Football · Preview · Class A
Lincoln North Star at Lincoln Southwest: two 5-3 teams, one playoff line
Two Lincoln teams sit 14th and 15th in Class A's NSAA standings, barely above 16th place. A look at the numbers, the playoff picture and their history before Thursday's game.
Game-day information: Kickoff reported by the Game Center: 7 p.m. Central. This article’s schedules and statistics are dated reporting, not live score updates.
Scores are NSAA finals. Points and ranks are NSAA wildcard standings, checked Oct. 21, 2026. Projections are not official seeds.
Thursday night in southwest Lincoln is about as close to a playoff game as the regular season gets. Lincoln North Star and Lincoln Southwest are both 5-3, and they sit back to back in Class A's NSAA wildcard standings: North Star 14th at 39.500, Southwest 15th at 39.125. Sixteenth place right now belongs to Lincoln Standing Bear at 38.875.
Kickoff is 7 p.m. at Southwest.
The playoff picture
Class A takes the 16 teams with the best point averages, so the margins here are tiny. North Star is 0.625 points above today's 16th-place mark. Southwest is 0.250 above it. Seven teams sit within a point of that line, either side, and all of them play this week. Standing Bear is at Bellevue East on Thursday. Bellevue West hosts Creighton Prep the same night, and Lincoln Southeast meets Lincoln East on Friday.
What a win does is simple: it raises the winner's own average, and it keeps that team ahead of today's 16th-place number. What a loss does is less certain. The loser's average drops, and its fate moves into the hands of the other bubble games. Projections are not official seeds, and NSAA sets the final field after Week 9.
Two different routes to 5-3
North Star has played in more shootouts. It opened with a 51-48 win at Norfolk, beat Lincoln Northwest 49-18 and Omaha Westview 35-24, and scored 30 or more in five of its eight games. Its three losses all came against teams with winning records: Elkhorn North (42-0), Omaha Westside (56-21) and Lincoln Northeast (38-20). It bounced back last week with a 31-7 win over Grand Island.
Southwest has leaned on defense. It held four opponents to 14 points or fewer, including shutouts of Fremont (43-0) and Lincoln High (55-0), and beat Lincoln Southeast 26-23. Its losses came at Kearney (38-23), against Millard North (42-2) and last week against Elkhorn South (29-7).
By the numbers
| Lincoln North Star | Lincoln Southwest | |
|---|---|---|
| Record | 5-3 | 5-3 |
| NSAA rank and points | 14th, 39.500 | 15th, 39.125 |
| Points scored per game | 30.4 | 27.8 |
| Points allowed per game | 29.9 | 19.1 |
| Average margin | +0.5 | +8.6 |
| Combined record of teams it beat | 10-30 | 11-29 |
| Last game | W 31-7 vs. Grand Island | L 7-29 vs. Elkhorn South |
One shared opponent gives a small clue: both played Lincoln High. North Star won 36-6. Southwest won 55-0.
Editorial update, Oct. 21: Program-history claims from the supplied school-history mapping are withheld pending school-identity verification. This does not change the current-season results, records or statistics above.
What to watch
- Southwest's defense against North Star's offense. North Star averages 30.4 points. Southwest allows 19.1.
- North Star's defense. It has allowed 38 or more four times. Southwest has scored 39 or more three times.
- The other scores. Standing Bear at Bellevue East and Creighton Prep at Bellevue West kick off the same night and will move the line.
Game center: live score, matchup and both teams →
Game Center: Lincoln North Star at Lincoln Southwest →
Lincoln North Star team center → · Lincoln Southwest team center →
Nebraska football scores and schedules → · Football playoff tracker →