What we learned in Week 12: Private vs. Public debate flares up again

The 32 teams that advanced into the state semifinals, with the exception of a few, had to work hard to earn their place.

That’s not surprising, but a large chunk – 10 to be exact – of teams come from the private or nonboundaried category. There are 50 playoff-eligible schools outside of the Chicago Public League that can potentially be multiplied.

Here’s a more nuanced breakdown:

• There are 50 schools in the state that are designated as private or nonboundaried (not including a large number of either ineligible or non participating Chicago Public League Schools). This makes up 10.2% of the participating schools.

• 30 of those schools qualified for the 256-team postseason field. That made up 11.7% of the postseason field.

• 10 of those schools are still among the remaining 32 teams in the playoff field. That accounts for 31% of the remaining participants.

Let’s take a look at some of the biggest storylines of the postseason’s quarterfinal round:

Hard to deny CCL/ESCC’s strength

Six schools from the CCL/ESCC are headed to the semifinals and the 23-team conference officially makes the league responsible for nearly 19 percent of the remaining teams in the field.

Loyola, Mount Carmel, St. Rita, St. Ignatius, Nazareth and Providence still have a chance to reach state champions. Only two CCL/ESCC teams lost in the quarterfinals, Notre Dame and Brother Rice, and you guessed it those losses came to other CCL/ESCC teams.

In addition, two of the three teams that are set to join the league next season, IC Catholic and St. Francis, are still alive in the postseason.

Four other conferences: the West Suburban Silver, the Central State Eight, the Heart of Illinois and the Kishwaukee River/Interstate Eight have two teams each remaining in the field.

2023-24 multiplied teams are set

After the quarterfinal round is completed one can officially designate which teams will be multiplied for the next two-year enrollment period that will serve the football seasons in 2023 and 2024.

Due to the fact that the 2020 season was counted as a “zero” year, multiplied teams for the 2021 and 2022 season were counted only on the results of the 2019 season. The rule states that teams will be multiplied if they have won three or more playoff games over the previous two seasons.

Since there were no playoff games in 2020, no playoff wins could be added to the total leading to the multiplier designation being applied to just eight schools: Brother Rice, Marist, Mount Carmel, St. Rita, St. Teresa, Nazareth, Quincy Notre Dame, Rockford Boylan and Newman Central Catholic.

Five of those eight teams will retain the multiplier into the next two-year period, while Quincy Notre Dame, Rockford Boylan and Newman Central Catholic will no longer be multiplied.

However, several teams will either return to the ranks of being multiplied or add the designation for the first time. St. Ignatius, IC Catholic, Joliet Catholic, Providence, Fenwick, Sacred Heart Griffin, St. Francis and Loyola will all now be among the multiplied group of teams. In all 14 schools will face the multiplier, a total more in line with previous years of multiplied schools for the postseason.

The four schools that voluntarily elected to play up will now face the decision of whether or not they will choose to do so again for another two-year stint. Three of the four teams that were utilizing some sort of condition of the playing up rule, Loyola, IC Catholic and Joliet Catholic will now be multiplied when they previously weren’t so it seems unlikely they will continue the process leaving East St. Louis as the only team that will likely being making a decision about playing up. All teams are eligible to apply to play up and in doing so would be playing up for the 2023 and 2024 seasons.

By the numbers

Remaining playoff team records:

• The remaining 32 teams in the field have combined for just 35 losses.

• The 13 undefeated teams are concentrated throughout seven of the eight classes as Class 7A has no undefeated teams remaining in their final four groupings. Class 1A and Class 2A has three undefeated teams.

• The Class 2A and Class 8A fields have the best collective records as each groups are a combined 46-2.