The 2012 Illinois High School Association (IHSA) State Championship Tournaments ended the twenty-sixth State Championship Series conducted in Scholastic Bowl by the IHSA. It was the twenty-first season in which there were separate State Championship Tournaments held for small schools (Class A) and large schools (Class AA). For the sixteenth year, both tournaments were held at the Peoria Civic Center. The tournaments were held on a Friday.
Advancement
Teams were assigned to one of eight sectionals within each class. Coaches then seeded the top 8 teams in their sectional. The IHSA then assigned the seeded teams to one of four regionals (sometimes but not always 1 with 8, 2 with 7, etc), with the remainder of the teams assigned to a regional geographically. The winners of the regionals would advance to their respective sectional tournaments, where they would play a three match round robin to determine a winner. The determination of the geographic boundaries of the Sectional was arbitrarily decided by the IHSA Office.
Tournament Format
Each round was comprised of 24 toss-ups and accompanying bonus questions.
In the State Championship Tournament, teams would be randomly assigned to pools of four, and play a three match round robin. The winners of each pool would advance to the Championship Match, and the runners-up in each pool would advance to play for third place. Ties were broken by head-to-head results or total points scored among tied teams (in the event of a three-way tie).
The top four teams earned trophies and medals for team members, coaches, principals, and activities directors.
CLASS A
POOL #1
Both Chicago Christian and Carterville finished with 2-1 records. Chicago Christian advanced to the title game based on a head to head win over Cartervile, which played for third place.
| Round |
Winning Team |
Score |
Losing Team |
Score
|
| 1 |
Chicago Christian |
315 |
Carterville |
180
|
|
Litchfield |
230 |
Warrensburg-Latham |
170
|
| 2 |
Chicago Christian |
360 |
Litchfield |
200
|
|
Carterville |
335 |
Warrensburg-Latham |
245
|
| 3 |
Warrensburg-Latham |
195 |
Chicago Christian |
135
|
|
Carterville |
205 |
Litchfield |
180
|
POOL #2
Peoria Christian finished 3-0 to advance to the Finals, while Keith Country Day finished 2-1 and advanced to the 3rd Place Match.
| Round |
Winning Team |
Score |
Losing Team |
Score
|
| 1 |
Peoria Christian |
400 |
Cumberland |
225
|
|
Keith Country Day |
390 |
Athens |
160
|
| 2 |
Peoria Christian |
285 |
Athens |
205
|
|
Keith Country Day |
305 |
Cumberland |
245
|
| 3 |
Cumberland |
275 |
Athens |
105
|
|
Peoria Christian |
290 |
Keith Country Day |
185
|
Third Place
| Winning Team |
Score |
Losing Team |
Score
|
| Keith Country Day |
300 |
Carterville |
240
|
Finals
| Winning Team |
Score |
Losing Team |
Score
|
| Peoria Christian |
320 |
Chicago Christian |
250
|
CLASS AA
| 2012 Class AA IHSA State Championship Tournament
|
|
|
|
| State Champion:
IMSA
|
| Runner-Up:
Macomb
|
| Third Place
Auburn
|
| Fourth Place
Carbondale
|
POOL #1
Macomb swept through their pool with a 3-0 record. Carbondale finished 2-1, advancing to the Third Place Match.
| Round |
Winning Team |
Score |
Losing Team |
Score
|
| 1 |
Macomb |
365 |
Champaign Centennial |
335
|
|
Carbondale |
440 |
Buffalo Grove |
320
|
| 2 |
Buffalo Grove |
420 |
Centennial |
350
|
|
Macomb |
410 |
Carbondale |
405
|
| 3 |
Carbondale |
515 |
Centennial |
160
|
|
Macomb |
470 |
Buffalo Grove |
370
|
POOL #2
IMSA swept through their pool with a 3-0 record. Auburn went 2-1 to advance to the Third Place Match.
| Round |
Winning Team |
Score |
Losing Team |
Score
|
| 1 |
Auburn |
660 |
Providence |
70
|
|
IMSA |
460 |
New Trier |
285
|
| 2 |
IMSA |
430 |
Auburn |
415
|
|
New Trier |
570 |
Providence |
155
|
| 3 |
Auburn |
470 |
New Trier |
385
|
|
IMSA |
650 |
Providence |
50
|
Third Place
| Winning Team |
Score |
Losing Team |
Score
|
| Auburn |
455 |
Carbondale |
290
|
Finals
| Winning Team |
Score |
Losing Team |
Score
|
| IMSA |
520 |
Macomb |
250
|
Notes
- Peoria Christian's 400 points in round 1 marked only the second time in Class A history that a team scored 400 points in a match at the IHSA State Championship Tournament. The only other instance was part of a 442-168 win by Latin over Gibault in the 1994 semifinals.
- Auburn's 660 points in round 1 were the most scored in a State Championship Tournament match, breaking the record of 656 points set by Quincy in the first state championship back in 1987 (notably, Quincy played 40 question rounds). IMSA's 650 points in the third round marked only the third time any team had reached 600 points in the State Championship Tournament. Providence this became the only team to allow 600 points in two matches during competition. IMSA also set a new record, becoming the first team to post a 600 point margin of victory in the tournament, breaking the 590 point margin set by Auburn two rounds earlier. The record for largest margin of victory had previously been 480, set by Quincy in the same game they scored 656.
- Depending on one's definition of "South Suburbs", Chicago Christian became the first school from Chicago's South Suburbs to ever place at the State Tournament. Bradley-Bourbonnais had also finished second twice in 1992 and 1994, though Bourbonnais is not universally considered suburban Chicago.
- The Regional questions were so full of errors, even by IHSA standards, that a fax was sent to all Regional hosts the day of the meet detailing several changes that were supposed to be made to the questions. Because the fax was sent on Casimir Pulaski Day, when many Illinois schools are not in session, most Regionals did not receive it in time. The students, coaches, and moderators at those Regionals had low expectations for the questions anyways, so they just dealt with it.
- Round 8 (which is the 2nd round at State) did not have the correct number of computational questions according to IHSA policies.
- IHSA changed its cutoff for Class A for this year. Before this year, there were about 300 Class A teams and 200 Class AA teams. Starting this year, there were about 250 of each.