Yes, it is a huge week! Both of these games have huge playoff implications for these teams.
The Eureka/TV game should be a dandy. Similar styles of play, pretty evenly matched and a win by TV will help their playoff situation immensely. A loss and they will have a thought 2nd round draw
LeRoy is going to be a very tough out for anyone in 1A and GCMS is not quite at that level yet. The Falcons are a solid team that could make some noise in the playoffs but LeRoy has a really good team this year.
Where are the playoff implications? At 7-0, 7-0, 6-1 and 7-0, all four teams are playoff-bound already.
And if there are two truths in playoff football:
1) A team can't control the quality of competition that winds up in its quarter of the bracket so that it may get three paper mache-type teams or it might get three stones of granite in the early rounds.
2) Playoff seeding in Illinois is, for better or worse, an easy-to-follow but perhaps not exactly a perfect system, And battling for a top seed is, well, the reality is, because of the playoff setup regarding home-field for each game, getting a home game in Rounds 2, 3 and 4 involves factors that often trump the concept of a better-seeded team getting to play at home.
In 2023, there was a possibility of 16 No. 1 seeds making the state title games in the 8 classes. That's two No. 1's in six classes and four No. 1's in two classes.
Of the 16,
5 No. 1 seeds played at ISU. Meanwhile,
3 No. 4 seeds made it to ISU.
1 No. 2 seed made it.
1 No. 3 seed made it.
1 No. 5 seed made it.
1 No. 6 seed made it.
1 No. 11 seed made it.
1 No. 12 seed made it.
1 No. 13 seeds made it.
1 No. 15 seed made it.
In Class 2A last fall, in the Round of 16, quarterfinals, semifinals and championship game, out of the 15 games played, 8 were won by the better-seeded team, and 7 were won by the worse-seeded team. i chose to look up 2A based on a guess of where the teams you're writing about would fall. TBH, I couldn't pinpoint any of the four schools you listed without a GPS.
If your point is about winning conference championships, I am with you all the way on that. A conference title banner to hang in the school's gym is an accomplishment to be remembered forever.