By Ryan Quigley
Illinois Scouting Director

With the conclusion of this past weekend’s Class 3A and 4A State Tournament, we’ve compiled our Illinois Power 25 Final Team Rankings. It’s important to note that our rankings are not necessarily a final reflection of what happened during the playoffs, but rather take in to account the entire season, including conference races. For example, even though No. 11 O’Fallon eliminated No. 3 Edwardsville in the playoffs, the Tigers defeated the Panthers twice during the regular season, went 35-2 overall, and were perfect in conference play on their way to a Southwestern title.

That being said, winning a state title can take precedence. Providence takes the top spot in our rankings, thanks to the Celtics capturing their second straight Class 4A State Championship. It’s hard to argue with the road they had to endure, with six straight one run victories over Marist, Marian Catholic, No. 11 O’Fallon, No. 6 OPRF, and finally No. 2 Mount Carmel.

No. 4 St. Rita was edged by Mount Carmel 5-4 in the sectional championship. The Mustangs were ranked No. 1 for a majority of the season, and started off the season 25-0 until dropping their first game of the year to then No. 7 Providence 6-4 back on May 2^nd.

Class 4A State Finalists Oak Park and Jacobs finish the year at No. 5 and No. 6 respectively, while Plainfield North ends the year No. 7, after dropping their Crestwood Super-Sectional to Mount Carmel in extra innings. The Tigers won the school’s first sectional championship, and posted another 30 win season.

Class 3A State Champion Highland, Class 3A runner-up Nazareth, and Class 2A State Champion Rockford Christian round out our top ten. Highland was ranked at one point this season in the Power 25, but went on an incredible run in the postseason, before upsetting 32-9 Nazareth in the finals. The Roadrunners were a top ten team at various points this season, and finished second in the East Suburban Catholic Conference to No. 13 Joliet Catholic, who was upset 2-1 in extra-innings by Lemont in the Lemont Regional Championship.

No. 10 Rockford Christian flew under the radar until the small-school state tourney two weekends ago. The Royal Lions went 37-6 this season, beating area rival No. 15 Rockford Boylan 8-1 back on May  9^th.

Click Here to View the Illinois Power 25 Final Team Rankings

We’ve included Preseason Power 50 Rankings next to our final rankings. Our predictive powers, weren’t way off, as we had five preseason Top 10 teams in our final Top 10, and 16 preseason Top 25 teams in our 2015 Final Power 25.

Click Here to View the Illinois Preseason Power 50 Rankings complete with Team Previews