Football playoff plot lines reach fever pitch this weekend

All of the speculating, plotting and planning is about to come to an exciting or disappointing ending this weekend.

Who will be the final football teams getting in the 256-team playoff field? Which teams will end up in which classes?

Which teams are on the bubble of not getting in because they don't have enough playoff points? And how will the IHSA determine how teams will be separated geographically?

The dividing lines always seem to be as interesting as a reconfigured Chicago ward map. Take last year when cross-town rivals Palatine and Fremd were placed in different 16-team brackets.

But right now Palatine and Fremd are together in the same scenario as 4-4 teams needing one more win to have a chance at a 10th game. They need No. 5 tonight if they want to be enjoying Saturday night's live broadcast of the playoff pairings.

Fremd is looking to complete its resurrection from a 1-4 start and extend its Mid-Suburban League record run of playoff berths to 16 years when it hosts 2-6 Conant tonight.

"It would be nice to be 5-3 instead of 4-4 but it all happened for a reason," said Fremd coach Mike Donatucci, who joked he could put some of his excess of playoff points approaching 50 up for auction. "Hopefully we'll finish this thing.

"(Tuesday) was a good practice. They were on task and I don't think they're taking anything for granted."

Palatine also will have enough points in the low 40s to get in at 5-4. But its challenge is ending a two-game losing streak by traveling to face a 7-1 Barrington team playing for at least a share of the MSL West title.

Trying to extend its streak of playoff berths to four years has kept Palatine coach Tyler Donnelly from worrying about any potential matchups.

"We've been so close in a lot of these games and they're due to finally get one of these things," Donnelly said of three losses by a combined 15 points. "You're on edge and at your wits end, but at least there is no more limbo. It's such a weird feeling for us to be on this brink."

Rolling Meadows is there, too, as it tries to make it eight straight trips in a tough test with visiting Elk Grove.

Buffalo Grove would gladly take a repeat scenario of last year when it won 5 games but had to wait until Saturday night to find out it didn't have enough playoff points. The Bison are on the edge there again but it won't matter unless they can pull a road upset of Prospect and get a fifth win.

St. Viator also has a tough road to 5-4 as it has to go all the way to Chicago Heights to face 6-2 Marian Catholic.

And Leyden and Addison Trail have the classic 4-4 showdown. The winner is probably in with enough playoff points and the loser has a long offseason thinking about games or plays where dreams slipped away by a few points.

Those playoff dreams are already a reality for Prospect, Barrington, Elk Grove and Schaumburg.

But would it be a dream if the latter two teams had a rematch of Elk Grove's dramatic 36-34 victory in a Class 7A opener? Another faceoff appears to be a distinct possibility among those who like to put together potential brackets.

Of course, some upset downstate or in the Chicago Public League is likely to bust up a bunch of scenarios.

"It's crazy," said Schaumburg coach Mark Stilling of a likely home opener in 8A being unlikely in 7A. "I haven't spent a whole lot of time on it. It's a control what you can control thing."

And late Saturday night, 256 teams will start spending a lot of time trying to control their playoff destinies.

mmaciaszek@dailyherald.com