In order, biggest locks to win their class.
- Mount Carmel
- Wilmington
- East St Louis
- Montini
- Brother Rice
- Byron
- Lena Winslow
- Providence
Biggest Title Locks
- Thread starter Anon1760269333
- Start date
I'd love to see a Prairie Ridge or Cary-Grove v Providence 5A title game.
Love seeing Wilmington ranked so high, but there's a decent chance they'll have to beat four 9-0 teams to win it all. I'm not sure if that's ever been done in any class?
Nobody ever has title locks in the playoffs.
Every team is forced to get big wins on the road, matchups and strengths and weaknesses of teams show up on a weekly basis and even the best teams will have to pull off big plays in the closing moments of a game to win in at least one very close game.
Every team is forced to get big wins on the road, matchups and strengths and weaknesses of teams show up on a weekly basis and even the best teams will have to pull off big plays in the closing moments of a game to win in at least one very close game.
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Wilmo is looking at back to back road games of Seneca and then at #1 Rockridge if they get past round 2.
Seneca is very tough again and their offense can control the clock and can be very tough to stop. That would be a rematch of one of the best games I've ever seen and one that Wilmo was fortunate to escape a couple years ago.
Rockridge has been top ranked pretty much all year. They are a historically strong program and have dominated their opponents all year in what is typically a very good league. Their dual threat QB is considered by many to be the best player in 2A.
That is not a walk in the park, and that’s only talking about up to round 3.
I'm not sandbagging here but MC is not the #1 lock. They have to play Loyola a week after playing them in a tight game. Then they will probably get a healthier LWE in the quarters in a matchup everyone was expecting in the finals. Then maybe Maine South in the finals???? Call them the favorites sure but not a lock.
Unless they really screw up BR in 7A is my #1 lock. Things to always keep in mind, you got 5 more games to win State. Injuries will happen, weather is a huge factor. Wind, Cold, November weather is coming. It will effect a lot of teams, especially those who never developed a run game.
Picked so high because their prayers were answered and they fell to 2A and don't have to face any real contenders. Massey has them as 3 TD favorites over Seneca and Rockridge. Barring injury 2A will be a walk in the park.
Well said. If they went 3A it would be a different story as 3A North is already LOADED. 2A is wildly easier to win than 3A and I agree, I don't think they will have anyone really test them the entire playoffs.
Both north brackets are very strong for their respective classifications, but obviously Wilmington is fortunate to be the largest 2A rather than the smallest 3A. I would imagine that maybe not always 100%, but most of the time, any bubble school would feel the same about which class they end up in.
An 8-1 team in 3A north would have potentially had a "path" through all 3 of IC, Byron and R-B.
"Prayers answered" and "Fell into 2A" I did see the churches were all filled to the max in Wilmington last Saturday. I was wondering why they were so packed. I guess the " prayers" were answered. Wilmington didn't fall anywhere; they are where the enrollment of the school put them.
There was a whole thread of Wilmington fans trying to figure what needed to happen for them to be 2A and on Friday night on Soucie's live Friday Night Drive podcast there were multiple Wildcat fans in the chat that kept asking if Wilmington would be 2A. Soucie was still working on 8A and Wilmo fans kept asking if they were 2A. So yeah, they were all but begging to go 2A.
I agree, Doc
That was a great game and Wilmo was very, very fortunate to come away with the win. If the Irish win that game, they're 2A champs in 2023 and this year's team looks just as strong if not better.Maine South is flying way under the radar for some reason in 8a. Started off the season really rough against LWE for sure but have since righted the ship. Wouldn’t be surprised to see a running clock in every game of there’s until the semis
I see you are still obsessed with Wilmington and their fans
The question was .... has it been done in any class?Obsessed is a strong word. Being from Morris I know plenty of Wilmington fans and am a fan myself. Wilmington is typically a bubble team and can compete with anyone they play, but this is the first year I can remember where the fans were openly lobbying for one class over the other.I see you are still obsessed with Wilmington and their fans
I have no insight on any of these schools, so not trying to say they did the same thing. But there are alot of teams ESL faced regularly in the 6a playoffs who are in 5a now.
Prairie Ridge
Morgan Park
Cary Grove
Washington
Normal
Kankakee
Lemont
Were any of those schools petitioning up previously?
Suprised more people didnt pick this as the most intriguing first round matchup. Should be an even more inspired LA team coming to play with their season on the line.
No, this is a weird year due to so many teams being multiplied or success factored up a class and with most of those being in larger classes it pushes everyone else down a class.
The fact that so many teams were "success factored up" is why so many 6A teams dropped to 5A.
Wouldn't only JCA and Naz newly affect this years? MC being successed from 7 to 8 shouldn't have 5A-6A downstream affects.
You have at least 2 opts from 5 to 6 as well, but that was the case last year too.
At one time Naz was borderline 5A and 6A and also became pretty solidly 5A when not SF'd. Seems like maybe there is broader demo changes amongst football schools shifting lines over past 6-8 years...
More schools were multiplied this year as well and that's where most of the trickle down comes from. The majority of the multiplier waivers were denied and I think Soucie said something like 3x as many schools were multiplied compared to last year.
Ah totally misread past the multiplier part and was thinking just SF. Thanks.
My initial thought was demo changing. Naz and JCA were the only ones I could think of off the top my head that were bumped up that would push others into 5a but that's only 2 teams (Richards opted up opening another spot) and didn't account for the other 4 or 5 that fell in to 5a.
I wouldn't be shocked if MC loses. Surprised a bit, but not shocked. This isn't your typical first round #1 seed gimme game. They aren't playing Curie
Not this year. Loyola will be all fired up, but the Caravan, in their slow, methodical way, will grind them up and spit out the parts. Dowling may throw a few errant passes, but then he'll regain his accuracy, his mechanical precision. When it's man versus machine, the machine usually wins.
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Anon, you should’ve made a wager at the sports book in late October! Impressive!