Michael O'Brien's Super 25 high school football rankings for Week 13

The quarterfinal round of the state playoffs made one thing clear about this season's Super 25 rankings. Mistakes were made. Teams with stars and a solid historical track record were overrated all season.

Lockport and Oswego join the rankings after fantastic quarterfinal wins. It's the season debut for Lockport, while Oswego cracked the Super 25 way back in Week 3. The Panthers stuck around for a few weeks and rose as high as No. 20 before losing to Minooka.

Congratulations to the Porters and Oswego for improving throughout the season, that's one of the best things about high school sports. Bolingbrook deserves a mention in that category as well. The Raiders gave Fremd a great challenge in the quarterfinals.

This was a difficult week to assemble the rankings, sorting out the top teams in the bigger classes whose seasons are over against some of the smaller schools that are still playing. There may be some readers puzzled or upset about where Maine South and Lincoln-Way East fell, but if you remove the school names and look at the season resume for both teams the rankings make a lot more sense.

Super 25 high school football rankings for Week 13
With record and last week's ranking

1. Mount Carmel (12-0) 1
8A: vs. No. 5 Fremd

2. Brother Rice (11-1) 2
7A: vs. No. 7 Downers Grove North

3. Nazareth (11-1) 5
6A: vs. No. 13 Fenwick

4. Montini (12-0) 6
4A: vs. No. 23 Morris

5. Fremd (11-1) 7
7A: at No. 1 Mount Carmel

6. Batavia (10-2) 8
7A: at No. 16 St. Rita

7. Downers Grove North (10-2) 9
7A: at No. 2 Brother Rice

8. Lockport (9-3) NR
8A: at No. 9 Oswego

9. Oswego (10-2) NR
8A: vs. No. 8 Lockport

10. St. Charles North (10-2) 10
Season complete

11. Glenbard West (9-2) 12
Season complete

12. Carmel (8-3) 13
Season complete

13. Fenwick (9-3) 14
6A: at No. 3 Nazareth

14. Providence (9-3) 15
5A: at Oak Forest

15. Lincoln-Way East (9-3) 3
Season complete

16. St. Rita (8-4) 20
7A: vs. No. 6 Batavia

17. St. Francis (9-3) 21
5A: at Belvidere North

18. Hersey (9-3) 16
Season complete

19. Bolingbrook (9-3) 17
Season complete

20. Maine South (10-2) 4
Season complete

21. Lake Zurich (9-3) 25
Season complete

22. Lyons (8-3) 19
Season complete

23. Morris (11-1) 23
4A: at No. 4 Montini

24. St. Laurence (8-4) 24
6A: vs. East St. Louis

25. Warren (9-2) 18
Season complete