2023 ILLINOIS FOOTBALL STUDENT SECTION TOP 40 PRESEASON RANKINGS

Off front, MidWest, Previews, Student Section Buzz,

In 2015, yours truly began covering Student Sections in Orange County, California. We expanded to Southern California in 2017 and two years ago, we added four more states and added 15 more states. We went to 40 states last fall.

This last winter, we went to all 50 states. No one has ever done that before…until now!

This is still a one-man operation for the most part.

I know that Student Sections have a lot of work to do to get the students to the games to cheer on their classmates and go along with the theme and make sure they don’t cause trouble. These student sections deserve recognition.

We will kick off the Student Section season with Preseason Football Student Section Rankings. REMEMBER, this is a PREVIEW. It is merely a prediction. The real rankings come out in November or December. 

If you feel your student section isn’t ranked high enough or not ranked at all, let us know and we’ll keep a close eye on them.

Every week, we will also have Student Section of the Week for each state. Once you win Student Section of the Week, you can’t win it again, but you still have to battle for the top spot in your state and perhaps the Nation as we will also name a Football Student Section National Champion. 

We continue with the 2023 Football Student Section Season with a preview of Illinois.

This state has some very solid Student Sections and we feel we haven’t discovered some of the Student Sections in this state. Hopefully more will be revealed and we get to meet some amazing schools with fantastic school spirit.

Last season, Naperville North Dawgpound took the title as the best Student Section in Illinois. A fantastic Student Section last season, but it will be tough to repeat once we start seeing other Student Sections going crazy. This is a Student Section that will prove they are still the one.

In each state, we will name one student section to look out for. A student section that doesn’t get talked about a lot by us or others and for Illinois, it’s Lyons Township. We ranked Lyons a little low last season and they let us know. We will keep an eye on this Student Section this season as they will try to prove they’re number one in the state.

Can the Lyons Township be on top in the Prairie State? Let’s find out.

2023 ILLINOIS FOOTBALL STUDENT SECTION TOP 40 PRESEASON RANKINGS

  1. St. Charles North Blue Man Group

Blue Man Group is a large and colorful Student Section. We hope to see the same from this group of kids. If we do the same the large number of kids going crazy on social media, Blue Man Group will stand alone on top.

  1. Mahomet-Seymour Bullldog Nation
  2. Fenwick Friar Nation
  3. Lincoln Way West Stable
  4. Lyons Township
  5. Naperville North Dawgpound 
  6. Prospect Underground
  7. Batavia Dogpound
  8. Bolingbrook Red Zone
  9. Mount Carmel
  10. Barrington Big Red 
  11. Lincoln-Way East
  12. Lockport
  13. Warren Township Blue Crew
  14. Glenbard West Crazies
  15. Brother Rice Crazies 
  16. Lena-Winslow
  17. Hersey
  18. East St. Louis
  19. St. Rita Stable
  20. Maine West
  21. Marist
  22. York
  23. Prairie Ridge
  24. Maine South
  25. Maine East
  26. Cary-Grover
  27. Hyde Park
  28. Lincoln
  29. Wheaton North 
  30. Neuqua Valley
  31. Effingham
  32. Hansberry
  33. Naperville Central
  1. Sycamore
  2. Rochester
  3. Hersey
  4. Downers Grove North
  5. Edwardsville
  6. Palatine

HONORABLE MENTION: Lemont, Providence Catholic, Peoria, O’Fallon, Crete-Monee