The 2025 Illinois High School Association (IHSA) State Championship Tournaments ended the thirty-ninth State Championship Series conducted in Scholastic Bowl by the IHSA. It was the thirty-fourth season in which there were separate State Championship Tournaments held for small schools (Class A) and large schools (Class AA). This was the fourth year both tournaments were held at Heartland Community College in Normal, Illinois. The tournaments were held Saturday, March 22nd.
This state series was the first to be written under the guidance of head question editor Adam Silverman.
The tournament was hosted by Elmwood with equipment furnished by Buzzersystems.com.
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 (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. Regional tournaments were held on Monday, March 10th, and Sectional tournaments were held on Saturday, March 15th.
Tournament Format
Each round was comprised of 24 toss-ups and accompanying bonus questions.
In the State Championship Tournament, teams were randomly assigned to pools of four, and played a three match round robin. The winners of each pool advanced to the Championship Match, and the runners-up in each pool advanced 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
Pleasant Plains & Cumberland both went 2-1. Pleasant Plains advances to Championship via head-to-head against Cumberland in Round 1.
| Round |
Winning Team |
Score |
Losing Team |
Score
|
| 1 |
Pleasant Plains |
370 |
Cumberland |
230
|
|
Eureka |
350 |
Winnebago |
270
|
| 2 |
Cumberland |
410 |
Winnebago |
180
|
|
Pleasant Plains |
490 |
Eureka |
180
|
| 3 |
Cumberland |
280 |
Eureka |
270
|
|
Winnebago |
300 |
Pleasant Plains |
280
|
POOL #2
Metro-East Lutheran swept their pool going 3-0. Northridge went 2-1 to advance to the 3rd place match.
| Round |
Winning Team |
Score |
Losing Team |
Score
|
| 1 |
Johnston City |
360 |
St. Teresa |
270
|
|
Metro-East Lutheran |
510 |
Northridge |
260
|
| 2 |
Metro-East Lutheran |
370 |
St. Teresa |
360
|
|
Northridge |
480 |
Johnston City |
200
|
| 3 |
Northridge |
420 |
St. Teresa |
210
|
|
Metro-East Lutheran |
480 |
Johnston City |
230
|
Third Place
| Winning Team |
Score |
Losing Team |
Score
|
| Northridge |
360 |
Cumberland |
220
|
Finals
| Winning Team |
Score |
Losing Team |
Score
|
| Metro-East Lutheran |
350 |
Pleasant Plains |
270
|
CLASS AA
POOL #1
Waubonsie Valley swept their pool going 3-0. Sandburg went 2-1 to advance to the 3rd place match.
POOL #2
Stevenson swept their pool going 3-0. Hinsdale Central went 2-1 to advance to the 3rd place match.
| Round |
Winning Team |
Score |
Losing Team |
Score
|
| 1 |
Uni-Lab |
400 |
Carbondale |
360
|
|
Stevenson |
600 |
Hinsdale Central |
260
|
| 2 |
Hinsdale Central |
400 |
Uni-Lab |
360
|
|
Stevenson |
590 |
Carbondale |
150
|
| 3 |
Stevenson |
520 |
Uni-Lab |
310
|
|
Hinsdale Central |
440 |
Carbondale |
260
|
Third Place
| Winning Team |
Score |
Losing Team |
Score
|
| Sandburg |
380 |
Hinsdale (Central) |
340
|
Finals
| Winning Team |
Score |
Losing Team |
Score
|
| Waubonsie Valley |
450 |
Stevenson |
410
|
Notes
- This is Auburn's 22nd consecutive trip to the IHSA State Finals
- This is Uni-Lab's 10th consecutive trip to the IHSA State Finals
- Uniquely, all Class 2A teams competing in the 2025 tournament have all finished in the top 4 at least once before in program history
- After nine previous State Finals appearances, Cumberland finally captured its first state trophy
- Northridge also notably captured its first trophy in their State finals debut
- This would be the last tournament to be overseen by Rob Grierson