INDIANAPOLIS -- 320 Indiana high school football teams teams found out their sectional opponents Sunday night for the 44th Annual IHSAA Football State Tournament presented by the Indianapolis Colts.
Class 6A includes the 32 largest schools in the state. In a departure of the last three years where the two state finalists had the week off before the championship game, the bye week has been moved to the front end of the tournament so all 32 teams will have a week off (Oct. 21) between their regular season finale and tournament play.
With all eight sectionals including four teams each, sectional semifinal games will be played on Oct. 28, sectional championship games on Nov. 4, regionals on Nov. 11, semi?states on Nov. 18 and the state
championship on Nov. 25.
In 5A, with the next 34 largest teams competing, a first round game must be played in
sectionals 9 and 14 which contain five teams each on Oct. 21. All other 5A teams will have a
week off until sectional semifinals are played on Oct. 28 followed by sectional championship
games on Nov. 4.
Teams in classes 4A, 3A, 2A and 1A will begin with first round sectional games on Oct. 21 and
will play on consecutive weeks all the way to the state championship games.
The 12 teams earning a berth in the state finals will play on Thanksgiving weekend in Lucas Oil
Stadium, home of the NFL’s Indianapolis Colts, the state tournament’s presenting sponsor.
The state championship games alternate each year as the Class 2A, 4A and 6A games will be played
on Friday, Nov. 25 while the 1A, 3A and 5A contests are set for Saturday, Nov. 26.
Here’s a look at when games will be played each week by class:
About the Draw
To conduct the random drawing for the football state tournament, the IHSAA places ping-pong balls representing each school in a given sectional into a lottery-style air mix machine.
A fan in the bottom of the machine blows the balls around the inside of the transparent container and air then forces each ball up through a tube in random order. For example, the first ball retrieved from the machine will be the visiting team in game one with the second ball representing the home team in game one. The third ball to come out is the visitor in game two and the fourth ball the home team in game two. That same method is followed through all 48 sectionals.
In the case of five?team sectionals in Class 5A, the first two teams drawn will play the opening weekend of the
tournament with the fifth team drawn receiving the bye and an automatic road game in the semifinal round against the opening game winner. The third and fourth teams drawn will play in the other semifinal game. In seven?team sectionals, the seventh team drawn receives the bye and an automatic road game in the semifinal round.
