Prep Bowl Teams?

Topiarydan1

Senior
Jul 9, 2001
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Would have to assume DePaul and Marian Catholic participate - maybe Marist (if so then its a layup for them)
 

Topiarydan1

Senior
Jul 9, 2001
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Loyola coach had mentioned that if Loyola did not get into IHSA playoffs they would not have played in Prep Bowl. Gotta wonder who jumps into first round games? Seems like it might be on last legs
 

Anon1754502667

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Aug 6, 2025
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I know at least one catholic school wrestling coach who has told his team that prep bowl is not an excuse for missing any practices.
 

IHSAfootballfan

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Oct 23, 2025
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It is honestly a shame how much the Prep Bowl has lost its prestige. I think it is historic and should never go away as it was around before the Illinois state championship. The last time Loyola was in the Prep bowl was back in 2015 when they beat Curie (correct me if I am wrong but the score was relatively close).

The game needs to go back to Solider Field and the team dinners they used to have back in the day with both teams. CPS and the Catholic league treated it like a big deal.

It is also crucial in development for CPS teams and the Catholic league teams to give their players more practice time and more game experience to get them ready for next season. I can understand that the other suburban teams and the rest of the state being upset that the Catholic league gets extra games and practice time. But it is in the rules that you can keep practicing with your team up until the end of the season (state title games).
 

SicaIllini8Fan

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Nov 13, 2021
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It is honestly a shame how much the Prep Bowl has lost its prestige. I think it is historic and should never go away as it was around before the Illinois state championship. The last time Loyola was in the Prep bowl was back in 2015 when they beat Curie (correct me if I am wrong but the score was relatively close).

The game needs to go back to Solider Field and the team dinners they used to have back in the day with both teams. CPS and the Catholic league treated it like a big deal.

It is also crucial in development for CPS teams and the Catholic league teams to give their players more practice time and more game experience to get them ready for next season. I can understand that the other suburban teams and the rest of the state being upset that the Catholic league gets extra games and practice time. But it is in the rules that you can keep practicing with your team up until the end of the season (state title games).
2014 Loyola beat Curie 14-7. Great game
 
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GhostOfTheGhhost

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May 14, 2018
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I do love me some Prep Bowl talk....


It is honestly a shame how much the Prep Bowl has lost its prestige. I think it is historic and should never go away as it was around before the Illinois state championship. The last time Loyola was in the Prep bowl was back in 2015 when they beat Curie (correct me if I am wrong but the score was relatively close).

The game needs to go back to Solider Field and the team dinners they used to have back in the day with both teams. CPS and the Catholic league treated it like a big deal.

It is also crucial in development for CPS teams and the Catholic league teams to give their players more practice time and more game experience to get them ready for next season. I can understand that the other suburban teams and the rest of the state being upset that the Catholic league gets extra games and practice time. But it is in the rules that you can keep practicing with your team up until the end of the season (state title games).
 

IHSAfootballfan

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Oct 23, 2025
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Does anyone know which catholic league teams are in it this year? I am not sure and have not heard any names.
CPS is going to have an uneven amount of teams for their first round of CIty playoffs next week by just looking at the playoff brackets.

Amundsen high school made the city playoffs with a 4-5 record and are not in the state playoffs. I am curious to see how it all shakes up.
 

Chicago312

Junior
Nov 29, 2015
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Prep Bowl on the CPS side needs to be fixed. The top 4 teams from the regular season in the top conference should be automatically slotted into the CPS Quarters, the 2 wks prior figure it out. Then rank the rest of the CPS teams accordingly ( all divisions), bracket from there. Week 10 should be non ihsa playoff teams where the winners take on the highest ranked teams that were eliminated from IHSA playoffs.
 

SicaIllini8Fan

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Nov 13, 2021
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I think it’s ******** that certain conferences you can’t make the state playoffs or the city prep bowl
playoffs. Give the kids a shot
 
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SiuCubFan8

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Jul 27, 2007
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I think a big part of it is competitiveness and ability to participate. CPS isn't blind to what they have. They're aware there are teams in the league that they know cannot be competitive or that cannot consistently field a team.
Ya, that was my assumption. I can speak for myself, you forget how many teams there are in CPS that "play" football.
 
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SicaIllini8Fan

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It's weird but I'm also not going to pretend I know anything about CPS or the logic behind it.
That MC guy gives me grief & calls me a clown over wanting all CPS teams to be eligible for playoffs. They’ll get killed in the state playoffs. Well the eligible teams most of them get killed in the state playoffs so what’s the difference. Let the teams in the prep bowl playoffs
 

GhostOfTheGhhost

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As a huge CPL guy, I'm fine with the top conference only being eligible for the prep bowl playoffs. There is such a huge gap talent wise between the Red Conference and the White and Blue conferences. Plus, the CPL has promotion and relegation between conferences. If you're good, you'll move up and be eligible. Teams like Taft and Phillips struggled this year in the Red, but they would still beat the brakes off the top teams in the lower conferences. At this point everyone knows I am all CPL, but that doesn't make a lot of sense to me.

The bigger issue for me with the prep bowl are the CCL/ESCC teams that simply "opt" out of playing more football. The idea of turning down the opportunity to play meaningful football in November will never make sense to me.
 

IHSAfootballfan

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Oct 23, 2025
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There are simply too many schools in CPS that field a football team that should not. You have some schools with 16-20 players and you just can not compete and build a winning/competitive program like that. They should really look at combining teams and building up the league that way. Having over 80 teams in CPS (maybe more or less than that I am not sure) does not help the league. Half of these schools I never had even heard of before that just opened up 10-15 years ago.

Maybe by combining them, they'd be able to be at least win a few state playoff games and be competitive.
 

SicaIllini8Fan

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As a huge CPL guy, I'm fine with the top conference only being eligible for the prep bowl playoffs. There is such a huge gap talent wise between the Red Conference and the White and Blue conferences. Plus, the CPL has promotion and relegation between conferences. If you're good, you'll move up and be eligible. Teams like Taft and Phillips struggled this year in the Red, but they would still beat the brakes off the top teams in the lower conferences. At this point everyone knows I am all CPL, but that doesn't make a lot of sense to me.

The bigger issue for me with the prep bowl are the CCL/ESCC teams that simply "opt" out of playing more football. The idea of turning down the opportunity to play meaningful football in November will never make sense to me.
We can agree to disagree on the CPS playoffs but I’m with you on the teams who opt out
 
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SicaIllini8Fan

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Collins 6-3 , Comer 5-4 , Julian 6-2 , Bogan 6-1 , Bowen 7-1 , Noble 7-2 , Little Village 5-3 , Von Steuben 8-1 , Foreman 5-3 , Chicago Academy 4-4 , Woodlawn 9-0 , Du Sable 5-2 , Kelly 4-4 all should join Amundsen 4-5 in the city playoffs this week. Also any CPS team who gets knocked out in the first 2 rounds should be allowed in the City Prep Bowl playoffs
 

4Afan

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The bigger issue for me with the prep bowl are the CCL/ESCC teams that simply "opt" out of playing more football. The idea of turning down the opportunity to play meaningful football in November will never make sense to me.
As much of a shock as this may come to some, HS football is not the be all, end all highlight of the year for every kid that plays. Some of these kids want to move on to basketball or wrestling, some are just ready to be done for the season and even coaches may have other responsibilities that need their attention that they prioritize over the prep bowl.
 

4Afan

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Collins 6-3 , Comer 5-4 , Julian 6-2 , Bogan 6-1 , Bowen 7-1 , Noble 7-2 , Little Village 5-3 , Von Steuben 8-1 , Foreman 5-3 , Chicago Academy 4-4 , Woodlawn 9-0 , Du Sable 5-2 , Kelly 4-4 all should join Amundsen 4-5 in the city playoffs this week. Also any CPS team who gets knocked out in the first 2 rounds should be allowed in the City Prep Bowl playoffs
21 out of 80 CPL teams, 25% of them, couldn't even play a full 9 game schedule for one reason or another. What makes you think they want to or are able to play more games in the prep bowl playoffs?
 

Topiarydan1

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Jul 9, 2001
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Was hoping Marist might opt in to give some of its younger players more reps - but I think 2 players are on hoops team and there might be some wrestlers who want to move on to their other sports. Looks like Rita and Pats might be hedging with Prep Bowl inclusion should they lose their first round games
 

SicaIllini8Fan

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21 out of 80 CPL teams, 25% of them, couldn't even play a full 9 game schedule for one reason or another. What makes you think they want to or are able to play more games in the prep bowl playoffs?
They have in the past so why not? You know looking back years ago I mean at the old playoffs for the prep bowl was interesting. CPS teams would play a Saturday game then usually knocked out that Wednesday in the state playoffs. Then they’d play Saturday in the city & win then play the following Wednesday & win & Saturday & win so all those games in a short span
 

4Afan

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They have in the past so why not? You know looking back years ago I mean at the old playoffs for the prep bowl was interesting. CPS teams would play a Saturday game then usually knocked out that Wednesday in the state playoffs. Then they’d play Saturday in the city & win then play the following Wednesday & win & Saturday & win so all those games in a short span
What's that have to do with 2025? Haven't had Wednesday playoff games in 30+ years.
 

IHSAfootballfan

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That is how it was 15 years ago for CPS, I believe they stopped doing it after 2011 (correct me if I am wrong). Playing a game every 3-4 days is crazy and I do not think it is a good idea to go back to that.

With that being said, I do not think lower conference teams should be allowed to play in the City and Prep Bowl playoffs. A lot of them would get rolled by some of the mid tier Red conference teams and that is just the sad fact. The drop off is huge in CPS, there is only a few schools who are able to transition from the White conference to the Red conference.

What does everyone think about IHSA extending the playoffs and potentially letting those 3-6 (and I am sure in some cases 2-7) teams make the state playoffs? I don't think a lot of those teams would want to play another week and get killed by a good team first round. You'd have people opt out and that would be sad to see.
 

SicaIllini8Fan

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That is how it was 15 years ago for CPS, I believe they stopped doing it after 2011 (correct me if I am wrong). Playing a game every 3-4 days is crazy and I do not think it is a good idea to go back to that.

With that being said, I do not think lower conference teams should be allowed to play in the City and Prep Bowl playoffs. A lot of them would get rolled by some of the mid tier Red conference teams and that is just the sad fact. The drop off is huge in CPS, there is only a few schools who are able to transition from the White conference to the Red conference.

What does everyone think about IHSA extending the playoffs and potentially letting those 3-6 (and I am sure in some cases 2-7) teams make the state playoffs? I don't think a lot of those teams would want to play another week and get killed by a good team first round. You'd have people opt out and that would be sad to see.
Julian has the record for actually playing 16 games one year. 2 more than the state championship teams played
 

McCaravan

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Surprised DePaul declined. St. Laurence too although it's likely they beat Oak Lawn. If you declare for it and win round 1 are you automatically ineligible?
 

Redline9

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Sep 7, 2020
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Surprised DePaul declined. St. Laurence too although it's likely they beat Oak Lawn. If you declare for it and win round 1 are you automatically ineligible?
I think once you advance past Round 2 you are ineligible. Not sure if this is still the case.