Lincoln Land North: Standings, Schedules and the Division Race
If you have been looking for Lincoln Trail-Prairieland football standings in 2026 and not finding them, there is a reason.
The league is now the Lincoln Land Conference, formed when the Lincoln Trail and Prairieland conferences merged, and for the 2026 football season it has realigned again — into divisions of six. MaxPreps has not caught up and still tags these teams with the old “Large” and “Small” labels. Local sources and the schools themselves have moved on.
Here is the division that matters around here.
Lincoln Land North
Six schools. Five division games each, plus four non-conference. Three of them — Knoxville, ROWVA/Williamsfield and Stark County — sit inside a twenty-mile radius of Galesburg.
| School | Town | 2026 | 2025 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Annawan-Wethersfield | Annawan / Kewanee | 2-0 | 11-1, Class 1A quarterfinals |
| Stark County | Toulon | 2-0 | 5-5, Class 1A playoffs |
| Knoxville | Knoxville | 1-1 | 5-5, Class 1A playoffs |
| ROWVA/Williamsfield | Oneida | 1-1 | 2-7 |
| Bureau Valley | Manlius | 1-1 | 1-8 |
| Princeville | Princeville | 0-2 | 7-3, Class 1A playoffs |
Division play begins September 18. Records above are overall through Week 2.
The division schedule
Every North team plays the other five. Here is when.
| Date | Games |
|---|---|
| Sept 18 | Knoxville at Annawan-Wethersfield · ROWVA/W at Stark County · Princeville at Bureau Valley |
| Sept 25 | Stark County at Annawan-Wethersfield · Knoxville at Princeville · ROWVA/W at Bureau Valley |
| Oct 2 | Annawan-Wethersfield at Princeville · Knoxville at ROWVA/Williamsfield · Stark County at Bureau Valley |
| Oct 9 | Bureau Valley at Annawan-Wethersfield · Princeville at ROWVA/Williamsfield · Knoxville at Stark County |
| Oct 16 | ROWVA/W at Annawan-Wethersfield · Stark County at Princeville · Knoxville at Bureau Valley |
The team to beat
Annawan-Wethersfield went 11-1 last season and did not lose until the Class 1A quarterfinals — to Lena-Winslow, who went on to win the state championship 58-13. The Titans were the No. 2 seed, went 9-0 in the regular season and 8-0 in the conference.
They are 2-0 again, having beaten Elmwood/Brimfield 36-0 and Abingdon-Avon 22-14. Tony Gripp coaches.
The game to circle
Stark County at Annawan-Wethersfield, September 25.
It is a rematch of last November’s Class 1A playoff opener, which Annawan-Wethersfield won 31-8. Both teams are 2-0. It is very likely the game that decides the division.
Two things worth knowing about this division
Bureau Valley just moved in
Realignment put the Storm in Lincoln Land North for the first time, and it changes their world. Last season Bureau Valley faced three schools with smaller enrollments. This season it is eight.
They also hired away a rival’s coach. Pat Elder spent three seasons at Ridgewood, made the eight-man playoffs all three, and took them to the 2023 I8FA state final before moving to Manlius. Bureau Valley’s superintendent called the hire a “grand slam.”
Princeville is 0-2 and it may not mean much
The Princes went 7-3 and made the Class 1A field last season, then had to replace roughly eighteen starters. They have lost 22-17 to Illini West and 27-14 to Havana — two competitive losses rather than a collapse.
Coach Jon Carruthers reports sixty offseason weight-room sessions averaging more than thirty-five players, at a school of about 185.
Not in this division
Three Lincoln Land schools we cover play eight-man football in the Illinois 8-Man Football Association instead, on a completely separate structure with its own playoffs:
- West Central (Biggsville) — 2-0
- Galva — 1-1
- Ridgewood (AlWood/Cambridge) — 1-1
All three play each other. West Central visits Galva on September 4; Galva hosts Ridgewood on September 11; Ridgewood hosts West Central on October 9.
And Abingdon-Avon and United, both Lincoln Land members, are in a different division of the eleven-man league.
A note on names
You will see this conference called at least four things: Lincoln Trail, Prairieland, Lincoln Trail-Prairieland, and Lincoln Land. The first two were separate leagues. They merged. Lincoln Land is the current name, and the 2026 football divisions are new.
Schools still compete as Lincoln Trail members in some non-football sports, which is where most of the confusion comes from.
If we have any of this wrong — and conference alignment is the single most error-prone thing in local sports coverage — tell us and we will correct it the same day.
Division alignment via Shaw Local and the Stark County program. Records and schedules cross-checked against MaxPreps, the IHSA and local reporting. Standings updated weekly through the season.
