A new, yet old, basketball state finals time schedule was approved by the Illinois High School Association board of directors on Monday.
The IHSA boys and girls hoops Final Four in 2026 will return to the format used from 2022-24 — meaning small-school semifinals and third-place games are on Thursdays, while the large-school semifinals and consolation contests are all on Fridays. Only the four championship games will played each Saturday.
This eliminates a guaranteed two-day experience for each of the semifinal teams. Last season, teams that lost semifinals played their third-place consolation games the following morning. With this change, consolation games return to being played the same day.
“The single-weekend state final format is still in its relative infancy, and we’ve been very transparent about our willingness to tweak the time and game schedule until we get it right,” IHSA executive director Craig Anderson said in a release. “We tried a different variation last year, and the immediate feedback from nearly everyone involved was that the schedule we utilized from 2022-2024 was far superior.
“As a result, we are making some slight changes to that original schedule for 2026.”
What is the new IHSA basketball state finals format?
Each IHSA basketball finals site will play six games on Thursday, six on Friday and the four state title games on Saturday. The boys finals are at State Farm Center in Champaign and the girls finals at CEFCU Arena in Normal.
This is what the boys and girls schedules look like starting in 2026:
Thursday’s games
Friday’s games
Saturday’s games
What is the old IHSA basketball state finals format?
The old format, which was used only for the 2025 state finals, consisted of the Class 1A, 2A and 3A semifinals on Thursday. Friday’s schedule began with the third-place games for Class 1A, 2A and 3A, followed by the Class 4A semifinals at night. On Saturday, the Class 4A third-place game took place in the morning and were followed by the four state championship games.
Why is the IHSA making the change?
The IHSA basketball advisory committee proposed this recommendation during its annual meeting in April. This is a complete 180-degree change from the committee’s feelings last year, when it wanted to provide each semifinal team with the two-day state finals experience. Now, the committee said it favors returning to the original 2022-2024 state finals schedule.
“Playing semifinal games late on Thursday and only two semifinals on Friday were not well received by school communities,” the basketball committee said, according to minutes from the April 2025 meeting. “Fewer fans and fan buses attended the Thursday night 3A semifinals due to the late starts and the fact that school was in session on Friday. There were fewer fans at the 3rd place games in 2025 than in 2022-24. During some Friday 3rd place games, there were no student fans in attendance since school was in session, and on Saturday morning, there were fewer fans for the 4A–3rd place games.
“The 2025 schedule also negatively affected the facility staffing, TV production, pep band and National Anthem singer scheduling.”
These comments came one year after the committee expressed its feelings of making sure each state finals team had multi-day involvement. From the April 2024 meeting: “The committee continues to favor a scheduling approach that provides a two-day state finals experience for the competing teams. The committee believes this approach will be better for the student-athletes and not infringe on the final day of championship games.”
Washington coach was part of the two-day experience
Washington girls basketball coach Kim Barth and her team were a part of the 2025 two-day format. The Panthers were the Class 3A third-place finishers, playing their semifinal at 6:30 p.m. Thursday, then suiting up for their final game of the season at 7:45 p.m. Friday.
“Obviously, I don’t have a whole lot of experience with (the state finals),” Barth said, “but it did feel like the format this year was more like a shootout. We didn’t have the banquet. There was no practice. It felt very condensed.
“I just want it to be about our kids and the experience for them. They earned it, and they deserve to be there.”
Barth says her and the coaching staff had less than 12 hours of prep for the third-place game, plus attending school.
“It just feels like it wasn’t as much of an experience,” she said. “It just felt rushed. Those are the best teams in the state playing. If they could make it more geared towards the athletes and making it an experience, that would be my suggestion. … That’s just what we took from this year.
“Playing those semifinals and the third-place games in a day, I mean I think would be just as difficult if not more than what we did. … I’m not trying to be negative. We were thankful to be there. We just want it to be about the kids, obviously.”
Adam Duvall is a Journal Star sports reporter. Email him at aduvall@pjstar.com. Follow him on Twitter @AdamDuvall.
This article originally appeared on Journal Star: IHSA returns to old basketball state finals schedule for 2026. Here’s what that means
Reporting by Adam Duvall, Peoria Journal Star / Journal Star
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