The Illinois High School Association (IHSA) officially announced a 35-second shot clock will be required in all varsity high school basketball games beginning with the 2026-27 school year Tuesday.
In-season tournaments and shootouts have been allowed to use a 35-second shot clock the past two seasons, with prior IHSA approval.
IHSA Associate Executive Director Kurt Gibson spoke about the shot clock with WRMJ on Sportsline at the IHSA boys basketball state finals in March.
Use of the shot clock for lower-level games (freshman, sophomore, junior varsity, etc.) will be determined by conferences and via a mutual agreement between the competing schools in non-conference games.
Also, the association announced a change to the state finals schedule for both boys and girls basketball, which gives each qualifying school a two-day experience.
The state finals will remain a three-day event that runs Thursday-Saturday. The Class 1A-3A semifinals will take place Thursday, starting with 1A at 9:30 a.m. On Friday, the 1A-3A third place games and 4A semifinals will be played. The four state championship games will be played Saturday, preceded by the 4A third place game that morning. For a full breakdown of the schedule, click here.
The girls basketball state finals are hosted by Illinois State University at CEFCU Arena. The University of Illinois hosts the boys basketball state finals at State Farm Center.
Both the shot clock timeline and state finals schedule update were approved by the IHSA Board of Directors after recommendations from the IHSA basketball advisory committee.