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A common discussion thread once the playoffs begin is which conference or conferences are showing off how strong they really are.
Ultimately, the conferences that showed off the greatest strength were exactly the ones you might expect. All four of the members of the CCL/ESCC Blue advanced to the playoffs and all won their opening-round matchups. Another conference that had its depth lauded all season was the West Suburban Silver and it proved worthy of the accolades as all four qualifiers won opening-round games.
And the dominant small-school conference in the state, the Northwest Upstate Illini, doesn’t appear ready to end its reign. All five NUIC teams won opening-round matchups, including two teams that were the lower seeds.
Let’s take a look at some of the biggest storylines of the postseason’s opening round:
CCL/ESCC teams go on attack
The CCL/ESCC qualified 13 of its 22 teams for the postseason, and despite the league’s gauntlet leading to those entrants having quite a few losses among them – and lower seeds due to the losses – it went 11-2 in the opening round.
The only two schools to fail to reach the second round were the defending Class 5A state champions from Fenwick, which dropped a decision to Morgan Park, and St. Viator, which also dropped a Class 5A matchup to Sterling.
CCL/ESCC Blue squads Mount Carmel, Loyola, Brother Rice and Marist each won opening-round games fairly comfortably, collectively outscoring opponents 165-48 in the process.
The CCL/ESCC could get as many as 10 teams into the quarterfinals. Only two of the remaining 11 squads are playing one another. Joliet Catholic and Providence are set to play in Round 2, rekindling a 49-41 matchup won by Joliet Catholic in Week 4.
The CCL/ESCC isn’t the only league with a strong contingent moving on. The NUIC advanced all five of its qualifying teams and four-team qualifying conferences were the Big Northern (4-2), Illini Prairie (4-2), Sangamo (4-1) and West Suburban Silver (4-0).
Conversely, the Central Suburban North, Chicago Public League’s Red Central, Red North Central, Red North, Southwest Prairie East and West Suburban Gold no longer have any representation among the remaining 128 teams.
Mixed bag for the CPL
Six Chicago Public League schools advanced to the second round of the playoffs.
Four of those schools (Kenwood, Payton, Goode and Urban Prep-Bronzeville) came from games where a CPS school was guaranteed to be a winner as it was paired with another CPS school. It was the first playoff win for both Payton and Goode. It was also Goode’s first playoff appearance.
The other two wins all came from Simeon and Morgan Park, and those two are considered a cut above most of the other CPL schools to begin with.
But the other 15 CPL teams not named Simeon or Morgan Park that played non-CPL schools in the opening round had a rough go. Only Amundsen managed to keep its game relatively close, losing 35-21 Harlem in a 6A contest. Overall those 15 teams were outscored 850-92 in their contests with only Amundsen, Lane and Phillips avoiding the running clock, although Phillips game was ended early due to a lighting failure.
What’s in a seed?
There weren’t a lot of Cinderella stories formed in the opening round.
Thirty-two under-seeded teams won in the opening round, but seven of those wins came from teams that were the lower-seeded squad in a contest between an eighth and ninth seed or a 16th and 17th seed.
The highest activity in classifications where a lower seed moved on were in Class 2A, 7A and 8A, where five lower seeds were winners. Class 3A saw all but two higher seeds move along.
But the bigger theme of the first round wasn’t necessarily lower seeds that advanced, it was the large amount of games decided by wide margins. Just 37 of the first 128-round games were decided by less than two touchdowns. Only in Class 8A, where half of the games were inside of that margin, were the majority of the games not a complete runaway.