IHSA Week 8 Outlook: 248 Illinois Football Teams in Playoff Position
The short version
- The IHSA released its fourth 2026 playoff outlook ahead of Week 8, listing 248 teams across eight classes.
- Every listed team has at least four wins, and 32 teams statewide remain undefeated.
- Class 3A has the longest list at 37 teams; no class lists fewer than 26.
- Unbeatens include Morris and Rochester in 4A, IC Catholic in 3A, and Lincoln-Way East and Loyola Academy in 8A.
- The outlook is a weekly guide; classes, seeds and enrollment cutoffs are not final until the 384-team field is set.
The IHSA's fourth weekly football release sorts every Illinois team into tentative classes and counts 32 undefeated programs heading into Week 8.
The Illinois High School Association has rolled out its fourth playoff outlook of the 2026 season with Week 8 approaching, a weekly scoreboard that sorts every football team in the state into tentative classes and ranks them by won-lost record. The new edition accounts for 248 teams that have locked up berths so far, all of them sitting on at least four wins.
The association cautions that the outlook is a working guide rather than a projection of how the eventual classes and seeds will fall. Enrollment cutoffs for each class can still shift depending on which programs end up filling the 384-team playoff field, and the document becomes more instructive with each weekly refresh as the regular season winds down.
Conference champions are tagged in the listing, unbeaten teams are set in italics and Peoria-area schools are marked in bold for readers tracking that region. Thirty-two teams across the eight classes remain undefeated, and each class breakdown notes its number of playoff teams, its unbeatens and its clinched berths.
Class 1A, spanning enrollments of 148.00 to 298.65, lists 32 playoff teams, and its three unbeatens — Hardin Calhoun, Mt. Sterling Brown County and Heyworth — are all 7-0 conference champions. Class 2A counts 28 teams, led by five 7-0 programs in Wilmington, Port Byron Riverdale, Johnston City, Maroa-Forsyth and El Paso-Gridley. Chester has already wrapped up its conference at 5-2.
Class 3A is the deepest group with 37 teams, six of them undefeated: Elmhurst IC Catholic, Richmond-Burton, Byron, Hillsboro and conference champions St. Joseph-Ogden and Mt. Carmel. Class 4A features 31 teams and an unbeaten sextet of its own in champions Morris and Rochester plus Centralia, Breese Central, Carterville and Chicago Clark, with Springfield Sacred Heart-Griffin in the chase at 6-1.
Class 5A lists 26 teams, topped by 7-0 Antioch, Wauconda and conference champion Mahomet-Seymour; Chicago Corliss carries a conference crown at 6-1, and New Lenox Providence sits 5-2. In Class 6A, 31 teams fall between enrollments of 1,427.00 and 1,853.00, with Normal West and Machesney Park Harlem both 7-0 and Joliet Catholic part of the 5-2 contingent.
Class 7A is fronted by three 7-0 teams in Normal, Arlington Heights Hersey and Mt. Prospect Prospect. East St. Louis Sr. is 6-1, Chicago Westinghouse College Prep took a conference title at 6-1, and Chicago Kenwood clinched its league at 5-2 alongside Brother Rice, with Chicago St. Rita at 4-3.
Class 8A, running up to an enrollment ceiling of 7,172.00, shows 32 teams and 29 clinched berths. Frankfort Lincoln-Way East, Wilmette Loyola Academy and Huntley are the 7-0 pacesetters, one game clear of a 6-1 logjam that includes Oswego, Bolingbrook, LaGrange Lyons, Naperville North, Winnetka New Trier, Park Ridge Maine South and South Elgin. Chicago Mt. Carmel and Orland Park Sandburg are 5-2.
The outlook will continue updating weekly until the bracket is set, with final classes, seeds and enrollment bands determined once the 384-team field is complete. For now it offers players, coaches and fans across Illinois a running picture of who is safely into the postseason and who still needs results.
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