Way too old to be 100-pct. accurate, but by my count on the IHSA schedule board, I have ...
A) 30 teams signed up for 8-man fb. Last year, there were 28 teams.
There were also 28 teams in 2022 so the 8-man sport clearly is not exactly exploding in Illinois.
B) I have counted 506 teams eligible for the playoffs this fall. Since 256 teams make the postseason, more than half the field will be playing Week 10.
That 506 total also includes every Chicago Public League team from the White Division. As I vaguely recall, there is some sort of CPL rule that prevents some of the White Division teams from playing in the postseason even if they achieve the 5-win mark. I am no expert on that, and not even a novice on that, but I remember there was a CPL rule about it last year.
C) The most popular conference size is 6 teams (24 leagues). There are 11 8-team leagues, and 8 seven-team and 10-team leagues.
The Chicago Catholic League, of course, has six 4-team leagues and there are 6 five-team leagues iso 12 leagues total in which the conference champ does not get into the postseason automatically.
