mainly because fewer schools are playing 11-man football — either because of schools combining to join co-ops or programs shifting to 8-player football. Heading into Week 9, IHSA bracketologist Steve Soucie of Friday Night Drive projects five four-win teams to make the field of 256: Chicago Lane, Chicago Kenwood, Oswego East, Elmhurst Immaculate Conception Catholic and Glen Ellyn Glenbard West.

First, forget everything about polls or playoff outlooks. A school's in-season classification is strictly a guideline and has no bearing on its postseason class. The IHSA will take the 256 teams that qualify and place them in order of football enrollment (including non-boundaried multipliers, teams playing up and success adjustments). The 32 qualifiers with the lowest enrollments will make up Class 1A, the 32 with the next highest will be 2A, and so on, through all eight classes.

Programs have the option to “play up” into a larger class than their enrollment dictates, an option exercised this season by three schools: Glen Ellyn Glenbard South (6A), East St. Louis (6A) and Antioch (6A). Two teams are bumped up a class by the "success adjustment." Springfield Sacred Heart-Griffin will play in Class 5A, while Chicago St. Rita will play in 7A .

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For the six smallest classes (1A through 6A), the IHSA will divide each 32-team field into 16-team halves based on geography. Seeds within each half are based on: 1) wins, 2) wins by opponents, 3) wins of defeated opponents. After that, ties are broken based on: 1) head-to-head results and 2) random selection by computer. Teams will be paired 1 vs. 16, 2 vs. 15, and so on. The 32-team fields in Class 7A and 8A will be fully seeded (1 vs. 32, 2 vs. 31, etc.)

In the first round, the better seed is host. In subsequent rounds, the team that has hosted fewer times during the current playoffs series is host. If both have hosted an equal number of times, host site defers back to the better seed.

First-round games are the weekend of Nov. 1-2. Playoff games must be played on Saturday unless both schools agree to play on Friday. Friday games must not be scheduled during school hours, and Saturday games must start between 1-7 p.m. The schools must agree on the starting time of the game; if not, the IHSA will set the kickoff time.

In most statewide markets, the IHSA football pairings show will air live from 8-9 p.m. Saturday through the IHSA TV Network, on the NFHS Network and live on ihsa.org. In Peoria, the show will air live on WEEK's CW (channel 25.3). IHSA TV announcer Dave Bernhard will reveal the first-round matchups.

At Hancock Stadium in Normal. The 1A through 4A title games will be on Friday, Nov. 29. The four largest class title games will be on Saturday, Nov. 30.

Wes Huett is Journal Star sports and news editor. Email him at [email protected]. Follow him on X @WesHuett.