It was a tough week to be a top seed or an undefeated squad in the IHSA playoffs in the second round.

Five No. 1 seeds lost in Round 2, giving us a field that started with 14 top seeds in all brackets with just eight remaining (one, Richland County, fell in Week 1 of the playoffs).

Oak Lawn Richards in 7A, Glenwood in 6A, Prairie Ridge in 5A and both top seeds in Class 2A, Johnston City and Rockridge, all faltered in the opening round.

You were actually in better shape to survive if you were a No. 2 seed. Only Glenbard West (7A), Bradley-Bourbonnais (6A), Carterville (4A) and Camp Point Central (1A) have been evicted from the field as second seeds.

The playoffs also began with 26 teams with undefeated records, three fell from that group in the opening round of the playoffs (Richland County, Wauconda and Benton), and with nine more falling in Round 2, just 12 undefeated teams remain state wide.

Almost none of those 12 are in larger classifications. Just two Belvidere North (5A) and Mount Carmel (8A) have unblemished records and a strong majority of those teams can be found in smaller classifications with four left in both 1A and 3A, and Class 2A, which started the postseason with seven undefeated squads has had that group whittled down to just three. All three are in the north bracket.

The upstarts

By seed, there’s plenty of Cinderella stories still in the playoffs.

In fact, 25% of the remaining teams in the draw (16) are from the bottom half of the seeds.

The biggest underdog by seed at this point would have to be St. Joseph-Ogden, the 14th seed in the Class 3A bracket which would be the equivalent of being the 27th or 28th seed in a 1-to-32 bracket.

The Spartans are one of just four teams that remain in the field with four regular season losses a feat also accomplished by King, St. Laurence and St. Rita.

One classification that is now certain to have a double digit seed represented in the state championship is Class 7A.

The upper half of the bracket has double digit seeds in each of its quarterfinal matchups with 16th seeded Hersey playing 25th seed St. Rita and 13th seeded Batavia locking horns with Glenbard North.

Furthering the double digit seed trend is Downers Grove North (No. 15) in the opposite side of the bracket.

CCL/ESCC Power

It is a big surprise that the CCL/ESCC is once again emerging as a nearly impossible group of teams to dispatch from the playoffs.

10 league teams advanced into the quarterfinals over the weekend with just two of its contingency coming up short.

Quite possibly the most intriguing data point out of all is the display of play coming from the Green Division.

All four of its teams, Nazareth, IC Catholic, St. Francis and St. Rita have moved into the quarterfinal round and two of them knocked off previously undefeated teams to do it.

The White Division nearly did the same thing as Montini, Fenwick and St. Laurence all earned wins while Carmel came up short against St. Charles North.

Providence, Mount Carmel and Brother Rice rounded out the Round 2 winners for the league.

St. Patrick was the other team aside from Carmel to falter as it fell to Cary-Grove.

Only four other conferences in the state have more than two teams still alive in the postseason: the DuKane with three (Batavia, Glenbard North and St. Charles North), the Mid-Suburban (Barrington, Fremd and Hersey), the Southwest Valley (Lincoln-Way East, Lockport, Lincoln-Way West) and the Western Illinois Valley (Carrollton, Calhoun and Brown County).