With one week left in the regular season, the football playoff picture is getting clearer. The good news for Byron is it probably won’t see IC Catholic right off the bat.

Let’s add another contender to the Class 3A bracket in potential No. 1 seed Richmond-Burton, which gave coach Mike Noll his 300th win last week. The former Big Northern Conference foe has a long tradition of playoff success and will not cave in to powerhouses such as Byron or IC.

The 3A bracket could be even tougher if Wilmington is bumped up from 2A. A playoff projection currently has them as the largest school in 2A. Their only loss is to 4A power Morris, 27-20.

Teams that have departed the conference such as R-B (7-0), Burlington-Central (7-1), Johnsburg (6-2) and Marengo (6-2) are one reason why the Big Northern has declined in football quality. However, those long drives are not missed, especially a place such as Johnsburg that seemed to have so many twists and turns to get there.

B-C wasn’t too bad of a drive, but its enrollment would have driven it out of the BNC anyway as they currently have 1,500 students. The same with Hampshire, which is approaching 2,000. Not the town’s population, but the high school enrollment.

Then there was Huntley, which replaced Forreston a year after the BNC’s inception. It went from a school that at one time was smaller than Forreston to 10 times larger at 2,746.

My only trip to Huntley was in 2001 when Oregon faced it in the second round of the playoffs. I bring this up because of a bizarre outcome in the final minutes of regulation.

Comfortably ahead 27-26 and close to running the clock out, Huntley got outfoxed by Oregon, whose only hope was to get the ball back. The easiest way for that to happen was for Oregon to purposely let Huntley score.

I’ve never got official confirmation from coach Bothe on that, but suddenly a Huntley running back cracked off a long touchdown run. A wiser play would have been for the runner to fall down after getting a first down, which would have allowed the clock to run out and preserve the win.

The extra-point kick put Huntley up by eight points, but Oregon at least had a sliver of hope. Not known as a fast-scoring offense, the Hawks dramatically scored a touchdown as time was running out.

All that was needed was a two-point conversion to send the game into overtime, something thought implausible a minute or so before. And that’s what happened.

Unfortunately, the miracle win wasn’t to be as Oregon lost 41-34. But it was an exciting ending.

Speaking of enrollment, 2000 and 2001 were the peak of the combined Mt. Morris/Oregon consolidation with about 650 students, which was about what Huntley had at that time. Now, Oregon sits at 428.

Whatever happens in the playoffs to Forreston doesn’t matter. Its season is already a success as evidenced by its arduous journey to get there, culminating with a come-from-behind win over LeRoy on Saturday.

It was a 12-point swing at the end of the first half that made the difference. Already ahead by a point and seemingly unstoppable, LeRoy scored an apparent touchdown, but it was called back because of a penalty.

Getting the ball back at the seven-yard line with under two minutes to play, the Cardinals drove the length of the field to grab the lead and made it hold up in the second half with its time-consuming offense for a 26-13 win. LeRoy had a chance to get back in it, but an errant pitch on fourth down doomed the team.

Forreston doesn’t have the athleticism of some teams, but a disciplined approach limits those mistakes. That is critical to win the toss-up games, of which they went 4-0.

Some people wondered if Rockford Lutheran would show up to play Byron, which led 49-0 after the first quarter en route to a 77-0 final. That was only topped by the 79 points put up by Sterling Newman on Kewanee.

Byron (418) is one of three teams in the state with more than 400 points. Westville has 452 and Peoria 428. Dixon is next with 398.

Special mention in the BNC needs to go to Winnebago. In recent years, the Indians have been plagued by low numbers, but under coach Mark Helm always have played hard. This year is no exception, with Oregon fortunate to escape with a 20-18 win last Friday.

Although it is 2-6 going into the finale against Stillman Valley, Winnebago was close to being 4-4 and aiming for a playoff spot. It had a one-score, nonconference loss to Clinton, Wisconsin, and lost to North Boone by three points.

In maybe the most surprising result in the BNC this season, just when it looked like Stillman Valley had a clear path to the playoffs, it was North Boone shutting out the Cardinals 26-0. That puts even more importance on the Winnebago game with Stillman Valley. With a loss, the 4-4 Cardinals are out of the playoff picture.

• Andy Colbert is a longtime Ogle County resident with years of experience covering sports and more for multiple area publications.