News

With new conference alignments comes new playoff formats. All playoffs will begin on Friday and Saturday, November 1st and 2nd, except for 6A who begins in the semifinals, they will begin on Friday, November 8th. This season, the WPIAL football steering committee will be the ones deciding what wild card teams get in. This is a change from the previous mathematical tiebreaker formulas.

CLASS 6A

There are only seven teams in 6A so this one is pretty simple. The top four teams will make the playoffs with the WPIAL Semifinals taking place on November 8th at the site of the #1 and #2 seeds. The championship game will be the next week on Saturday, November 16th at Norwin High School.

For the 5th consecutive year, the WPIAL 6A Champion will join the PIAA playoffs in the quarterfinal round the weekend of November 22nd or 23rd.

CLASS 5A

There are 31 teams in Class 5A for the next two seasons, split up into four conferences. The top three teams in each conference will automatically qualify for the WPIAL playoffs. After that, the WPIAL football steering committee will decide who the next three best teams are and they will be added to the mix.

There will be a total of 12 teams in the WPIAL 5A playoffs. The top four seeds will get a bye into the WPIAL Quarterfinals. Seeds 5-8 will host the first round playoff games. In the quarterfinals, the top four teams will host those games. Semifinals are neutral site.

The WPIAL 5A Championship game will be returning to Acrisure Stadium for the second time in the last seven years. The game will be on Saturday, November 23rd. The WPIAL 5A champion will join the PIAA playoffs in the semifinal round on November 29th or 30th.