HELENA — Discussions regarding potential neutral-site football state championship games have effectively stalled, Montana High School Association executive director Brian Michelotti told MTN Sports on Tuesday.
Late last year, select high school administrators, specifically in Class A and Class B, presented the idea of playing the football championship games at a single, neutral site. The discussions intensified at the MHSA annual meeting in January but ultimately did not garner enough support from member schools across the state.
The football state championship games will continue to be played at host sites.
Class B, though, did make an adjustment to its football playoff schedule. Playoff games will now default to Friday nights instead of Saturday afternoons. Most Class B playoff games have traditionally been played at 1 p.m. Saturday, but the new schedule will place those games at 7 p.m. Friday unless both teams in a specific matchup agree to schedule their game at a different time.
Class AA has long played its playoff games on Friday nights, and Class A moved its games to Friday nights last year. Those three classifications are now scheduled to play their 2026 state championship games on Friday, Nov. 20. The 8- and 6-Man championship games will be played on Saturday, Nov. 21.
Class B also modified its schedule for its state basketball tournaments and will now play out those brackets over four days instead of three. The format will mimic the four-day schedule currently employed in Class C, with one gender's first-round games on Wednesday and its semifinal games on Thursday. The other gender's first-round games will be Thursday and its semifinal games on Friday. Both championship games will be on Saturday.
The 2027 Class B state basketball tournaments are March 10-13 at the Butte Civic Center. The Class C state tournaments are the same days in Billings. The Class AA and Class A state basketball tournaments are scheduled for March 11-13 in Bozeman and Missoula, respectively.
The MHSA executive board approved those Class B changes during a June conference call.
The board took action on two significant wrestling items, as well. With girls wrestling continuing to grow in the Treasure State, the board approved expanding the sport into two classifications: Class AA and Class A/B/C. In both classifications, 16 girls in each weight class will qualify for the state tournament, which will take place alongside the boys tournaments Feb. 18-20 in Billings.
With the two girls classifications and three boys classifications (Class AA, Class A and Class B/C), championship Saturday will now feature five mats of finals.
Boys weight classes will change to reflect the National Federation of State High School Association's 14 classes. The new weight classes will be 106, 113, 120, 126, 132, 138, 144, 150, 157, 165, 175, 190, 215 and 285 pounds.
