Central, Centennial, Unity and Villa Grove-Heritage draw IHSA football playoff games
Mahomet-Seymour, St. Joseph-Ogden and Fisher are seeded past the opening round
CHAMPAIGN - Three Champaign County football teams and the Villa Grove-Heritage cooperative will play in the opening round of the IHSA playoffs, according to the Illinois High School Association's brackets. The brackets, updated Monday, Oct. 19, list Champaign Central's game for Friday, Oct. 23, and the other three for Saturday, Oct. 24.
In Class 6A, 17th-seeded Champaign Central plays at No. 16 East Moline United at 6:30 p.m. Friday. In Class 5A, No. 24 Champaign Centennial faces No. 9 Chicago Corliss, a cooperative team, at 2:30 p.m. Saturday; the bracket lists Corliss as the home team and the site as Stagg Stadium.
Unity, seeded 10th in Class 3A, hosts No. 23 Robinson at 2 p.m. Saturday in Tolono. In Class 1A, the 10th-seeded Villa Grove-Heritage cooperative hosts No. 23 Dupo at 2 p.m. Saturday at Villa Grove.
Three other county teams have no opening-round game. The brackets place Mahomet-Seymour, the top seed in Class 5A, St. Joseph-Ogden, seeded second in 3A, and Fisher, seeded eighth in 1A, directly into the first round, which the brackets list with dates to be announced.
Urbana, St. Thomas More and Rantoul do not appear in the playoff field.
Source: IHSA football playoff brackets, Class 1A https://www.ihsa.org/data/fb/1bracket.htm?r=0, Class 3A https://www.ihsa.org/data/fb/3bracket.htm?r=0, Class 5A https://www.ihsa.org/data/fb/5bracket.htm?r=0, Class 6A https://www.ihsa.org/data/fb/6bracket.htm?r=0
Updated, Oct. 18, 2026: Update: This story no longer counts the Villa Grove-Heritage cooperative among Champaign County teams; Villa Grove is in Douglas County. Game dates, times and sites were rechecked against the IHSA's brackets on Oct. 18 and have not changed.
Updated, Oct. 19, 2026: This story was updated Oct. 19 with the days and kickoff times the IHSA has since posted on its brackets. An earlier version said all four opening-round games were set for Saturday, Oct. 24, with times to be announced, and that the first round was Oct. 31. Champaign Central now plays Friday, Oct. 23, and the brackets list first-round dates as to be announced.