In all likelihood, the Omaha Creighton Prep-Omaha Westside game Friday night is for the No. 1 seed in the Class A playoffs.
And for the winner getting nationally ranked Millard South on its side of the bracket for a semifinal confrontation.
Projections made with two games left in the regular season are risky. But with Millard South finishing with 1-6 North Platte and 2-5 Omaha Benson, let’s be honest, the Patriots will be 8-1 and locked in as the No. 4 seed.
Who would be the Nos. 2 and 3 seeds, which would be the other semifinal pairing? The Prep-Westside loser and the winner of the Oct. 24 game between Elkhorn South and host Papillion-La Vista South.
Omaha North, by winning out, would be the No. 5 seed and get Millard South in the quarterfinals.
Based on game predictions for the closing stretch, here’s how the first-round pairings on Halloween night could be, with playoff-point totals in parentheses:
No. 1 Omaha Westside (413) vs. No. 16 Millard North (345), No. 2 Omaha Creighton Prep (406) vs. No. 15 Omaha Westview (354), No. 3 Elkhorn South (400) vs. No. 14 Norfolk (355), No. 4 Millard South (394) vs. No. 13 Bellevue West (355), No. 5 Omaha North (386) vs. No. 12 Papillion-La Vista (356), No. 6 Papillion-La Vista South (386) vs. No. 11 Columbus (360), No. 7 Omaha Central (383) vs. No. 10 Lincoln Southeast (366), No. 8 Kearney (369) vs. No. 9 Millard West (369).
Columbus, 6-1 after beating Lincoln East 28-21 in overtime, could render all of that moot starting Friday with its home game against Kearney. The projections have the Discoverers losing to Kearney and then Millard North, which lost 31-28 to Kearney last week.
Win both, and the Discoverers could be the No. 7 seed and keep Millard North out of the playoffs as the District A-3 runner-up.
This is the last year for district competition for Class A. In each of its six districts, the winner and runner-up advance to state. The remaining four teams are those left who are the highest in the point standings.
The projections have Westside beating Prep to be the No. 1 seed. Among the other key swing games are Omaha North-Bellevue West on Thursday, Millard West-Lincoln North Star on Friday and Lincoln Southeast-Lincoln East on Oct. 24.
Millard South’s forfeited game to Las Vegas Arbor View, which is 6-2 with two games left (including undefeated Las Vegas High), impacts the postseason. Had the Patriots’ 49-7 win stood, they probably would be the No. 2 seed and the Papio South-Elkhorn South winner in line to see them in the semifinals.
8-man regular season ending
This is the last week of the eight-man regular season. In Eight Man-1 and Eight Man-2, district champions and at-large teams comprise the 32-team brackets that use geography for first-round pairings before the 16 winners are seeded on a statewide bracket.
With the advent of Eight Man-3 in 2026, the regular season will be nine games instead of eight and only 16 teams advance in each of the three eight-man classifications to the playoffs.
Rankings comments
Top 10/Class A: Westside returns to No. 2, jumping undefeated Prep, after the Warriors’ mojo returned in a 58-17 win over then-No. 2 Elkhorn South and Prep winning by only 13 over Fremont, which Westside blasted 63-7. Prep can settle the matter Friday. Elkhorn South slides to fifth. New Class B No. 1 Norris and No. 2 Waverly complete the Top 10. Kearney returns at No. 10 in Class A, replacing Millard North.
Class B: Norris and Waverly, which meet Friday at Waverly, move up after Omaha Skutt beat then-No. 1 Elkhorn North 28-19. The SkyHawks gain two rungs to No. 4, with Elkhorn North No. 5 and the shuffle pushing Gretna East down a notch to No. 6. The Griffins visit Elkhorn North on Thursday.
Class C-1: All 10 ranked teams won. Wahoo’s 20th consecutive win was 42-0 at Logan View/Scribner-Snyder.
Class C-2: All 10 ranked teams won.
Eight Man-1: No. 4 Crofton had the significant win of the week, beating then-No. 5 Wausa-Osmond 50-12. Crofton, Wausa-Osmond and Bloomfield are 1-1 in their round-robin. Score differentials in those games were used to place Crofton fourth, Bloomfield fifth and Wausa-Osmond sixth.
Eight Man-2: Overton returns at No. 10 after beating Cambridge 33-24. Previous occupant Twin Loup lost 47-26 to No. 9 Anselmo-Merna, which Overton lost to by only eight.
Six Man: No. 2 Garden County’s 68-18 win at Leyton drops the Warriors from sixth to ninth.
Top games this week
Thursday
Class A: Omaha North at Bellevue West
Class B: Gretna East vs. Elkhorn North (at Elkhorn Stadium)
Eight Man-1: Bloomfield at Hartington-Newcastle, Nebraska City Lourdes at Johnson-Brock
Eight Man-2: Hitchcock County at Cambridge, Neligh-Oakdale at O’Neill St. Mary’s
Friday
Class A: Omaha Creighton Prep at Omaha Westside, Kearney at Columbus, Norfolk at Elkhorn South, Papillion-La Vista at Fremont, Millard West vs. Lincoln North Star (at Seacrest), Omaha Central vs. Millard North (at Buell)
Class B: Norris at Waverly, Omaha Skutt at Bennington, Scottsbluff at McCook, Gering at Chadron, Seward at York
Class C-1: Syracuse at Auburn, Aurora at Milford, Columbus Lakeview at Pierce, Fort Calhoun at Wahoo, Omaha Concordia at Elkhorn Mount Michael
Class C-2: Wahoo Neumann at Lincoln Lutheran, Boone Central at Grand Island CC, Kearney Catholic at Hershey
Eight Man-1: Clarkson/Leigh at David City, Shelby-Rising City at McCool Junction, Wisner-Pilger at Pender, Perkins County at Hemingford
Eight Man-2: Humphrey Archangels at Howells-Dodge, Twin Loup at Burwell, Elmwood-Murdock at Weeping Water, Overton at Loomis
Six Man: Sumner-Eddyville-Miller at Southwest, Arthur County at Crawford, Meridian at Silver Lake, Stuart at Shelton, Wallace at Wauneta-Palisade
stu.pospisil@owh.com, twitter.com/stuOWH
Get in the game with our Prep Sports Newsletter
Sent weekly directly to your inbox!
* I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy.
Stu Pospisil
Reporter – High school sports
Get email notifications on {{subject}} daily!
Your notification has been saved.
There was a problem saving your notification.
{{description}}
Email notifications are only sent once a day, and only if there are new matching items.
Followed notifications
Please log in to use this feature
Log In
Don’t have an account? Sign Up Today