Typically, two changes at the No. 1 spots in CSM’s large school and small school power rankings would be indicative of a seismic shift, but instead, it shows that much is still up in the air with a few weeks left in the regular season.
After small separation was gained by a few squads in the Mid-Illini, things reverted to a near-four-way tie for first after Wednesday’s slate of games. It’s a similar situation in the Inter-County Conference, as several small-school teams have helped make it a small-school super-conference of sorts. The Big 12 and the Illini Prairie feature multiple teams lurking in the wings that are capable of getting hot.
The fun is just getting started, as seedings and brackets were released for the Class 1A and Class 2A postseasons recently, with Class 3A and Class 4A set to be announced in a week’s time.
There are separate rankings of the top five teams for small schools and large schools below. All schools in the Mid-Illini and Big 12 fall into the “large school” rankings while all others fall into the “small school rankings”, in order to maintain an equal number of teams in the CSM coverage area between the two.