VIDEO: Chicago Elite Classic preview and football season wrap-up on ‘Sun-Times Game Week’

We’ve loaded up for a new episode of Sun-Times Game Week with hosts Michael O’Brien, Beth Long and Annie Costabile. First, we’ll preview this weekend’s Chicago Elite Classic with Simeon coach Robert Smith and Young coach Tyrone Slaughter, then we’ll breakdown the football state title games and discuss the postseason football awards.

Football state championships

Eight teams walked away from Champaign with state titles in football after the postseason wrapped up during Thanksgiving weekend. Maybe the most impressive came in Class 8A, where Loyola finished its miraculous second-half turnaround with a 13-3 victory over Brother Rice. The Ramblers’ defense developed into a dominant unit over the final few month of the season.

Here were the championship game results in the other seven classes:

Class 7A: Nazareth 31, St. Charles North 10

Class 6A: Cary-Grove 35, Crete-Monee 13

Class 5A: Joliet Catholic 35, Montini 27

Class 4A:IC Catholic 31, Bishop McNamara 21

Class 3A: Monticello 24, Byron 20

Class 2A: Gibson City 35, Maroa-Forsyth 16

Class 1A: Forreston 44, Camp Point Central 6

In this episode, our preps team analyzes those playoff games and Beth Long reveals the final Super 25 ranking of this year’s football season and her number one pick may surprise you.

Chicago Elite Classic

Also on this episode of Game Week, basketball coaches Robert Smith from Simeon and Tyrone Slaughter from Young join us to talk about the upcoming Chicago Elite Classic which takes over Wintrust Arena on Friday and Saturday. Simeon makes its season debut Saturday against St. Vincent-St. Mary, Ohio. The best game of the event involving two local teams is Uplift vs. Evanston on Saturday at 1:30.

Michael O’Brien’s Super 25 basketball rankings

With the Thanksgiving tourneys completed, there is a new hoops Super 25 out. Three new teams join: Riverside-Brookfield, Downers Grove North and Providence-St. Mel. This episode digs into those new rankings and looks ahead to upcoming games.

Sun-Times Game Week

Sun-Times Game Week is a weekly livestream show about high school sports produced by the Sun-Times Audience team. Thanks for watching and stay tuned for news about our next episode.