By Dalcon DeMaranville
Geneseo Current
The Geneseo Green Machine finished the regular season with a 6–3 record and earned a spot in the Illinois High School Association's Class 4A football playoffs. Its opening-round opponent, North Chicago, finished 2–7.
The unusual matchup is a direct result of a major expansion of the IHSA football playoffs, which increased the postseason field from 256 to 384 teams beginning this season.
Approved by IHSA member schools in December 2025, the change adds 128 playoff berths across eight classifications, increasing the number of qualifiers in each class from 32 to 48.
The new format features six playoff rounds instead of five. Each class includes 16 teams receiving opening-round byes, while the remaining 32 compete for the opportunity to advance to the first round.
In Class 4A, the field is divided into North and South regions of 24 teams each. The top eight seeds in each region receive byes, while seeds nine through 24 compete in the opening round.
The IHSA also moved the start of the regular season one week earlier to accommodate the additional postseason round while keeping the state championship games on Thanksgiving weekend.
The expansion does not mean the IHSA established a two-win qualification standard. Instead, the association retained its selection process, which considers conference championships, total victories and playoff points, calculated using the combined wins of a team's opponents.
Historically, five regular-season victories were generally enough to secure a playoff berth, although some four-win teams also qualified. With substantially more spots available, the 2026 field includes teams with records of 4–5, 3–6 and even 2–7.
Geneseo enters the Class 4A North region as the No. 9 seed, while North Chicago is seeded 24th. Because Geneseo is the higher seed, the Green Machine will host the opening-round matchup.
For Geneseo, the ninth seed means narrowly missing the opportunity to skip the opening round. The winner advances to face No. 8 Montini, which finished 7–2 and received an opening-round bye.
The expansion gives more schools an opportunity to participate in postseason football, including programs that previously would have had little chance of qualifying. It also raises questions about competitive balance, particularly when teams with two or three victories are matched against opponents with considerably stronger records.
The larger tournament creates additional scheduling, travel and staffing demands for participating schools, while teams without opening-round byes face a longer path to the state championship.
Geneseo's matchup is not the only example. Elsewhere in the Class 4A North region, Dixon (6–3) will face Plano (2–7) in another opening-round game featuring a significant difference in regular-season records.
For the Green Machine, the immediate objective remains unchanged: win and advance.
But the matchup against North Chicago illustrates just how different the Illinois high school football postseason looks in 2026, with 384 teams competing for state championships and more opportunities than ever for teams with losing records.
