Lake Forest's 0-5 football season would be over in any other year. The Illinois High School Association's (IHSA) expanded playoff format, approved in December 2025, keeps the Scouts' postseason hopes alive.

IHSA member schools voted last December to add 16 teams to each of the eight playoff classes, expanding the total field from 256 to 384 teams. The vote passed 377–252, the Chicago Sun-Times reported. In Class 5A, where Lake Forest competes, 48 teams now qualify instead of 32.

That math matters for the Scouts. Through five weeks, Lake Forest sits 56th among 58 Class 5A teams with 21 playoff points, according to The Athletic Scout. Seven teams in the class are winless. Six have one win. Ten have two wins.

Under the expanded format, the 48 qualifying teams split into North and South brackets of 24 each. The top eight seeds in each bracket earn a first-round bye. Seeds 9 through 24 play opening-round games beginning Oct. 23.

The Athletic Scout's Jon Kerr analyzed the playoff-point projections and wrote Wednesday, Sept. 23, that in any other year an 0-5 start would end the postseason conversation. Not this year. Kerr concluded that winning two of the Scouts' final three regular-season games after this week's trip to Waukegan would likely land Lake Forest among the last seeds in the Class 5A North bracket. A 2-7 finish creates a possibility, not a certainty.

The remaining schedule: Waukegan in Week 6, a home game against Lake Zurich, then road trips to Stevenson and Mundelein. A 4-5 finish would lock in a berth. One win would not be enough.

The 0-5 mark is the worst start of coach Robert Spagnoli's 24-season tenure at Lake Forest. After the Scouts fell to 0-3 with a 32-16 loss at Zion-Benton on Sept. 5, Spagnoli told The Athletic Scout, "We'll be ready. It does us no good to feel sorry for (ourselves), nobody else is … We have work to do."

Since then, the Scouts lost 40-26 to Libertyville on Thursday, Sept. 10, and 35-21 to Warren on Friday, Sept. 18. Quarterback Rafi Karam threw two touchdown passes and ran for another in the Libertyville game, per the Chicago Tribune.

Conference champions and teams with six victories earn automatic playoff bids. Everyone else qualifies through a formula weighing total victories, head-to-head results and opponents' wins.

The first round of the expanded playoffs begins Oct. 23.