Calhoun Gains First Round Bye in Class 1A, Edwardsville Gets Home Game In Class 7A As IHSA Announces Football Playoff Pairings
BLOOMINGTON-NORMAL ---Hardin Calhoun was awarded a top seed and a
bye into the first round, while Edwardsville got an opening round home game as
the Illinois High School Association announced the opening round pairings and
first-round byes for the 52nd annual IHSA football playoffs Saturday night in the
annual televised program shown around the state, as well as livestreamed
oncline across the country and around the world.
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The playoffs have been expanded to 40 teams in all eight classes, which
requires an extra round, top-seeded teams getting byes into he first round, and
a new seeding system, where all the teams were seeded class-wide instead of
separate seedings for the brackets in Class 1A through Class 6A. That
seeding system will continue to be used in both Class 7A and Class 8A.
The expansion also required the season to begin a week earlier than in the past,
and also eliminated the week zero scrimmages that were played in the week
before the opening of the season.
Here is how the 2026 playoff pairings shape up:
CLASS 1A
Carrollton (5-4) was seeded 16th in Class 1A, and will host an opening round
game next week against 17th seed Athens (4-5), while Dupo (3-6) gained the
number 23 seed and will travel to 10th seed Villa Grove (6-3), and Carlyle (6-3)
was seeded 14th and will host number 19 Nokomis (4-5).
Mt. Sterling Brown County (9-0) picked up a number one seed, and will host the
Athens-Carrollton winner in the first round, while Greenfield Northwestern (7-2)
was seeded eighth, and will play host to the winner of 24th seed Pleasant Hill
(2-7) and ninth seed Fithian Oakwood (6-3), and Calhoun (8-1), who lost to
Brown County in overtime to end their undefeated season Oct. 16, was seeded
third in their part of the bracket, and hosts the winner of Nokomis and Carlyle in
the first round the weekend of Oct. 30-31.
CLASS 2A
Carlinville (4-5) was seeded 16th in Class 2A, and will host 17th seed Riverton
(4-5) in the opening round, while Trenton Wesclin (2-7) was seeded 24th and will
play a ninth-seeded Chester (5-4). Piasa Southwestern (4-5) was seeded 18th
and plays at 15th seed Decatur St. Teresa Catholic (4-5).
Red Bud (6-3) was seeded seventh in their part of the bracket and earned a bye into
the first round, and will host the winner of 23rd seed Jacksonville Routt Catholic
(2-7) and 10th seed Auburn (5-4), with the Carlinville-Riverton winner going to
first-seeded Johnston City (9-0), the Wesclin-Chester winner traveling to eighth-
seeded Newton (6-3), and the Southwestern-St. Teresa winner goes to fourth
seed Nashville (7-2) in the first round.
CLASS 3A
Columbia (2-7) was seeded 24th, and plays at ninth seed Stanford Olympia (7-
2). while Breese Mater Dei Catholic (5-4) was seeded 20th and will play at
number 13 Sparta (7-2), and 15th seed Belleville Althoff Catholic (6-3), playing
in their second year of Class 3A after winning the Class 1A title in 2024, hosts
18th seed Harrisburg (5-4). Staunton (4=5) was seeded 22nd, and will travel to
11th seed Fairfield (7-2). Roxana (6-3) was seeded 16th and will host 17th
seed Metropolis Massac County (6-3).
The Massac County-Roxana winner will play at top-seeded Hillsboro (9-0) in the
first round, while the Columbia-Olympia winner goes to eighth seed Monticello
(7-2); the Mater Dei-Sparta winner plays at fourth seed Williamsville (8-1), the
Althoff-Harrisburg winner travels to second seed St. Joseph-Ogden (9-0), and
the Staunton-Fairfield winner plays at sixth seed Benton (8-1).
CLASS 4A
Civic Memorial (4-5) was seeded 16th, and will host 17th seed Quincy Notre
Dame Catholic (4-5), with Jersey (4-5) picking up the 20th seed and will travel to
13th seed Peoria Notre Dame Catholic (6-3). Marquette Catholic (4-5) was
seeded 21st and plays at number 12 Metamora (6-3), while Highland (6-3) was
seeded 10th and will host 23rd seed Lincoln (3-6); Waterloo (4-5) was seeded
number 19, and goes to number 14 Taylorville (6-3, and Cahokia (6-3) was
seeded 11th, and hosts number 22 East Peoria (4-5).
The QND-CM winner will travel to top-seeded Centralia (9-0), while the winner of
Jersey-PND plays at number four Springfield Sacred Heart-Griffin Catholic (8-1),
The Marquette-Metamora winner goes to fifth-seeded Breese Central (8-1), the
winner of Lincoln and Highland will play at seventh-seeded Freeburg (7-2), the
Waterloo-Taylorville winner goes to eighth-seeded Rochester (8-1), and the East
Peoria-Cahokia winner plays at number six Jacksonville (8-1).
CLASS 5A
Mascoutah (6-3), fresh off their first season in the Southwestern Conference,
was seeded 12th, and will host number 22 Washington (3-6), with the winner
playing at number five seed Triad (8-1), also coming off their first year in the
Southwestern Conference. The Indians and Knights were the only two area
teams to qualify in Class 5A.
CLASS 7A
There were no area teams who qualified in Class 6A, but in Class 7A,
Edwardsville (4-5) was seeded 32nd and will host 33rd seed Chicago Lincoln
Park (4-5), while Collinsville (3-6) was seeded 45th and will travel to 20th seed
Chicago St. Patrick (6-3). Belleville East (5-4) copped the number 26 seed and
will host number 39 Burbank St. Laurence Catholic (3-6).
The Edwardsville-Lincoln Park winner goes to top seed Normal Community in
the first round, while the Collinsville-St. Patrick winner plays at 13th seed
Chicago Westinghouse College Prep (7-2), and the St. Laurence-East winner
travels to seventh seed Plainfield South (8-1). East St. Louis (8-1) was seeded
fourth and will host the winner of 36th seed Burbank Reavis (4-5) and 29th seed
Elgin (5-4).
CLASS 8A
O'Fallon (5-4) was seeded 27th in Class 8A, and will host 38th seed Joliet West
(4-5), with the winner playing at sixth seed Park Ridge Maine South (8-1).
O'Fallon was the only area team to qualify in Class 8A.
The opening round takes place the weekend of Oct. 23-24 while the first round
takes place Oct. 30-21. The second round of the playoffs will be played Nov. 6-7
with the quarterfinals being played Nov. 13-14, and the semifinal games being
played Nov. 20-21.
Game dates and kickoff times for each game will be announced each Monday in
the IHSA office, with the finals set for Thanksgiving weekend, Nov. 27-28, at
Hancock Stadium on the campus of Illinois State University in Bloomington-
Normal.
The Class 1A-4A finals will be played on Friday, with the Class 5A-8A
finals on Saturday, with kickoff times at 10 a.m., 1 p.m., 4 p.m., and 7 p.m.
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